Next up: Test of Obama as leader

After a presidential campaign is over, certain comments look absurd in retrospect. Like this one from Rudy Giuliani's speech at the Republican convention.

"Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing!" the former New York mayor said to gales of laughter from the thousands in the hall. "Nada! Nada! Nothing!"

At the time, Obama was leading an organization that would open hundreds of offices around the country, employ several thousand people, mobilize more than a million volunteers, and raise about $700 million.

It also would succeed in persuading more than 65 million people to vote for a man - the first-term Democratic senator from Illinois who had never led anything else.

The way a candidate manages the campaign provides some insight into how he or she would behave once in office; the chance to get a long, hard look at the contenders is one of the advantages of the marathon that is America's political season.

So what does the remarkable campaign Obama ran say about how he might handle the presidency?

It says that he will be calm and steady, disciplined and self-possessed. That he will concentrate on the big issues and not get distracted by day-to-day controversies. That he will run a tight ship with few leaks and a strong sense of message-control from the top.

Or at least that he will try to do all of those things under the pressure of the highest-stress job in the world.

Whether he can be the same kind of person in the White House remains to be seen.

Beating Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and then Sen. John McCain is one thing. Trying to fix a wounded economy, scale down the war in Iraq, fight the war on terror and make progress on health care availability and energy independence - these are challenges of a higher order.

Here's Obama's assessment of what his campaign revealed about him during a visit to The Inquirer last spring. The words feel as relevant today as they did then.

"What the public can draw from watching the campaign is I'm a good manager," he said. "I'm proud of the fact that there hasn't been a lot of turnover in my campaign. There hasn't been drama. There hasn't been a lot infighting. There hasn't been a lot of leaks. . . .

"And I've got a temperament that would serve me well as president. I don't get too high when things are high. I'm not too low when things are low.

"I've gotten my share of knocks and made some mistakes during the campaign, and I think have held pretty steady throughout. That actually can serve you well as president."

During the fall campaign against McCain, Obama's temperament served him well.

While McCain appeared increasingly angry and occasionally unfocused, Obama seemed measured and consistent, especially when having to deal with the economic meltdown that will limit his options as president.

That temperament was on display Friday during his first news conference as president-elect. He discussed subjects ranging from his cabinet selections to the puppy he's planning to get for his daughters, treating each with the seriousness it deserved.

By all accounts, Obama doesn't waste a lot of energy on emotional outbursts. His long-time political adviser, David Axelrod, said once that he'd never heard Obama raise his voice.

Which is not to say that the Obama doesn't let his feelings be known.

According to Newsweek's inside account of the campaign, Obama concluded a staff meeting after his defeat in the March 4 primaries with these words: "I'm not yelling at you guys. Of course, after blowing through $20 million in a couple of weeks, I could yell at you. But [pause] I'm not yelling at you."

There are other conclusions to draw from the way Obama ran for president.

He appreciates both having a broad vision and getting the details right. His campaign was run by a big-picture strategist, Axelrod, and an organization-building numbers cruncher, David Plouffe.

He can make adjustments on the fly. His original plan for winning the Democratic nomination assumed the fight with Sen. Clinton would be over on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.

But after she beat him in the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, his team immediately began laying the groundwork for the post-Super Tuesday winning streak that would put him ahead to stay.

Obama doesn't tend to commit many unforced errors. Those that he has committed - including his comment in April about bitter small-town Pennsylvanians who cling to their guns and religion - stand out for that reason.

He often rises to the occasion. A year ago, when his candidacy looked like it might never get off the ground, he ignited his campaign for the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses with a superb speech to a big Democratic dinner there.

Later, when his campaign was threatened by the videotaped words of his former pastor, Obama responded with his widely praised address on race in America. And his words on Election Night matched the moment.

He has the capacity for growth. During the Democratic primaries, he fared poorly in the televised debates; sometimes, he seemed overwhelmed, other times smug and aloof.

In the fall, he was much improved, coming across as informed, engaged and reassuring.

He understands the difference between campaigning and governing. For chief of staff, he picked Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois congressman and a Washington insider with a reputation for getting things done.

Emanuel's abrasive nature would have made him a poor fit for the "no-drama" campaign.

"I'm confident that a new president can have an impact," Obama said Friday, as he prepared to take over the biggest organization any American ever gets to manage. "That's why I ran for president."