Obama's Inaugural Address Already Written

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been stung by charges of arrogance and hubris from time to time in this election season. First there was the attempt to stage Obama's Berlin speech at the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of the reunited Germany and scene of great presidential speeches past by the likes of John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Germany politely reminded Obama that the gate is not a campaign stop and requested that he hold the address elsewhere. On that same foreign trip, Obama advisers had to be reminded by the campaign's traveling press that Sen. Obama was not yet president and the campaign could not demand to hold press briefings on background. Next came the flap over the Obama campaign's reinvention of the presidential seal, which Sen. Obama sat proudly behind during a meeting with Democratic governors earlier this year. Right around the time it became known that Sen. Obama, not yet officially nominated by the Democratic Party, had begun preparing for a presidential transition.

Apparently not content to wait another nine days until the voting has concluded, there now comes word from the New York Times that the campaign is vigorously planning the first months of a potential Obama administration. Locations for Sen. Obama's first presidential press conference are being discussed, resumes for staff positions are being examined, even a working draft of Sen. Obama's inaugural address has already been written.

Mr. Obama's transition team is led by a former White House chief of staff, John D. Podesta, who has been preparing for the task at the research organization he runs, the Center for American Progress, since long before it was clear who would win his party's nomination. Two longtime advisers to Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the vice-presidential nominee - Edward Kaufman and Mark H. Gitenstein - are serving as his representatives to the team, although Mr. Biden is said to be so superstitious that he refuses to discuss the transition.

Mr. Podesta has been mapping out the transition so systematically that he has already written a draft Inaugural Address for Mr. Obama, which he published this summer in a book called "The Power of Progress."

Republican Sen. John McCain is also reported to have behind-the-scenes transition planning underway. However, McCain has instructed his staff to limit its efforts so as not to appear presumptuous. That is not a concern for the Obama campaign, which has been heavily planning to take the reins of government since before it was even clear it had the reins of the Democratic Party. For a candidate who claims to want to put power back in the hands of ordinary people, Sen. Obama does not seem constrained to wait for their actual votes to begin plotting his own exercise of power.