While the prevailing campaign optimism was that the Obama administration would be able to address all of the country's problems, the reality is that tough trade-offs will need to be made. Many of these trade-offs will, of course, upset supporters who assumed that the new administrations decisions would fall in a direction that favors their personal interests. For example, will Obama stand firm and demand strict concessions from UAW as he catches the problems that the Bush administration punted to him? Or will he avoid alienating his UAW supporters at the expense of a competitive U.S. auto industry? Another example: how will Obama walk the line between broader economic recovery and environmental policy? Some insight into the opposing points of view already existing within the administration can be seen in a New York Times article this week, contrasting the views of Larry Summers and Carol Browner. An excerpt is provided here:

As Mr. Obama seeks to find the right balance between his environmental goals and his plans to revive the economy, he may have to resolve conflicting views among some of his top advisers. While Mr. Summers’s thinking on climate change has evolved over the last decade, his views on the potential risks to the economy of an aggressive effort to limit carbon emissions have not. But he now works for a president-elect who has set ambitious goals for addressing global warming through a government-run cap-and-trade system. It may once again prove to be Mr. Summers’s role to inject a rigorous economist’s reality check into the debate over the scope and speed of an attack on global warming.

The inherent policy trade-offs between economy and environment in the short run, and the increasingly hostile populist environment that inevitably comes with recession, is what prompted me to predict (somewhat provocatively) that in 2009, recession and populism would defeat environmentalism. In truth, the outcome will not be so binary and absolute. The progress made in the past few years in terms of public awareness of environmental issues has created a new status quo, where environmental issues are no longer fringe issues. In the struggle to find the right balance of environmental progress and economic health, which do you think is more important to the average American citizen? Daryl Siry is the former chief marketing officer for Tesla Motors. He now consults on marketing and the automotive industry. You can read more here: http://darrylsiry.blogspot.com.