By JACKIE CALMES


Obama pulls hard on
the levers of power,
despite limited reach.


CHICAGO - He will not formally take power until January 20, but President- elect Barack Obama is already showing some glimpses of how he will wield it.


Despite his professed resolve to distance himself from governance during the transition, the economic crisis has forced him to play a more active role - nowhere more so than in Washington’s scramble to avert the collapse of the Big Three automakers with a federal lifeline.

From here at what an aide called his “mini-White House,” Mr.Obama has been pulling on the levers of power far more than any president-elect in memory, using his new stature to influence events in Congress and President Bush, and yet limited in his ability - as the collapse of the auto bailout legislation in the Senate showed - to control them.

On December 12, after Senate Republicans’opposition had doomed a $15 billion industry loan the night before, Mr.Obama called on Mr. Bush and Congress to find an alternative. Twenty- four hours earlier, Mr.Obama had urged Congress at a news conference to approve the loan or risk “a devastating ripple effect throughout our economy.”

It was Mr.Obama who set the debate in motion just a week after his election, despite his reluctance to be involved directly. Amid signs that General Motors and Chrysler might not survive the year, he pressed Mr.Bush at a private meeting to support government help. In the next weeks, he directed his advisers to open lines of communication to Republicans. A White House aide said Mr.Obama speaks with Mr.Bush “more than any of us know.”

In both the auto debate and parallel work on his promised two-year economic recovery plan, Mr.Obama has shown an inclination to set the broad terms for debate, and then to delegate details to advisers and Congress. For weeks, he has consistently defined the goal for the auto bailout as twofold: A loan from taxpayers, but on the conditions that the companies, including Ford, remake themselves to be viable enterprises and their products to be energy efficient.

Yet Mr.Obama digs deeply into issues himself; he surprised one adviser in a conference call about the automakers by knowledgeably discussing “DIP financing,” a complex special form of financing for distressed companies.

Along the way, with a small team of senior advisers, Mr.Obama has shown no hesitance in stepping into disputes between the more experienced Democrats who run the House and Senate to forge the united front he will need in coming years to pass his ambitious agenda.

When it looked last month as if Congress might fail to act because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, disagreed over where the loan money should come from, Mr.Obama had Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman who will be his White House chief of staff, call Mr.Reid, Democrats familiar with the incident said.“Harry, don’t make this a fight between you and Nancy,”Mr.Emanuel said, according to one.“Make it about what the industry is going to do in return for this money.”

By all accounts, Mr.Obama has good relations with Ms.Pelosi and Mr. Reid. But as president he must be less deferential, making occasional run-ins inevitable, Democrats say.

The hints of Mr.Obama’s leadership style are, of course, limited by the selfimposed constraints reflected in his mantra that the nation has one president at a time.

After he takes office, it will be clearer where Mr.Obama fits on the presidential spectrum between the wonkish and pragmatic but less disciplined style of Bill Clinton, and the crisper but less curious and more ideological decision-making of Mr.Bush. After his daily workout, Mr.Obama arrives at his office in a simple suite in the Federal Building. He eats peanuts while reviewing memorandums and joining the conference calls that are his main conduits for information until he and his Washington staff are in the White House.

Mr.Obama asks lots of questions, advisers say, and typically makes quick decisions. He leaves the office each day with a notebook stuffed with policy papers and information on potential hires. Each night at home there is a final conference call, about issues coming up the following day.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H.Summers, who will head Mr.Obama’s National Economic Council, has been his touchstone on the economic aspects of the bailout. Also involved are Joshua L.Steiner, a former Treasury official , and Brian Deese, a policy adviser on the Obama campaign.

“Do everything you can to help the process along but don’t get in the way,”Mr.Obama told them, according to one member of his team.“But if there is some way I can be constructive, I want you to do it. And don’t talk about it.”