Obama favors efficiency and deliberative style

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Barack Obama will bring a careful, deliberative style to the White House that differs from President George W. Bush's tendency to rely more heavily on his gut instincts.

The Democrat made history on Tuesday by becoming the first black U.S. president-elect and did so despite his Republican rival John McCain's efforts to highlight the absence of executive experience on Obama's resume.

But even critics of the 47-year-old Illinois senator credit him with having run a highly effective campaign that was marked by discipline and organization and honed by his long battle against Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination.

That political operation offers insights as to how Obama will govern when he takes office on January 20 amid a financial crisis and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One trait that his aides admiringly played up during the campaign was the calm demeanor that earned him the nickname among his staff as "No Drama Obama."

Staff members say they rarely, if ever, have heard Obama raise his voice, though he has ways of making it known if he is dissatisfied with a decision.

"His management style is to choose people in whom he has confidence and to give them a lot authority and to hold them accountable," said Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod. "He wants to know what the plans are to achieve those objectives and holds you accountable for that."

Axelrod, known for his skills at shaping political messages, is one of a handful of top aides in whom Obama has put his trust.

Also part of that inner circle are David Plouffe, Obama's hyper-organized campaign manager who kept a zealous watch on campaign spending, and Valerie Jarrett, a lawyer and businesswoman steeped in Chicago politics.

For advice on press relations, Obama turns to Robert Gibbs, a tough-minded Southerner with a genteel manner who oversaw tight control of media access to the candidate.

Many of these advisers are likely to have senior roles in an Obama administration. Gibbs is tipped to become White House press secretary and Axelrod is weighing a role as senior counselor but has not decided if he will move to Washington.

'THOUGHTFUL, REFLECTIVE'

Obama shares two traits with Bush, a two-term Republican president -- punctuality and a devotion to fitness. The Illinois senator, 47, hit the gym every morning even during the busiest moments of the campaign.

Obama's steadiness was seen as helping turn the election in his favor when the financial crisis erupted in mid-September.

McCain reacted with dramatic gestures, such as vowing to suspend his campaign to help Congress negotiate a financial bailout package and calling for the firing of the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

By contrast, Obama held private conference calls with experts like former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and investor Warren Buffett while monitoring market events on his Blackberry.

His rhetoric on the first few days of the crisis focused on laying blame on the Bush administration for a loose regulatory approach and trying to link McCain to Bush's policies.

Taking a risk that McCain might paint him as indecisive, Obama scrapped plans to unveil his own housing-market proposal and instead got behind Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's call for the $700 billion bailout plan.

CAUTIOUS APPROACH

Obama's approach on foreign policy is similarly cautious.

To weigh issues such as the Iranian nuclear dispute, Obama talks with people like James Steinberg, a former aide to President Bill Clinton; Dennis Ross, the former Middle East peace negotiator; and former senator Sam Nunn, considered one of the Democratic party's foremost foreign policy experts.

He also leans on staff members such as Mark Lippert, a naval reservist who served seven months in Iraq.

One question some have about Obama is whether he will govern from the more centrist perspective he emphasized during the campaign or whether a strengthened Democratic majority in Congress might tilt him toward more liberal policies.

History professor Leo Ribuffo of George Washington University described Obama as a "thoughtful, reflective" politician whose governing approach shows promise.

But he said Obama's lofty promises of reaching across the political aisle would probably run up against harsh realities.

"Obama will find, like everybody else who's in the White House, that he gets strong, maybe even fierce opposition and so he'll have to decide how to act when he's facing a noncompromising opposition," Ribuffo said.

"If 40 percent of the population doesn't want to come together, you'll have to decide how you're going to deal with that," he added.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan, Editing by Frances Kerry)