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Barack Obama’s first press conference, like his presidency itself, got off to a bad start. But by the time it concluded, it was clear that America has a real president again.

Obama had to accomplish several goals in his opening remarks. He had to explain the nature of the present economic emergency to the American public. And he had to dispel the impression that he is a weak, Carter-like figure who in the first few weeks of his term has been easily rolled both by Republican enemies and the old bulls of the Democratic Congress.

He began with the biggest cliché of modern politics—he had met some real Americans, outside the Beltway, and learned from their wisdom. After recounting his photo-op visit to distressed Elkhart, Indiana, the new president then reeled off a list of goals for the stimulus package that sounded more like campaign rhetoric in a high-school gymnasium than a serious plan in the White House: four million jobs, college tax credits, wind turbines, and solar energy.