Obama gets down to business of governing

After a day devoted to poetry, parades and pomp, President Obama gets down to business Wednesday.

His first full day in the Oval Office will be devoted to fulfilling campaign promises to begin the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, beef up U.S. forces in Afghanistan and step up White House involvement in the quest for peace in the Middle East. "You're going to see the president hit the ground running," promised White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

The day begins with the president attending a National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, a tradition begun by George Washington. Then he will turn to Iraq and one of the most powerful promises of his campaign, his pledge to give the Joint Chiefs of Staff "a new mission" on his first day in office to "end this war responsibly and deliberately but decisively."

When Obama made that promise in July it was much more contentious than it is today, when there is a consensus that withdrawal can be done under Obama's 16-month timetable. One sign of the importance of this meeting is that Gen. David Petraeus, the former Iraq commander who is now head of Central Command, will attend. Petraeus originally had been scheduled to participate by video.

Another area in which the new president promised to take action on "day one" was deepening White House involvement in the Middle East peace process. On that front, Obama is expected to name former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as his envoy to the Middle East, reprising a role he played in Northern Ireland at the behest of President Bill Clinton.

Other promises might not be kept until later in the first week as the White House studies the ramifications of possible executive orders undoing actions taken by the Bush administration, clarifying the government's stand on torture or ordering the closing of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Only hours after the inauguration, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel ordered all agencies to "stop all pending regulations until a legal and policy review can be conducted." That is to deal with any late changes made by the outgoing administration.

Obama also hopes to take symbolic steps to signal his change from the Bush administration and commitment to openness.

Gibbs also told reporters to expect a directive from Obama dealing with the ethics of his appointees. "You'll see the president challenge his White House staff and the executive staff to a new set of rules and regulations regarding ethics and transparency," Gibbs told Fox News. "People that are serving in government are there to serve the people, not to turn around and go outside the revolving door and get a lobbying job."

Gibbs also said the president will meet with his economic team to "see where we are on getting an economic recovery and reinvestment plan." The president as well has to keep an eye on the House, which will vote Wednesday on a resolution to deny funding for the remaining $350 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The vote will be more for political optics than policy after the Senate rejected the proposal last week.

For Obama aides, the burst of activity has long been planned for the day they finally would be free of the "we only have one president at a time" mantra they were forced to chant almost every day since their election victory.

"I think that he's going to get off to the fastest start of any president that I've been observing for 50 years," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution. "Partly, that is because the times demand action but also because he's had such an exceptionally good transition that he's had people in place early."