President Barack Obama has been in office less than a week, but he’s already earned some respect from one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., was in Enid Friday to visit Vance Air Force Base and visit with officials here about what he foresees in the political environment for the military. So far, Inhofe thinks Obama has struck the right tone as far as support for the military.

“If you’ll look at last Tuesday’s inaugural message, there were two strong military messages,” Inhofe said. “I think a lot of that he is a very smart person, he knew what he had to do to get elected and he had the far left clearly on his side. Now, he’s rising to the occasion of governing. I believe that.”

Inhofe said he was im-pressed with the scene in Washington on inauguration day. He said he awoke at 5 a.m. and went out on the mall to walk among the people.

“It was something I haven’t seen in my life,” he said. “There was a feeling of there’s been a renaissance, a transformation, a major change.”

Inhofe praised Obama for reaching out to the Republican leadership after the election. After personal conversations with Obama about the military, Inhofe said he feels “comfortable we’re going to continue the rebuilding” of the military.

Inhofe said he also believes Obama will be reasonable when it comes to really closing the detention center at Guan-tanamo Bay. He said signing the executive order to close the facility was the political thing to do, but he has room to change his mind.

Inhofe said he also sees some give and take from Obama regarding the environment. Inhofe said he vehemently opposes Obama’s pick of Carol Browner as energy czar. Browner headed the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clinton administration. Inhofe said he is concerned she is going to propose major changes that will be costly.

Inhofe said he was happy to hear Obama mention the environment just briefly in his inaugural message.

“(Obama) and I talked, and I said I only ask you one thing — consider the economics of anything Carol tries to talk you into,” Inhofe said.

Inhofe has been an outspoken critic of science regarding human factors in global warming, and he said he’s getting more support from his fellow senators. He said there are some conservative Democrats that also are concerned about any expensive environmental proposals

One area he has concerns with the Obama administration is in spending and the stimulus package. Inhofe was against the original $750 billion bailout package, and he was against allowing all the decisions on those monies to be left in the hands of the administration with no accountability.

“Obama is under a lot of pressure to do a stimulus program,” Inhofe said. “We’re looking at trillions, not billions of dollars. I blame both the Democrats and the Repub-licans for starting that level of thinking on money.”

Even though he disagreed with the Bush deficits, he said the total of all those deficits is only about a third of what’s being discussed with the bailout and stimulus programs.

If there is a stimulus package, Inhofe said the money needs to be increased for highways. Right now, the House version of a stimulus package calls for $30 billion for highways, with Oklahoma getting around $400 million.

He said he has worked with other senators to put together a letter asking for more money for highways. He said Oklahoma has one of the best department of transportation directors in Gary Ridley, and there are projects right now that have been identified and are ready to go.

“That’s the one thing in the stimulus program that would really stimulate anything,” he said.

Inhofe also was complimentary of some of Obama’s cabinet picks, including Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary.

He said he’s positive about the military installations in Oklahoma, saying there may be opportunity in training the Iraqi and Afghan military with the T-6s.