Jan. 20: transition is over
Photo: ANSA. Barack and his double, on January 20 official ceremony day.
BREAKING TRANSITION NEWS:
THE BEST BASKETBALL TEAM
The Times, London
Dec. 17
Obama builds America’s first hoop-shooting Cabinet
His latest nominee is the 6ft 5in Arne Duncan, who made his name reforming the Chicago school system and has been picked as Mr Obama’s Education Secretary. Mr Duncan was the former co-captain of the Harvard basketball team and played professionally in Australia after graduating. He was also chosen to shoot a few hoops with the Democratic candidate on Election Day.
“I did not select Arne because he’s one of the best basketball players I know,” Mr Obama said yesterday. “Although I will say that I think we are putting together the best basketball-playing cabinet in American history.”
Barack Obama looks to green jobs to save the planet and economy
Obama unveils his new environment team
The Nation
Obama’s Green Team
MARK HERTSGAARD: Impressive, yes. But will they show the necessary spine to cut greenhouse gases and resist pressure on clean coal and nuclear power?
THE SOURCES
official site: http://www.change.gov/
specials: http://www.ft.com/indepth/obama-transition
A THOROUGH GUIDE TO TRANSITION SOURCES FROM TOMDISPATCH.COM (TOM E.)
The Imperial Transition
44, The Prequel
By Tom EngelhardtDid you know that the IBM Center for the Business of Government hosts a “Presidential Transition” blog; that the Council on Foreign Relations has its own “Transition Blog: The New Administration”; and that the American University School of Communication has a“Transition Tracker” website? The National Journal offers its online readers a comprehensive “Lost in Transition” site to help them “navigate the presidential handover,” including a “short list,”offering not only the president-elect’s key recent appointments, but also a series of not-so-short lists of those still believed to be in contention for as-yet-unfilled jobs. Think of all this as Entertainment Weekly married to People Magazine for post-election political junkies.
Newsweek features “powering up” (“blogging the transition”); the policy-wonk website Politico.com offers Politico 44 (“a living diary of the Obama presidency”); and Public Citizen has “Becoming 44,”with the usual lists of appointees, possible appointees, but — for the junkie who wants everything — “bundler transition team members” and “lobbyist and bundler appointees” as well. (For those who want to know, for instance, White House Social Secretary-designate Desiree Roberts bundled at least $200,000 for the Obama campaign.)
The New York Times has gone whole hog at “The New Team”section of its website, where there are scads of little bios of appointees, as well as prospective appointees — including what each individual will “bring to the job,” how each is “linked to Mr. Obama,” and what negatives each carries as “baggage.” Think of it as a scorecard for transition junkies. The Washington Post, whose official beat is, of course, Washington D.C. über alles, has its “44: The Obama Presidency, A Transition to Power,” where, in case you’re planning to make a night of it on January 20th, you can keep up to date on that seasonal must-subject, the upcoming inaugural balls. And not to be outdone, the transitioning Obama transition crew has its own mega-transition site, Change.gov.
THE NATION: The dem left views.
http://www.thenation.com/section/the-transition
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Tom Engelhardt again The Imperial Transition
TOM ENGELHARDT : BARACK OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
Obama’s transition is the earliest, biggest, fastest, best organized and most efficient on record. But has the media failed to see the larger architecture of this moment, and what it portends for the presidency to come?
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Socialism for the Rich
ROBERT SCHEER : U.S. ECONOMY
Two presidents named Bush–aided by Bill Clinton–brought corporate socialism to America. Getting out of the mess they make requires much more than bailouts.
» THE BEAT
A Cautious Farm and Food Pick | There were much better propsects than Vilsack for secretary of agriculture.
JOHN NICHOLS
END NOVEMBER STATE-OF-THE-ART
A) please note that
THE DREAM TEAM IS TAKING SHAPE
wawhington wire, wsj
November 24, 2008, 11:49 amLive-Blogging the Obama News Conference on Economics Team
President-elect Barack Obama, moving to tackle the U.S. financial crisis, is announcing his economics team at noon EST today in Chicago.
European Pressphoto Agency
President-elect Barack Obama introduces his economics team; from left, Timothy Geithner, Christina Romer, Lawrence Summers, Melody C. Barnes, Vice President-elect Joseph Biden.The major players have already been made public, including Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, who was picked for Treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, a Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, who will be director of the National Economic Council, and Christina Romer, a University of California-Berkeley professor, who will head the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
The Obama-Biden transition put out a formal announcement moments before the press conference was to start. It also released the text of Obama’s remarks.
Washington officials and financial markets are eager to find out Obama’s plans to reverse the economy’s slide – and will have two days to parse the Obama transition team’s announcement on economic appointments. On Tuesday, a second round of appointments is expected. The chief one: Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office and a former Clinton economic adviser, will be White House budget director.
Also, University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, who advised Obama during the campaign, is expected to be named to a top slot.
Press conference blog:
12:29 Addressing the auto industry, Obama says “we can’t allow auto industry to vanish. But we can’t just write a blank check to the industry.” He says he was surprised that top executives of the Big Three auto companies didn’t have a better thought-out proposal when they arrived in Congress seeking more federal assistance, and that Congress did the right thing by asking them to come up with a plan before returning. “My attitude is we should help the auto industry,” but that any additional money or help the government provides should be “designed to assure a long-term, sustainable auto industry and not just kicking the can down the road.” He cites the need for automakers to address retooling manufacturing lines and understanding that the world is entering a “new energy economy.”
HILLARY TOWARDS THE STATE SECRETARIAT
HAS JOHN KERRY LOST THE POLE POSITION? YES
Obama discusses Secretary of State job with Richardson
On Nov. 14, suddenly a place for Hillary Clinton in the Federal Government seems likely. At the epoch of the end of the Primaries, it looked like Hillary was most interested to enter the Supreme Court, a place of highest status but also an end to her lifelong direct policy making, back to law. Now it is even possible for her to succeed to Condoleeza as Secretary of State (a role which might correspond to the Foreign Affairs elsewhere).
B) Sen. Mc Cain - WHAT NEXT?
1. Will John Mc Cain be ONLY the best ally of President Obama within the RepGOP camp,
2. or will he even enter the White House Dream Team? If so, when? In a while, as soon as the President elect will take the full initiative, and the Reps the lagged impact of their historical defeat, and divide further on strategy, so on so forth?
3. Or, as an alternative (best chance today): after the final disappearance of neo-cons, will Sen. Mc Cain stay as the opposition leader? After all, he was not personally defeated: in his MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, he lead the red vote from below zero to 47%, with a +50% jump. AND HE EVEN WON IN MANY IMPORTANT CONSTITUENCIES (goto the Obama analysis page, where the CNN exit polls are briefly commented).
Please note the possible combinations of the 1st and 3rd solution, given Obama’s bipartisan strategy. No interest to make Sen. McCain abandon the Party and enter the Dream Team in person (other people can do it). A suggested agenda for Monday Nov. the 17th:
change.gov
Friday, November 14, 2008 10:32am EST / in Press ReleasesPresident-elect Obama to meet with Senator McCain Monday
Obama-Biden transition spokesperson Stephanie Cutter released a statement on a planned meeting between President-elect Obama and Senator McCain Monday.
C) The Clintnonians
Video: Transition Update from Valerie Jarrett
All in all, 31 of the 47 transition or staff posts that Mr Obama has filled so far have gone to people with ties to the Clinton administration, Politico has reported.Eleven of the 12 members of his Transition Advisory Board are Clinton veterans.
