Obama building White House team

DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES

Policy about prospects: Lobbyists need not apply

LITTLE ROCK — President-elect Barack Obama moved quickly Wednesday to fill out his new administration’s roster, selecting his White House chief of staff as aides stepped up the pace of transition work.

With hundreds of jobs to fill and only 10 weeks until Inauguration Day, Obama and his transition team confronted the task complicated by his anti-lobbyist campaign rhetoric.

The official campaign Web site said no political appointees would be permitted to work on “regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.”

But a year ago, on Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama went further than that while campaigning in South Carolina. “I don’t take a dime of their money, and whenI am president, they won’t find a job in my White House,” he said of lobbyists.

Because they often have experience in government or politics, lobbyists figure as possible appointees for presidents of either party.

Obama asked Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, former political and policy adviser to President Clinton, to be his White House chief of staff, Democratic officials said. John Podesta, who served as Clinton’s chief of staff, was expected to join Obama Senate aide Pete Rouse and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett in leading the transition team.

In offering the chief of staff post to Emanuel, Obama turned to a fellow Chicago politician with a far different style from his own, a man known for his bluntness as well as his single-minded determination.

Nothing made clear Wednesday night if Emanuel had accepted the offer.

With the victory over Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama earned an expanded security clearance. The nation’s top intelligence officials planned to give him top-secret daily briefings starting today, sharing with him the most critical overnight intelligence as well as other information he has not been allowed to see as a senator orcandidate.

Obama enjoyed an every man’s day after in his hometown of Chicago after a night of celebration. The president-elect saw his two young daughters off to school, a simple pleasure he’s missed during nearly two years of virtually nonstop travel, then went to a gym for a workout.

Obama spent the afternoon in Chicago at the offices of Ariel Investments at the Aon Center, where he spent about five hours making calls of thanks to staff members and supporters.

As he got out of his sport utility vehicle at the building’s underground entrance, he briefly turned and walked a few paces toward the pool news crew and shouted from a distance, “Hi, guys. Did you get much sleep?”

“Not much,” Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon replied.

“How about you?” Reuters’ Deborah Charles asked Obama.

“Not as much as I’d like,” he said and headed into the building.

Obama planned to stay in Chicago through the week and take a quiet weekend break at home. He was still making arrangements for his grandmother’s funeral, who died the day before the election. He would likely travel to Hawaii by the end of the year for a memorial service.

Obama’s staff said he would address news media by the end of the week, but Cabinet announcements would not occur that soon.

Pressing business could not wait, with just 76 days until his inauguration as the 44th president.

The White House has already set up a transition office for Obama’s team in downtown Washington. And FBI officials have been conducting background checks on a list of people provided by the Obama campaign, as well as McCain’s staff, so they could be granted interim security clearances, Bush administration officials said.

Obama’s supporters continued to enjoy the moment, reflecting on its symbolism amid the nation’s fraught racial history. Even as they celebrated, Obama’s supporters offered sober reflections of what lies ahead.

“We’re in deep trouble,” Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and leader in the civil-rights movement, said on NBC’s Today show.

“We’ve got to get our economy out of the ditch, end the war in Iraq, and bring our young men and women home, provide health care for all our citizens,” Lewis said.

Colin Powell, the former secretary of state in the Bush administration who endorsed Obama, became emotional Wednesday in an interview with CNN from Hong Kong. He said that he and his family wept when the networks declared Obama the victor.

“I have to share in the pride that Americans have now for the fact America did this,” said Powell, one of the country’s most prominent black leaders.

Obama’s work for a smooth transition will meet a test almost immediately. Congress convenes Nov. 17 for a lame-duck session, and Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, will have to decide whether to become immersed in its proceedings or keep his distance, as some allies are advising.

President Bush pledged “complete cooperation” in the transition and called Obama’s victory a “triumph of the American story.”

Naming the list of challenges he inherits - two wars and “the worst financial crisis in a century,” among them - Obama sought to restrain the expectations of his supporters late Tuesday even as he stoked them with calls for national unity and partisan healing.

“We may not get there in one year or even in one term,” he said. “But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

Helping him to get there will be a strengthened Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. When Obama becomes the president Jan. 20 with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his vice president, Democrats will control both the White House and Congressfor the first time since 1994.

With little experience on the national level or as an executive, Obama easily defeated McCain while smashing records and remaking history along the way.

Obama drew a record-breaking $700 million to his campaign account alone. He also was the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Obama scored an Electoral College landslide. He won states that reliably voted Republican in presidential elections. Indiana and Virginia, for example, hadn’t supported a Democratic candidate in 44 years. Ohio and Florida, key to President Bush’s twin victories, also went for Obama, as did Pennsylvania, which Mc-Cain had deemed crucial for his election hopes.

With most U.S. precincts tallied, the popular vote was 52.3 percent for Obama and 46.3 percent for McCain. But the count in the Electoral College was much more lopsided - 349 to 162 in Obama’s favor Wednesday - and North Carolina and Missouri were still to be decided.

Voters cast their ballots Tuesday in numbers not seen in at least 40 years. Millions of Americans picked their president early and waited in lines that stretchedthe lengths of blocks and buildings.

It looks as if about 133.3 million people voted for president, according to preliminary results from the country’s precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 62.5 percent turnout rate, he said.

Both numbers are estimates and may change as officials count more absentee and provisional ballots.

McDonald suggested the turnout to about equal or surpass 1964, but not go higher than 1960, when John F. Kennedy squeaked out a victory over Richard Nixon. The turnout rate then was 63.8 percent.

The voting in 2008 easily outdistanced 2004’s 122.3 million, which had been the highest grand total of voters before.

Information for this article was contributed by David Espo, Nedra Pickler, Terrence Hunt, Sophia Tareen, Seth Borenstein and Ann Sanner of The Associated Press; Michael Luo of The New York Times; Shailagh Murray of The Washington Post and John Mc-Cormick of the Chicago Tribune.

Front Section, Pages 1, 5 on 11/06/2008

Copyright © 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

All rights reserved.

This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Material from the Associated Press is Copyright © 2008, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. All rights reserved.