Remember when President-elect Barack Obama requested early occupation of the Blair House so that his two daughters could start school on time.  Also, remember when Laura Bush’s office claimed that they could not accommodate the Obama’s because the Blair House was booked until January 15th.  Apparently, the former Prime Minister of Australia take precedence over the new President of the United States and his family.  Further, this not so popular former Prime Minister, John Howard, is only staying for one night.  Even further, it is rumored that the Bush’s only asked the aussie to stay at the Blair House after they turned down the President-elect.  Simply pathetic is all I can say about this.

According to the Associated Press President-elect Barack Obama is coming to Washington to put money in the pockets of taxpayers and business by proposing a significant tax cut in a second stimulus package that he hopes to  get passed by February.   See full story below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama’s proposed stimulus package would provide businesses with billions of dollars in refunds on taxes they paid several years ago.

The refunds are popular among business groups and could increase pressure on Republicans to support Obama’s massive stimulus package, even though most of them are wary of government spending increases that could send its total cost to $800 billion or more.

“This gives companies an infusion of cash just when they need it,” Dorothy Coleman of the National Association of Manufacturers said of the proposed refunds.

Obama’s proposal to stimulate the economy includes tax cuts of up to $300 billion, including more than $100 billion for businesses.

The refund provision would enable some companies posting losses last year to get refunds for taxes paid as far back as five years earlier. The businesses could refile their old tax returns, using the losses suffered last year to offset profits made when times were good.

Under current law, businesses can use losses to offset profits the two previous years.

Obama’s team has yet to provide estimates on what the refunds could total. When Congress considered the same idea last year, carrying back losses to offset profits in the previous five years would have provided businesses an estimated $25.5 billion in refunds.

With business losses mounting in 2008 because of the recession, the price tag on Obama’s plan would probably be much higher, said Bruce Wein, who heads the U.S. tax practice for the law firm DLA Piper.

“I think it’s creative, I think it’s bold,” Wein said. “It’s going to get a lot of backing from Republicans for the obvious reasons.”

Obama’s tax package also targets individuals, providing a $500 tax cut for most workers and $1,000 for couples, at a cost of about $140 billion to $150 billion over two years. The individual tax cuts may be awarded through withholding less from worker paychecks, effectively making them about $10 larger each week.

Another provision brought to the negotiations by the Obama team would award companies that hire new workers a one-year tax credit at a total cost of $40 billion to $50 billion over two years. Businesses also would get additional incentives to invest in new equipment.

Obama takes office in two weeks. Meeting with congressional leaders Monday at the Capitol, he described the nation’s economic condition as “precarious” and said he’d like Congress to have a stimulus package ready for signing into law by early February.

The ability to write off losses and apply them to tax bills retroactively was “at the top of the list from businesses’ viewpoint,” said Bruce Josten, the executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Josten said the Obama transition team has held more than a dozen meetings with chamber officials to discuss a number of issues, with several of the meetings devoted to the economic recovery plan. The tax relief package detailed in press reports on Monday “fits the criteria that we’ve outlined,” he said.

“It doesn’t help autos, who haven’t paid taxes previously. It probably doesn’t help steel, probably doesn’t help airlines,” he said. “But the rest of the business community, I think it’s safe to say that was at the top of their list.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said tax cuts could help boost the economy “if it’s done right.”

“It’s tricky to make sure the relief is big enough to make a dent in our huge economy and done in a way that stimulates growth,” Grassley said in a statement. “Business tax incentives should be strong enough to spur investment and create jobs.”

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said he is concerned the package could include “wasteful spending.” But he is pleased Obama and congressional Democrats “agree with Republicans that tax relief for middle-class families and small businesses has to be a major part of this economic package.”

For those of you who didn’t notice, the Electoral College met yesterday and cast their official votes for Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States.   Yes folks, 538 electors from all fifty states formally cast their votes yesterday to legally elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States.  A total of 131 million people cast their vote on November 4th, 2008 to make it the best turnout in a presidential election in this nation’s history.  On that night, Barack Obama won 365 electoral votes to John McCain’s 173.   Yesterday, all the electors cast their votes in accordance to the popular vote of their state.  Congress will tally the outcome of the Electoral College votes during a joint session scheduled to take place on Jan 6th.  See some of the human stories surrounding this historic event below.

 Tim Kaine, Virginia:

“This temple of Democracy shines very brightly today,” Kaine told a standing-room-only crowd attending what had always been a sparsely attended afterthought.

Virginia’s presidential electors have cast their 13 votes for Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president in what was the seat of Confederate power. Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat and close ally of Obama, noted the poignant and historic moment of Monday’s vote at the Capitol in Richmond.

Not only was the Capitol the venue for the Confederate Congress, it was where legislators plotted in the 1950s to thwart Supreme Court orders to desegregate Virginia’s public schools.

But it was also the site in 1990 of the inauguration of Doug Wilder, a grandson of slaves, as the nation’s first elected black governor.

Another story from Virginia:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As 13 electors cast ballots Monday for the nation’s first black president in the Confederacy’s old Capitol, Henry Marsh emotionally recalled the smartest man he ever knew — a waiter, who couldn’t get a better job because of his race.
“He waited tables for 30 years, six days a week, 12 hours a day, from 12 noon to 12 midnight, and he supported his family,” Marsh, 75, a civil rights lawyer and state senator, said of his father as he fought back tears. “He suffered a lot. He went through a lot.”

In Florida,

state Sen. Frederica Wilson, 66, never thought she would see a black man elected president.

“White water fountains, colored water fountains. You couldn’t sit at the lunch counter, go to the bank or get a hamburger,” Wilson said after signing a document certifying that Obama got all 27 of her state’s electors.

“The pain will always be there, but I think there’s a realization that people have evolved,” she said.

In North Carolina,

61-year-old Janice Cole said Monday’s event was a joyous marker for black people to put old Dixie’s trouble past behind them.

“Sen. Obama reminds us that only in America could this story be possible,” Cole said.

In Maine,

In Augusta, Maine the moment was freighted with emotion for Jill Duson, the first black mayor of Portland and chairwoman of Maine’s four electors.

“Every time I think of it, I get a little misty eyed,” Duson said. “I am undone by the election of Barack Obama and what it says to me as a black American, and his victory in the whitest state.”

 Pennsylvania, Governor Rendell:

“In Pennsylvania, American democracy is in great shape,” Governor Rendell said. “Ninety-percent of eligible voters are registered and 68-percent of them cast a ballot in this election. That is one of the highest turn-outs of voters in Pennsylvania history.
“As you cast your vote for president, do so with hope, optimism and faith that we can set this country on course to revitalization that this country has not seen in decades and decades.”

As a pro football legend, Franco Harris signs his autograph countless thousands of times. But the signature he made as one of 21 Pennsylvania electors for Obama was the one the Pittsburgh Steelers great running back won’t ever forget.

“That was special,” the Pro Football Hall of Famer said. “This was the most valuable thing I’ve ever signed my name to.”

 Maryland

One of Maryland’s electors, former Rep. Michael Barnes, said he and his wife cried on Election Night last month when Obama delivered his victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park.

“When I grew up in Montgomery County, what we are doing here today was unthinkable,” Barnes said. “Barack Obama, where I grew up in the 1960s, would not have been allowed in a movie theater in Montgomery County, Maryland, or in a bowling alley in Montgomery County, Maryland. There was not a decent restaurant where blacks and whites could dine together.

“So this was unthinkable. This was inconceivable.”

Another elector, Nathaniel Exum, who was active in the civil rights movement, said, “To go from King to Obama, it’s a wonderful feeling.” 
 

Connecticut

“I never thought this day would happen. The election is one thing, but it’s really official when they seal those ballots with wax and send them off,” said 81-year-old retired dentist Sedrick Rawlins.

Rawlins, of Manchester, said he had traveled to Selma, Ala., in 1965 to help Martin Luther King Jr. in a voting-rights movement for black Americans. He wept when Obama won the election in November and, on Monday, couldn’t stop smiling as Connecticut’s Democratic electors unanimously picked the Illinois Democrat for president.

“The election is one thing, but it’s really official when they seal those ballots with wax and send them off,” Rawlins said.

Progress.

Radio Address on the Economy
Saturday, December 6, 2008

Good morning.

Yesterday, we received another painful reminder of the serious economic challenge our country is facing when we learned that 533,000 jobs were lost in November alone, the single worst month of job loss in over three decades. That puts the total number of jobs lost in this recession at nearly 2 million.

But this isn’t about numbers. It’s about each of the families those numbers represent. It’s about the rising unease and frustration that so many of you are feeling during this holiday season. Will you be able to put your kids through college? Will you be able to afford health care? Will you be able to retire with dignity and security? Will your job or your husband’s job or your daughter’s or son’s job be the next one cut?

These are the questions that keep so many Americans awake at night. But it is not the first time these questions have been asked. We have faced difficult times before, times when our economic destiny seemed to be slipping out of our hands. And at each moment, we have risen to meet the challenge, as one people united by a sense of common purpose. And I know that Americans can rise to the moment once again.

But we need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.

Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.

Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.

Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen.  We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.

As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m President – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.

In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.

These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.

Thanks for listening.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues on the United States Supreme Court to look at the REDICULOUS petition requesting an emergency stay based on the case Donoforio v. Wells questioning President-Elect Barack Obama’s citizenship……10 days before the Electoral College meets to certify President-elect Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States.  Thomas did so after the petition was rejected by Justice David Souter.  I do believe that that is the last straw folks…..Thomas can no longer redeem himself in the eyes of anyone with a thimble full of brains. This is precisely why many argue that he is unqualified to hold the position that he currently holds on the United States Supreme Court.  See full story below.

(December 3, 2008) - In a highly unusual move, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues on the court to consider the request of an East Brunswick, N.J. attorney who has filed a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama’s status as a United States citizen.

Thomas’s action took place after Justice David Souter had rejected a petition known as an application for a stay of writ of certiorari that asked the court to prevent the meeting of the Electoral College on Dec. 15, which will certify Obama as the 44th president of the United States and its first African-American president.

The court has scheduled a Dec. 5 conference on the writ — just 10 days before the Electoral College meets.

The high court’s only African American is bringing the matter to his colleagues as a result of the writ that was filed by attorney Leo Donofrio. Donofrio sued the New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Wells, contending that Obama was not qualified to be on the state’s presidential ballot because of Donofrio’s own questions about Obama citizenship.

Donofrio is a retired lawyer who identifies himself as a “citizen’s advocate.” The AFRO learned that he is a contributor to naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com, a Web site that raises questions about Obama’s citizenship.

Calls made to Donofrio’s residence were not returned to the AFRO by press time.

Donofrio is questioning Obama’s citizenship because the former Illinois senator, whose mom was from Kansas, was born in Hawaii and his father was a Kenyan national. Therefore, Donofrio argues, Obama’s dual citizenship does not make Obama “a natural born citizen” as required by Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution, which states:

“No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President…”

…to prevent the meeting of the Electoral College on Dec. 15, which
will certify Obama as the 44th president of the United States…

Donofrio had initially tried to remove the names not only of Obama, but also the names of Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain and Socialist Workers’ Party Roger Calero from appearing on the Nov. 4 general election ballot in his home state of New Jersey.

McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was a U.S. possession. Calero would be ineligible to be president because he was born in Nicaragua.
After his efforts were unsuccessful in the New Jersey court system, he decided to take his case to a higher level.

On Nov. 6, Souter denied the stay. Donofrio, following the rules of the procedure for the Supreme Court, re-submitted the application as an emergency stay in accordance to Rule 22, which states, in part, that an emergency stay can be given to another justice, which is the choice of the petitioner.

Donofrio’s choice was Thomas. He submitted the emergency stay to Thomas’s office on Nov. 14.  Thomas accepted the application on Nov. 19 and on that day, submitted it for consideration by his eight colleagues - known as a conference - and scheduled it for Dec. 5.

On Nov. 26, a supplemental brief was filed by Donofrio to the clerk’s office of the Supreme Court. A letter to the court explaining the reason for the emergency stay was filed on Dec. 1 at the clerk’s office.

Thomas’s actions were rare because, by custom, when a justice rejects a petition from his own circuit, the matter is dead. Even if, as can be the case under Rule 22, the matter can be submitted to another justice for consideration, that justice out of respect, will reject it also, said Trevor Morrison, a professor of law at Columbia University School of Law.

Morrison said that Thomas’s actions are once in a decade.  “When that does happen, the case has to be of an extraordinary nature and this does not fit that circumstance,” he said. “My guess would be that Thomas accepted the case so it would go before the conference where it will likely be denied. If Thomas denied the petition, then Donofrio would be free to go to the other justices for their consideration.  “This way, I would guess, the matter would be done with.  Petitions of Donofrio’s types are hardly ever granted.”

If that is the case, why would Thomas volunteer to be the scapegoat considering that it is a much bigger story because it was done with his pen?  Further, one wonders if  Thomas volunteers to do such favors for his colleagues with every dead end case requested to be viewed by the United States Supreme Court or is this a special case?  Finally, isn’t it amazing that this person approached Thomas first?  More than likely knew that Thomas would have a ready ear. Could it be that Thomas is attempting to make Pres. elect Obama’s inauguration as drama filled as his confirmation hearings as a method of payback that many have accused him of  doing via most of his decisions concerning civil rights and civil liberties while on the United States Supreme Court? Very sad.  Read the rest of this entry »

With the Secretary of State announcement on the horizon this story seems appropriate.  There are reports that the Clinton camp is claiming that President-elect Barack Obama was very persuasive in his attempt to persuade Sen. Clinton to accept the Secretary of State position.  However, what perplexes this writer is that if President-elect Obama was the one trying to persuade, why did the former president, Bill Clinton, have to agree to nine conditions associated with the the unconfirmed “offer?”  If Senator Clinton had the upperhand, why agree to all the conditions?  The Clinton camp account also does not jive with another Elizabeth Drew’s, author, report of Sen. Clinton’s meeting with the President-elect.  Apparently, Drew reports, there was no offer during the Obama-Clinton meeting two weeks ago.  The New York Review of Books gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what actually happened. 

Obama’s meetings with Hillary Clinton and John McCain about playing important roles in his presidency indicated his imagination and his shrewdness, although sources close to Obama say he did not offer her the job of secretary of state when they met. He had said during the campaign that he wanted various views in his government, and in turning to his own former competitors, Obama was at the same time magnanimous and seeking to keep them close. Both were in a position to cause him difficulty in the Senate–Clinton, in particular, had kept her constituency intact (through HillPAC) and was planning her own Senate agenda, including her own health care program, no matter what Obama proposed. But Clinton lacks the seniority, and therefore a committee position from which to get her proposals taken up by the Senate. (She tried to get a special subcommittee appointed, but Edward M. Kennedy, who has his own health care plan and is chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over the issue, blocked her, offering her later a role concerning health insurance.) McCain had indicated that he wanted to help Obama in the Senate, and by taking him up on it, Obama has both flattered and coopted him.
Mrs. Clinton’s and her closest advisers’ turning a suggestion by the President-elect that she might, among other things, head the State Department into an “offer” and reports that she was agonizing over whether to accept it, did not please officials in Chicago, some of whom hoped that issues over disclosure of Bill Clinton’s post-presidential record might block the appointment. But the former president’s camp blocked that by promising to cooperate with requests for information and to accept limits on his activities, including clearance of speaking engagements abroad. Statements by the Hilary camp on November 21 saying that “she’s ready” for the position but then backtracking, saying that some matters were “under discussion,” typified the whole mess, the only snag thus far in an otherwise unusually smooth transition involving impressive choices–an object lesson to Obama (which he had reason to know already) that getting involved with the Clintons is rarely uncomplicated.

President-Elect Barack Obama just announced two more members of his economic team. This time for the Office of Management and Budget.

Director of the Office of Management and Budget - Peter Orszag

Deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget -  Robert Nabors, currently serves as U.S. House Appropriations Committee staff director, former advisor to the White House budget director under the Clinton administration

 11/25/08

Good morning.

I speak to you today, mindful that we meet at a moment of great challenge for America, as our credit markets are stressed, and our families are struggling. But as difficult as these times are, I’m confident that we will rise to meet this challenge - if we’re willing to band together and recognize that Wall Street cannot thrive so long as Main Street is struggling; if we’re willing to summon a new spirit of ingenuity and determination; and if Americans of great intellect, broad experience, and good character are willing to serve in government at this hour of need.

Yesterday, I announced four such Americans to help lead the economic team that will advise me as we seek to climb out of this crisis. Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce two other key members of our team - Peter Orszag as Director and Robert Nabors as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Before I explain why I selected these outstanding public servants, let me just say a word about the work I am asking them to undertake. As I said yesterday, the economic crisis we face demands that we invest immediately in a series of measures that will help save or create two and a half million jobs and put tax cuts in the pockets of the hard-pressed middle class. Many of those new jobs will come in areas such as energy independence, technology, and health care modernization that will strengthen our economy for the future.

But if we’re going to make the investments we need, we must also be willing to shed the spending we don’t. In these challenging times, when we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It is an imperative. We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist, or interest group. We simply cannot afford it.

This isn’t about big government or small government. It’s about building a smarter government that focuses on what works. That is why I will ask my team to think anew and act anew to meet our new challenges. We will go through our federal budget - page by page, line by line - eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.

Let me give you one example of what I’m talking about. There’s a report today that from 2003 to 2006, millionaire farmers received $49 million in crop subsidies even though they were earning more than the $2.5 million cutoff for such subsidies. If this is true, it is a prime example of the kind of waste I intend to end as President.

And we will also focus on one of the biggest, long-run challenges that our budget faces - namely, the rising cost of health care in both the public and private sectors. This is not just a challenge but also an opportunity to improve the health care that Americans rely on and to bring down the costs that taxpayers, businesses, and families have to pay.

That is what the OMB will do in my administration - it will not only help design a budget and manage its implementation, it will also help make sure that our government - your government - is more efficient and more effective at serving the American people.

There is no better person to help lead this effort as Director of the OMB than my friend Peter Orszag. Peter has been one of our nation’s leading voices on budgetary issues. It is said that a nation’s budget reflects its priorities. I believe that is true. And I know that Peter will bring to his work at the OMB a set of priorities that I - and the American people - share.

Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions in our understanding of all the major economic challenges we are now confronting - from reducing medical costs to saving Social Security to fighting global climate change to helping put the dream of a college degree within reach for more students.

As Director of the Congressional Budget Office, he reenergized and reinvigorated the agency, while shifting its focus to confront the health care crisis that is not only a cause of so much suffering for so many families, but a rapidly growing portion of our budget and a drag on our entire economy.

But it is not simply Peter’s past career that makes him qualified for his new appointment, it is his vision for the future. He believes, as I do, that even as we take steps to restore discipline to our budget, we must also take the steps right now that are necessary to solve our immediate crisis.

Peter doesn’t need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. He knows what works and what doesn’t, what is worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not. Just because a program, a special interest tax break or corporate subsidy is tucked into this year’s budget, does not mean it should survive the next. The old ways of Washington simply can’t meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

And no one is more able or more qualified to assist Peter in this work as Deputy Director of the OMB than Robert Nabors. Rob will bring to this post experience in the executive branch, at the OMB, where he helped the Clinton administration achieve balanced budgets, as well as in the legislative branch, where he led the appropriations committee staff as a driving force for a responsible budget. Together with Peter, Rob will help steer our budget through Congress so that I can sign it into law.

Now, let me be clear: these appointments and the appointments I announced yesterday are not the sum of my economic team. These appointees will work with those I have yet to announce - including the secretaries of Energy and Labor, Commerce and Health and Human Services and others in my administration - to design a recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street, and to put our economy on a path to long-term growth and prosperity.

Because at this moment, we must not only restore confidence in our markets. We must also restore the confidence of middle class families that their government is on their side - that it’s working for them - on their behalf - to meet their families’ needs. And that is exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States of America. Thank you.

President-Elect Barack Obama just announced the names of his senior economic advisers.  The group brings a broad range of experience and expertise and are more centrist then left.  Most importantly, they are not cronies but individuals who are business leaders and leading scholars of economics.  The mere mention of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary sent the stock market soaring 500 points on Friday. President Elect Obama made some policy pronouncements and his team in the last few days.  The President-elect will very soon after he takes office, if not done by the Bush administration, pass a massive stimulus plan to confront the current economic crisis.  Pres-Elect Obama announced that we need a big stimulus package “to jolt the economy back into shape.” No tax increase for the wealthy in the January package but will ask Congress to prepare tax-cuts for the low and middle income taxpayers.  The President-elect and his administration plans to hit the ground running on January 20th.  As Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said:

“We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president’s consideration when he takes office.”

The key members of the Obama Economic Dream Team are:

Treasury Secretary - Timothy Geithner
National Economic Council Director - Larry Summers 
Chair Council of Economic Advisers - Christina Romer                                                                                                                                                                         Director of the Domestic Policy Council - Melody Barnes    (Executive Vice President for policy at the Center for American Progress, chief counsel Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Melody will essentially be the czar of domestic policy in the Obama Administration.

In Pres. Elect Obama’s choice of nominees for his economic team it is clear that he intends to strike a balance between experience and fresh  thinking.  Both Christina Romer and Melody Barnes both represent a fresh, outside-the-beltway, way of thinking in Washington.  While Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner represent experience in the ways of Washington.

The news came over the wire last night.  President-elect will nominate Sen. Hillary Clinton to be Aecretary of State next week.  The official announcement will be made at a joint press conference the Friday following Thanksgiving.  Per the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama is on track to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, an aide to his transition said Thursday.
One week after the former primary rivals met secretly to discuss the idea of Clinton becoming the nation’s top diplomat, the two sides were moving quickly toward making it a reality, barring any unforeseen problems.

The transition aide told The Associated Press that the two camps have worked out financial disclosure issues involving Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the complicated international funding of his foundation that operates in 27 countries. The aide said Obama and Hillary Clinton have had substantive conversations about the secretary of state job.

Clinton has been mulling the post for several days, but the transition aide’s comments suggested that Obama’s team does not feel she is inclined to turn it down.

Watch CBS Videos Online

CBS) Since Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States 12 days ago, he has largely remained out of sight, getting high-level government briefings and conferring with his transition team. But he surfaced on Friday afternoon in Chicago, alongside his wife Michelle to give 60 Minutes his first post-election interview.

It covers a wide range of subjects including the economy, the ailing automobile industry, the government’s $700 billion bailout program, their visit to the White House, the emotions of election night and the quest for a family dog. You’ll hear all of it. But we begin with the president-elect and his thoughts about the new job.

Steve Kroft: So here we are.

President-elect Barack Obama: Here we are.

Kroft: How’s your life changed in the last ten days?

Mr. Obama: Well, I tell you what, there seem to be more people hovering around me. That’s for sure. And, on the other hand, I’m sleeping in my own bed over the last ten days, which is quite a treat. Michelle always wakes up earlier than I do. So listen to her roaming around and having the girls come in and, you know, jump in your bed. It’s a great feeling. Yeah.

Kroft: Has this been easier than the campaign trail?

Mr. Obama: Well, it’s different. I think that during the campaign it is just a constant frenetic, forward momentum. Here, I’m stationary. But the issues come to you. And we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of problems, a lot of big challenges.

TRANSCRIPT

Maya Soetoro-Ng was not in Chicago with her brother on election night even though he offered to fly the family into the Windy City for the results.  Maya knew exactly where she wanted to be on the night that millions of Americans will remember as a pivotable turning point in our nation’s history.

Maya Soetoro-Ng could have accepted her brother’s invitation to be at his side on Election Night in Chicago. But Barack Obama’s sister knew where she belonged.

As she had for much of the past eight years, Soetoro-Ng stayed in the two-bedroom apartment on Beretania Street where she had taken care of their maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham.

Dunham had died of cancer just two nights before at the age of 86, with Soetoro-Ng at her side. Then, on the day that Obama was elected as America’s first black president, Dunham’s koa urn arrived and Soetoro-Ng surrounded it with pictures of Dunham’s late daughter, Stanley Ann Dunham, Dunham’s grandchildren and her great-grandchildren, “all of us who benefited so much from her steady voice and hand,” Soetoro-Ng wrote

Maya also gives some insight into the strength and wonderful sense of humor of their grandmother Madelyn Dunham

Dunham, whom Obama called “Toot” after the Hawaiian word for grandparent, tutu, never showed self-pity or fear as she faced the end of her life, Soetoro-Ng wrote.

But Dunham could be wickedly funny.

“When she saw the number of flowers that had been sent to her,” Soetoro-Ng wrote, “she said, ‘Oh my … with all of this hullabaloo, it’s going to be embarrassing if I DON’T die.’ I gave her a chuckle and of course told her that I wouldn’t at all mind such an embarrassment, and then I invited her to stay and dance with me into the new year. She couldn’t stay, but she certainly tried, and defied expectations again and again.”

Maya gave permission to her friends to release the letter to the press.  Read the whole letter for yourself. 

“President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to change the way Washington works and curb the influence of lobbyists,” said top transition aid John Podesta.  “[I]f someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied” is a statement released by the Transition office yesterday.

“President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to change the way Washington works and curb the influence of lobbyists,” said Podesta in another statement. 

“During the campaign, federal lobbyists could not contribute to or raise money for the campaign…the president-elect is taking those commitments even further by announcing the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.”

Looks like President-elect Obama has already begun to keep his campaign promises.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Transcript

When President-elect Obama gave his victory speech Tuesday night in Chicago’s Grant Park, he was quick to give credit. “To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics,” the president-Elect said, “You made this happen.”

Who was Obama talking about and how did they do it? Ninety minutes after the speech ended, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft sat down with them in a Chicago hotel suite. It was 1.a.m. Wednesday and the reality of it all was just beginning to sink in.

“We just left Grant Park. What are you feeling’?” Kroft asked.

“Little numb. A little tired. A little overwhelmed,” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist and political alter ego, replied.

The group also included David Plouffe, the camera shy campaign manager and field general who made it all happen. “Yeah. I mean, it’s been a 22-month road, and a lotta twists and turns. But you know, I think he filled the stage tonight,” Plouffe told Kroft.

There was senior aide Robert Gibbs, who was always at Obama’s side, his former and future press secretary. “And it was fun to watch all the people come out who’ve been part of the campaign. And…,” Gibbs rasped, clearing his throat.

He told Kroft he lost his voice “within the last few hours.” (Read remainder of transcript by clicking the transcript link above)