WASHINGTON (AFP) – President-elect Barack Obama has replaced US President George W. Bush as the most admired man in America, according to a poll published Friday in the USA Today newspaper.
One-third of the 1,008 respondents surveyed named Obama as their first or second choice, with Bush falling to a distant second after seven years as the country's most-admired man.
Thirty-two percent of respondents chose Obama against five percent for Bush. It was the first time a president-elect topped the poll since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.
The poll was conducted over telephone between December 12 and 14.
The newspaper reported that the only higher support in the history of the survey was Bush's 39 percent rating in 2001, just a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Among men, John McCain -- Obama's defeated Republican rival for the presidency -- ranked third and three others tied for fourth place: Pope Benedict XVI, the Reverend Billy Graham and former president Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton led the list of most-admired woman at 20 percent -- a spot she's held for 13 of the past 16 years.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who catapulted into the limelight after McCain named her Republican vice-presidential candidate, was a distant second at 11 percent.
Among women, the president-elect's wife, Michelle Obama came in fifth place, following talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in third and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in fourth.
The Gallup polling organization has been conducting the phone survey, which has sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, since 1948.
Gay leaders furious with Obama
Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to deliver the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, opposes abortion rights but has taken more liberal stances on the government role in fighting poverty, and backed away from other evangelicals’ staunch support for economic conservatism. But it’s his support for the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that drew the most heated criticism from Democrats Wednesday.
“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.”
The rapid, angry reaction from a range of gay activists comes as the gay rights movement looks for an opportunity to flex its political muscle. Last summer gay groups complained, but were rebuffed by Obama, when an “ex-gay” singer led Obama’s rallies in South Carolina. And many were shocked last month when voters approved the California ban.
“There is a lot of energy and there’s a lot of anger and I think people are wanting to direct it somewhere,” Solomonese told Politico.
The selection of Warren to preside at the inauguration is not a surprise move, but it is a mirror image of President Bill Clinton’s early struggles with issues of gay rights. Obama has worked, and at times succeeded, to bridge the gap between Democrats and evangelical Christians, who form a solid section of the Republican base.
Obama opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposed the California constitutional amendment Warren backed. In selecting Warren, he is choosing to reach out to conservatives on a hot-button social issue, at the cost of antagonizing gay voters who overwhelmingly supported him.
Clinton, by contrast, drew early praise from gay rights activists by pressing to allow openly gay soldiers to serve, only to retreat into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise that pleased few.
The reaction Wednesday in gay rights circles was universally negative.
“It’s a huge mistake,” said California gay rights activist Rick Jacobs, who chairs the state’s Courage Campaign. “He’s really the wrong person to lead the president into office.
“Can you imagine if he had a man of God doing the invocation who had deliberately said that Jews are not going to be saved and therefore should be excluded from what’s going on in America? People would be up in arms,” he said.
The editor of the Washington Blade, Kevin Naff, called the choice “Obama’s first big mistake.”
“His presence on the inauguration stand is a slap in the faces of the millions of GLBT voters who so enthusiastically supported him,” Naff wrote, referring to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. “This tone-deafness to our concerns must not be tolerated. We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise.”
Other liberal groups chimed in.
“Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn’t need or deserve this position of honor,” said the president of People for the American Way, Kathryn Kolbert, who described Warren as “someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.”
Warren’s spokeswoman did not respond to a message seeking comment, but he has tried to blend personal tolerance with doctrinal disapproval of homosexuality.
“I have many gay friends, I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church,” he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet.
In the same interview, he compared the “redefiniton of a marrige” to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.
Obama’s move may deepen some apparent distance between him among gays and lesbians, one of the very few core Democratic groups among whom his performance was worse than John Kerry’s in 2004. Exit polls suggested that John McCain won 27% of the gay vote in November, up four points from Bush’s 2004 tally – even as almost all other voters slid toward Obama.
But despite the symbolism of picking Warren, Obama is likely to shift several substantive policy areas in directions that will please gay voters and their political leaders, including a pledge to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” in military service.
And some gay activists were holding out hope that they would either persuade Obama to dump Warren or Warren to change his mind.
“Rick Warren did a real disservice to gay families in California and across the country by casually supporting our continued exclusion from marriage,” said the founder of the pro-same sex marriage Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson. “I hope in the spirit of the new era that’s dawning, he will open his heart and speak to all Americans about inclusion and our country’s commitment to equality.”
Time names Obama 'Person of the Year'
NEW YORK – President-elect Barack Obama has won another contest: He's been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2008.The magazine has named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou as runners-up.
Last year's winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Previous individual winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.
Obama campaign mulls what to do with $30M surplus
WASHINGTON – Democrats carrying significant campaign debt after winning a string of House and Senate races are grumbling about President-elect Barack Obama's financial reserves, saying the party's leader is sitting on a pile of cash while Democratic leaders are broke.Obama's organization retains some $30 million after his successful presidential bid, but it's unclear how the Democratic president-in-waiting might use the money. Members of his party are doing their best to appeal for the funds without appearing greedy, ungrateful or hostile to their new leader.
"If I was a top adviser to the president elect, I wouldn't necessarily be advocating saving those dollars," said Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "It was critically important that we not repeat what happened in '93, '94," when President Bill Clinton held the purse strings and Democrats lost 54 U.S. House seats and eight senators during midterm elections.
"We need the resources to build the national grass roots network for the Obama agenda. We need to make sure the president is successful and that the administration fulfills his promises," Buckley said.
The Democratic National Committee is carrying about $5 million in debt, with almost $12 million cash on hand. DNC officials say they expect to have the debt paid by the end of the year. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee carries some $19 million in debt and less than $3 million on hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is nearly $13 million in debt.
Obama raised more than $745 million during his marathon campaign, more than twice the amount obtained by his rival, Republican John McCain. In his latest finance report, Obama reported raising $104 million in more than five weeks immediately before and after Election Day.
"This is the first presidential candidate and president who has not been publicly financed in the general election," said Ken Gross, a former Federal Election Commission lawyer. "Every other president since Jimmy Carter has not had excess funds."
Obama opted not to participate in public funding system. In exchange, he was able to continue raising money, while McCain accepted $84 million in taxpayer money, and the spending restrictions that went with it, through the public financing system.
"The only example that comes to mind is John Kerry," Gross said. "He finished his primary campaign with a $15 million surplus. That created some grumbling, since he lost."
Democrats blamed Kerry's loss, in part, on a campaign hierarchy that didn't spend wisely or aggressively. Kerry's own campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, called it "gross incompetence to hoard that money when the race was bound to be so close."
Obama aides are aware of the stigma and don't want to appear inelegant or selfish. They are weighing whether to keep the money to build a massive grass roots program to support his agenda, or to cycle that money to the party apparatus. Both ideas have strong advocates, but it's unclear to those involved which way Obama will go.
"We aren't in a position to announce what the next steps for our organization are today, but are continuing a dialogue with our supporters about their vision for how we move forward," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.
Party officials around the country say the campaign leaders have signaled they shouldn't expect the money to come to them directly, if at all. Instead, many party officials expect Obama to use his funds to advance his own priorities, to support his massive Internet-based organization and to have cache for special causes. With almost 4 million donors, Obama's fundraising list could prove golden for future Obama-backed drives.
"Right now, it looks like the sky is the limit," Gross said.
Obama aides emphasize the campaign expects to continue having expenses, along with tax obligations and political operations. They also say Obama has little interest in bankrolling state committees or individual candidates. Those involved say the logical option is the Democratic National Committee, although no one is pressing for a quick transfer.
On Wednesday, Obama send a fundraising e-mail to his supporters asking them to help retire that debt by buying coffee mugs or fleece sweat shirts. Obama and Democratic aides alike say they would use similar efforts going forward, but were aware that asking too often could dilute the effectiveness of the list.
Legally, Obama can donate the extra money to charity, transfer it to another political campaign, or dole it out in $2,000 increments to local candidates, Gross said.
"That's not too attractive, but it's something," Gross said.
Governors urge Obama to help the poor, boost economy
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – U.S. state governors urged President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday to pump money into infrastructure and help support the poor as a sinking economy hits state budgets hard.Obama, who takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20, pledged to involve states in his plans to tackle the U.S. recession and create or save 2.5 million jobs.
The president-elect has spent much of the time since his November 4 victory over Republican John McCain forming his economic team and advocating a massive new stimulus package.
"I'm not simply asking the nation's governors to help implement our economic recovery plan, I'm going to be interested in having you help draft and shape that economic plan," Obama told a meeting that included Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate.
"I'm going to listen to you, especially when we disagree because one of the things that has served me well in my career is discovering that I don't know everything," Obama said.
The meeting came the day after the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed that the United States had entered recession in December 2007. The downturn, which many economists expect to persist through the middle of the next year, is already third-longest since the Great Depression.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, touted as a possible energy secretary in the Obama administration, opened the meeting by pressing for Congress to extend unemployment benefits and increase food stamp availability.
"Those are things that don't go to us as governors, don't go to our budgets but help our citizens," he said.
Rendell said on Monday governors would ask for $136 billion in infrastructure funds to stimulate the economy immediately and cover health care for the poor.
Obama acknowledged that, unlike the federal government, U.S. states had to balance their budgets. He said immediate measures were needed to help deal with the crisis.
"Forty-one of the states that are represented here are likely to face budget shortfalls this year or next, forcing you to choose between reining in spending and raising taxes," Obama said. "To solve this crisis and to ease the burden on our states, we need action and we need action swiftly."
Nearly all 50 governors attended, including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, who on Monday declared a fiscal emergency and called lawmakers into a special session to tackle a widening budget gap.
Officials: Obama set to introduce Clinton Monday
A deal with Bill Clinton over his post-White House work helped clear the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton to join President-elect Barack Obama's national security team as secretary of state, reshaping a once-bitter rivalry into a high-profile strategic and diplomatic union.Obama was to be joined by the New York senator at a Chicago news conference Monday, Democratic officials said, where he also planned to announce that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would remain in his job for a year or more and that retired Marine General James M. Jones would serve as national security adviser.
The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.
To make it possible for his wife to become the top U.S. diplomat, the officials said, former President Clinton agreed:
_to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997 and all contributors going forward.
_to refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference.
_to cease holding CGI meetings overseas.
_to volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state.
_to submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel.
_to submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review.
Bill Clinton's business deals and global charitable endeavors had been expected to create problems for the former first lady's nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to those activities.
"It's a big step," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.
The former president long had refused to disclose the identities of contributors to his foundation, saying many gave money on condition that they not be identified.
Lugar said there would still be "legitimate questions" raised about the former president's extensive international involvement. "I don't know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this who has such cosmic ties, but ... hopefully, this team of rivals will work," Lugar said.
Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton was an extraordinary gesture of good will after a year in which the two rivals competed for the Democratic nomination in a long, bitter primary battle.
They clashed repeatedly on foreign affairs. Obama criticized Clinton for her vote to authorize the Iraq war. Clinton said Obama lacked the experience to be president and she chided him for saying he would meet with leaders of nations such as Iran and Cuba without conditions.
The bitterness began melting away in June after Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. She went on to campaign for him in his general election contest against Republican Sen. John McCain.
Advisers said Obama had for several months envisioned Clinton as his top diplomat, and he invited her to Chicago to discuss the job just a week after the Nov. 4 election. The two met privately Nov. 13 in Obama's transition office in downtown Chicago.
Clinton was said to be interested and then to waver, concerned about relinquishing her Senate seat and the political independence it conferred. Those concerns were largely resolved after Obama assured her she would be able to choose a staff and have direct access to him, advisers said.
Remaining in the Senate also may not have been an attractive choice for Clinton. Despite her political celebrity, she is a relatively junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.
Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to serve Obama as secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser has said the president-elect had been enthusiastic about naming Clinton to the position from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and the advantages to her serving far outweigh potential downsides.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Clintons will have to tread carefully to avoid the appearance of conflicts.
"The presumption will be that both Secretary of State Clinton and former President Clinton will be very judicious in what they take on, because there's a new dimension here," Reed said.
Lieberman: Obama 'about perfect' in Cabinet picks
HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman took another step Tuesday toward mending his relationship with Democrats, saying that Barack Obama's actions since winning the presidency have been "just about perfect."
"Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration," Lieberman said during a visit to Hartford.
Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 as an independent but continues to caucus with Democrats. He supported Republican John McCain's presidential campaign, going as far as to criticize Obama and make a speech at the Republican National Convention.
Democrats threatened to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee but instead removed him as head of a smaller environmental subcommittee.
Connecticut Democrats meet Dec. 17 and are still considering a possible censure of Lieberman for his actions during the presidential campaign.
"I will ask them to judge me by my record," Lieberman said. "Generally speaking, I've had a record, a voting record, which is really ultimately what it's about, not unlike most Democrats."
Lieberman said he believes the rift between himself and the party stemmed mainly from his support of President Bush's policy in Iraq and will close as that becomes less of an issue.
"It appears to me that the war in Iraq is coming to a successful — I don't want to say conclusion yet, but it's moving in a way that it will not be a divisive issue either in the Democratic Party or between Democrats and Republicans in the time ahead," Lieberman said. "And therefore, I think we'll return to more normal times, which I welcome."
"Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration," Lieberman said during a visit to Hartford.
Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 as an independent but continues to caucus with Democrats. He supported Republican John McCain's presidential campaign, going as far as to criticize Obama and make a speech at the Republican National Convention.
Democrats threatened to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee but instead removed him as head of a smaller environmental subcommittee.
Connecticut Democrats meet Dec. 17 and are still considering a possible censure of Lieberman for his actions during the presidential campaign.
"I will ask them to judge me by my record," Lieberman said. "Generally speaking, I've had a record, a voting record, which is really ultimately what it's about, not unlike most Democrats."
Lieberman said he believes the rift between himself and the party stemmed mainly from his support of President Bush's policy in Iraq and will close as that becomes less of an issue.
"It appears to me that the war in Iraq is coming to a successful — I don't want to say conclusion yet, but it's moving in a way that it will not be a divisive issue either in the Democratic Party or between Democrats and Republicans in the time ahead," Lieberman said. "And therefore, I think we'll return to more normal times, which I welcome."
Officials: Obama to ask Gates to stay at Pentagon
CHICAGO – Seeking experience in wartime, President-elect Barack Obama intends to re-enlist Defense Secretary Robert Gates as head of the Pentagon — if only temporarily — and has chosen a retired Marine general to be White House national security adviser, officials said Tuesday.Gates and retired Gen. James Jones would bring decades of experience to the administration of a 47-year-old commander in chief who campaigned on a pledge to redeploy combat troops in Iraq within 16 months while simultaneously ramping up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.
While Gates has accepted Obama's appointment, it was not clear that Jones had done the same.
Obama also has also offered the post of secretary of state to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, his rival in the campaign for the White House. Officials have not yet disclosed whether she has decided to give up her seat in Congress to join the Cabinet.
Whatever Clinton's decision, aides to the president-elect say he intends to announce members of his national security team next week, after disclosing his top economic advisers in recent days.
Gates, who has served as President George W. Bush's defense secretary for two years, will remain in the Cabinet for some time, probably a year, according to an official familiar with discussions between him and the president-elect. His appointment would fulfill an Obama pledge to include a Republican in his Cabinet.
A Democratic official said Jones was Obama's pick to head the National Security Council, the part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not authorized anybody to discuss the developments.
Obama's search for intelligence officials was less clear. John Brennan, who had been considered a top pick for CIA director, withdrew his name from consideration. He cited a groundswell of criticism about his association with the Bush administration's sanctioning of harsh interrogations of terror suspects.
Former Adm. Dennis Blair has emerged as a likely candidate for director of national intelligence, which oversees CIA and other intelligence agencies.
Retaining Gates provides stability for a stretched military fighting two wars during the changeover in administrations. Gates once said it was inconceivable that he would stay on past the close of Bush's term on Jan. 20.
But the 65-year-old former spymaster had recently turned mum in public on the circumstances under which he would stay, even briefly, in an Obama administration.
Keeping Gates might afford Obama a sort of extended transition, in which critical military issues are left in trusted hands while Obama focuses most intensely on the financial crisis.
This is the first wartime presidential transition since 1968, when the Vietnam War was under way, and there is extra concern about security vulnerabilities during this handover.
Gates has run the department since December 2006, reluctantly giving up his post as president of Texas A&M University to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld when the Iraq war seemed to be failing.
He has gained a reputation as a steady pragmatist, but Gates' resume as a government policymaker is not untarnished.
During his 1991 confirmation hearings to be CIA director, Gates was criticized for missing clues about the impending fall of the Soviet Union and for politicizing Cold War intelligence. Those two complaints — misreading intelligence and using it selectively — have also dogged the Bush administration in its Iraq policy.
But supporters see Gates as a seasoned policymaker who climbed the CIA bureaucracy from an entry-level position to become director under President George H.W. Bush. He also served on his National Security Council, as he had for Presidents Carter and Reagan.
Bush noted that Gates helped lead U.S. efforts to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s while at the CIA and was deputy national security adviser during Operation Desert Storm, the first U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
He was part of the 2006 Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel led by former Secretary of State James Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton that was asked to help chart a new course in the flagging war.
A native of Kansas, Gates joined the CIA in 1966. By 1987, he became acting CIA director when William Casey was terminally ill with cancer.
Questions were raised about Gates' knowledge of the Iran-Contra arms and money affair, and he withdrew from consideration to take over the CIA permanently. Yet he stayed on as deputy director.
Then-national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who has been a critic of the younger Bush's policies, asked Gates to be his deputy in 1989 during the administration of Bush's father. The elder President Bush asked Gates to run the CIA two years later.
Gates won confirmation, but only after hearings in which he was accused by CIA officials of manipulating intelligence as a senior analyst in the 1980s.
Melvin Goodman, a former CIA division chief for Soviet affairs, testified that Gates politicized the intelligence on Iran, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union.
Gates took a much lower profile when he left the CIA and the government in 1993. He joined corporate boards and wrote a memoir, "From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War."
Gates is a close friend of the Bush family. He was interim dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M and became the university's president in 2002. The school is home to the elder Bush's presidential library.
As Obama's choice for national security adviser, Jones has impeccable military credentials, an ambassador's polish and an imposing physical presence at 6 foot 4 inches. He's highly regarded by Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, and as the NATO alliance's top commander — his last assignment before retiring from the military in early 2007 — he's a respected figure in capitals across Europe.
Jones was born in Kansas City, Mo., and grew up in France where his father — also a Marine — worked for International Harvester, the farm equipment company. Jones returned to the United States for his senior year of high school and later graduated from Georgetown University.
In 1967 he was sent to Vietnam and saw combat action as a platoon and a company commander.
Obama's cabinet begins to take shape
NEW DELHI: President-elect Barack Obama formally nominated Timothy Geithner on Monday as his Treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers to head the US President-elect Barack ObamaUS President-elect Obama unveils his economic policy team during a news conference in Chicago. (AP Photo)
National Economic Council, filling two of the most closely watched jobs in his administration.
Here are people Obama has chosen or is considering for key posts. Many remain subject to vetting and Senate confirmation before taking office.
TREASURY SECRETARY: Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, is Obama's choice for the Treasury Department, making him Obama's point person in dealing with the economic crisis. Geithner has helped to lead efforts to stabilize financial markets and argued that banks crucial to the global financial system should operate under a unified regulatory framework. Geithner's appointment was made official on Monday by Obama, who said he would bring "an unparalleled understanding of our current economic crisis" to the job.
NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Lawrence Summers, 53, was Treasury secretary for the final 1-1/2 years of the Clinton administration and has been a senior adviser to Obama for several months, helping to guide his response to the financial meltdown. The intense and blunt-spoken Summers became a full professor at Harvard at 28 and was later president of the university, where his abrasive style made many enemies and he resigned in 2006.
He had been seen as Geithner's main competition for the job of Treasury chief. Summers nomination to head council was officially announced on Monday. He is also under consideration as a possible replacement for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term ends in 2010.
SECRETARY OF STATE: New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's former rival for the White House, is said to have accepted the post of secretary of state, the New York Times reported. A senior Clinton adviser said the report was premature, but added that discussions with the Obama White House were "on track."
Clinton has a global profile both as a political leader in her own right and as the wife of former US President Bill Clinton. Policy analysts say her selection could mean a more hawkish US stance, noting that she was more reluctant than Obama to commit to a firm timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. Clinton's appointment is expected to be made official after the Nov. 27 Thanksgiving holiday.
COMMERCE SECRETARY: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former United Nations ambassador and energy secretary during President Bill Clinton's administration, had been an early supporter of Obama after dropping his own presidential ambitions.
The commerce secretary is seen as the voice of the US business community in the White House and is tasked with promoting US business interests overseas. Richardson's appointment, which has been widely reported by US media, would make him the first high-profile Hispanic leader in the Obama Cabinet.
SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Tom Daschle, a key early supporter and savvy former US Senate leader, has been selected by Obama as secretary of health and human services, according to Democratic sources. In that role, he will be the top official spearheading Obama's effort to overhaul the US health care system. The high-profile pick signals that the push to extend health coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans be a high priority for Obama.
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, the former top operational commander of NATO, is a leading contender for White House national security adviser. Jones is widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans but has avoided aligning himself with either party.
He is known to have been a strong critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war and is quoted as describing the war as a "debacle," in Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward's 2006 book "State of Denial." James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in Bill Clinton's administration, was also said to be under consideration.
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Eric Holder, a former Justice Department official under the Clinton Administration, has accepted a conditional offer to become head of the Justice Department, Democratic officials said. Holder, who served as deputy attorney general under Clinton, has been a senior legal advisor to Obama's campaign and helped vet Obama's vice presidential candidates. Before the offer becomes official, Obama's team is seeking to determine if Holder can win Senate confirmation with broad bipartisan support.
HOMELAND SECURITY: Janet Napolitano, the Democratic governor of Arizona, is under consideration to head the US Homeland Security Department, a sprawling agency formed to bolster civil defense following the Sept. 11 attacks. "She's in the mix. She may be the front-runner," a Democratic official told Reuters. Napolitano, 50, is a former US attorney for Arizona and state attorney general, giving her law enforcement experience and is as governor of a state bordering Mexico, she also is closely involved in immigration issues which also come under the Homeland Security Department's purview.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, named by President George W. Bush in late 2006, is considered a moderate voice on the Republican's national security team and could embody an important signal of continuity.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebraska, has been a foreign policy adviser to Obama and a strong critic of the Iraq war.
Richard Danzig, an adviser to Obama on national security and Clinton-era Navy secretary, has been mentioned by many in the media as a possible defense secretary or deputy defense secretary.
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: John Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, who farms in Baskerville, Virginia. The NBFA organized a lawsuit in June by black farmers for payments out of $100 million included in the 2008 farm law to compensate growers who were victims of USDA bias.
Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania agriculture secretary since 2003. Wolff is a sixth-generation dairy farmer and owns Pen-Col Farms in Millville, Pennsylvania. Wolff won approval of legislation aimed to improve water quality and settle conflicts between farmers and nearby towns. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, re-elected to a second term in 2006, is a strong Obama supporter and had been considered a potential running mate for Obama.
Several Indian Americans in Obama-Biden transition team
HOUSTON: Several Indian Americans have been appointed to the Obama-Biden transition team. Parag Mehta, from Texas has been named the deputy director of inter-governmental affairs and public liaison for several minority groups, including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders.Besides Parag, there are a few more Indian Americans in the team. Nick Rathod has been appointed director to the Office of Inter-governmental Affairs. Rathod is the national outreach director of South Asians for Obama and one of its founding members.
Arti Rai, a professor of patent law at Duke University and a classmate of Obama at Harvard Law School, has been appointed as a member of the agency review team on science, technology, space, arts and humanities.
The agency review teams for the Obama-Biden transition are charged with completing a thorough review of various departments, agencies and commissions in the U S government to craft policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the January 20, 2009 inauguration date.
Anjan Mukherjee, a managing director at the private equity firm Blackstone, has been named one of several leads on the economics and international trade agency review team. The Harvard Business School MBA is also a director of Steifel Laboratories, one of his firm's investments. Mukherjee also campaigned with Asian Americans for Obama.
Rachana Bhowmik, Subhasri Ramanathan, Natasha Bilimoria and Puneet Talwar will all serve as members of the state, national security, defence, intelligence and arms control agency review team.
Bhowmik was part of Senator Obama's legislative counsel, handling civil rights, civil liberties, and national security issues such as intelligence, homeland security, and other issues for the senator, who was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Ramanathan is a senior analyst with the Government Accountability Office's Homeland Security and Justice team. Prior to joining the GAO, she was Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director to the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security, specializing in border security, visa and immigration policy issues.
Bilimoria is the executive director of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, a non-profit organization aiming to engage Americans in the prevention of these diseases in the developing world.
Bilimoria previously served as senior public policy officer at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and spent four years with the Clinton Administration, including the US Department of Treasury.
Puneet is a senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and previously served on the State Department's policy planning staff.
Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars."These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address.
The goal is to it quickly through Congress, with help from both parties, after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The plan, which envisions those new jobs by January 2011, is "big enough to meet the challenges we face," he said.
Obama noted the growing evidence the country is "facing an economic crisis of historic proportions" and said he was pleased Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits this past week. But, he added, `We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again."
Nonetheless, he said, "There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better."
It will take support from Democrats and Republicans to pass the economic plan, Obama said. "I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle," he said. "But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action."
People "are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills," if their jobs will remain, if their retirement savings will disappear, he added.
The Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level since July 1992, providing fresh evidence of the weakening job market.
"We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels," Obama said. He also made a commitment to fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy technologies "that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead."
Obama pointed to the past, saying that Americans in this country's darkest hours have risen above their divisions to solve their problems, as a hope for the future.
"We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together," Obama said. "That is the chance our new beginning now offers us, and that is the challenge we must rise to in the days to come. It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will."
Obama moves quickly to fill Cabinet positions
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama has moved with unusual speed to select officials for his administration, and senior Democratic officials say he intends to name Timothy Geithner as his treasury secretary as soon as Monday.It was not clear when Obama intended to formally unveil any of his other picks for the administration that takes office at the stroke of noon on Jan. 20. One Democrat said John Podesta, a leader of Obama's transition team, had told Senate aides on Friday that Obama hoped for speedy confirmation so the new administration could get to work quickly thereafter.
Word of Geithner's likely selection emerged as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in line to become secretary of state, said through a spokesman that discussions were on track for her appointment but no final arrangement had been made.
Obama's choice for attorney general, a third critical post as the president-elect rounds out his top Cabinet echelon, is Eric Holder. He held the No. 2 slot in the Justice Department in President Bill Clinton's administration.
The president-elect plans to announce Geithner's appointment in Chicago on Monday, barring an unforeseen snag in a background check that is nearly complete, said one of the senior officials, both of whom were familiar with the deliberations. He's the president of the New York Federal Reserve.
If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Geithner, 47, would assume chief responsibility for tackling an economic slowdown and credit crunch that threaten to create the deepest recession in more than a generation. In his current post in New York, he has played a key role in the government's response to the financial crisis and has worked closely with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
As a Treasury Department official during the Clinton administration, Geithner (pronounced GITE-ner) dealt with international financial crises and played a major part in negotiating assistance packages for South Korea and Brazil.
Lawrence Summers, a former treasury secretary and one-time Harvard University president, was being considered as an economic adviser. Economic posts also seemed likely for Obama's top two economic advisers during his campaign, Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman.
Officials said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had emerged as a likely pick as commerce secretary, although he had hoped to be secretary of state. Like Clinton, he was a rival of Obama's for the Democratic presidential nomination last winter. He dropped out after the early contests, though, and soon threw his support behind the eventual winner.
The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the anticipated appointments.
The president-elect has largely stayed out of public view since his election on Nov. 4, preferring to work quietly with aides and Vice President-elect Joe Biden in a suite of offices in downtown Chicago.
Obama faces unusual challenges and has moved quickly in assembling his team. Former President George H.W. Bush made his first Cabinet pick the day after his election in 1988, but former President Clinton did not name any members until after Thanksgiving. President George W. Bush's transition was delayed by the contested result in Florida.
While speculation has been rampant about most top-level appointments, there has been relatively little about Obama's choice for defense secretary. His aides encouraged speculation before the election that Robert Gates, who now holds the position, would remain in office for an interim period.
Other Cabinet selections so far include former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota as secretary of health and human services and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, likely to be named as secretary of the Homeland Security Department.
Napolitano was an early supporter of candidate Obama among the ranks of Democratic governors, as was Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. Sebelius has figured prominently in recent days in speculation as possible secretary of labor.
Additionally, retired Gen. James Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant and NATO commander, was among those under consideration for national security adviser. James Steinberg, an Obama campaign aide who served in Clinton's White House, was another possibility, according to officials.
Obama has repeatedly referred to the economic crisis as the top priority for his new administration.
Geithner held posts in the Treasury Department under three administrations and five secretaries before moving to the New York Fed in 2003. He also held positions at the International Monetary Fund and was employed at the private firm of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The Dow Jones industrials soared by nearly 500 points late in the day Friday, a sharp rise that coincided with the first reports of Geithner's possible appointment.
Dem sources: Clinton to help Hillary get State job
CHICAGO – Former President Bill Clinton has offered several concessions to help Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his wife, become secretary of state, people familiar with President-elect Barack Obama's transition vetting process said Wednesday.Clinton has agreed to release the names of several major donors to his charitable foundation and will submit future foundation activities and paid speeches to a strict ethics review, said Democrats knowledgeable about the discussions.
They also said that Clinton would step away from day-to-day responsibility for his foundation while his wife serves and would alert the State Department any new sources of income and to his speechmaking. The Democrats spoke only on grounds of anonymity because of the private nature of the Cabinet-selection process.
Since Sen. Clinton has emerged as a top contender for the State job, her husband's international business deals and the fundraising he has done for his foundation and presidential library have come under careful review by Obama's transition team. The former president had indicated earlier that he would be willing to significantly increase the transparency of those activities if it would boost the former first lady's chances of getting the job.
A team of attorneys is representing the Clintons in negotiations with Obama officials, in talks which have taken place this week at a law firm in Washington.
Hillary Clinton still carries a substantial debt from her presidential campaign and if she were to become secretary of state she would face restrictions on her ability to retire it. As of Oct. 1, she owed nearly $8 million to campaign vendors.
In a 2001 advisory opinion, the federal Office of Special Counsel said a federal employee who still had a campaign debt would be prohibited from "personally soliciting, accepting or receiving political contributions." Clinton could name an agent from her campaign committee to continue to organize and hold fundraising events to retire the debt. Clinton would be limited to attending a fundraising event and stating her appreciation to donors.
According to Clinton's report, nearly $5.3 million of her debt as of Oct. 1 was money owed to the firm of Mark Penn, who served as her senior adviser and pollster.
Aides familiar with the vetting said it has gone smoothly and both Clintons had been fully cooperative with the process. One Clinton adviser noted that former President George H.W. Bush has given paid speeches and participated in international business ventures since his son, George W. Bush, has been president — without stirring public complaints or controversy about a possible conflict of interest.
Bill Clinton's network of business deals and charitable endeavors became an issue during Hillary Clinton's run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
One Democrat who advised her campaign said few of her senior strategists knew anything about the former president's business arrangements and whether they would hold up under scrutiny if she won the nomination. The adviser spoke on background, not authorized to speak publicly for Hillary Clinton's political operation.
During his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Obama pressed the former president to name the donors to his library. Bill Clinton refused, saying many had given money on the condition that their names not be revealed. He promised to make the donors' names public going forward if his wife won the Democratic nomination.
The former president has engaged in other deals that could complicate his wife's work with foreign governments as secretary of state. Records show he raised money for his foundation from the Saudi royal family, Kuwait, Brunei and the Embassy of Qatar, and from a Chinese Internet company seeking information on Tibetan human rights activists.
While many people familiar with the New York senator's thinking say she is inclined to take the secretary of state's job if it is offered, others say she is also considering the consequences of leaving the Senate, where she had hoped to take a leading role on health care reform and other issues.
"Would she be willing to give up her independent stature in the U.S. Senate, Robert F. Kennedy's seat, to be in the Cabinet? It will be a considerable decision for her," said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton adviser not involved in the vetting. "It's a completely different life than you lead in the Senate, where you are your own spokesperson, your own advocate. When you join the Cabinet of the president of the United States, that is no longer the case."
Clinton declined to discuss any part of the selection process Tuesday. "I've said everything I have to say on Friday," she said.
At the State Department, the prospect of Clinton as secretary is creating some anxiety among career foreign service officers worried that she would install her own loyalists and exclude them from policy-making. Some at the State Department see her as a foreign policy lightweight, although there is grudging acknowledgment of her star power.
After Obama's win, white backlash festers in US
Atlanta – In rural Georgia, a group of high-schoolers gets a visit from the Secret Service after posting "inappropriate" comments about President-elect Barack Obama on the Web. In Raleigh, N.C., four college students admit to spraying race-tinged graffiti in a pedestrian tunnel after the election. On Nov. 6, a cross burns on the lawn of a biracial couple in Apolacon Township, Pa.The election of America's first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters' comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama's election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element.
Most election-related threats have so far been little more than juvenile pranks. But the political marginalization of certain Southern whites, economic distress in rural areas, and a White House occupant who symbolizes a multiethnic United States could combine to produce a backlash against what some have heralded as the dawn of a postracial America. In some parts of the South, there's even talk of secession.
"Most of this movement is not violent, but there is a substantive underbelly that is violent and does try to make a bridge to people who feel disenfranchised," says Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. "The question is: Will this swirl become a tornado or just an ill wind? We're not there yet, but there's dust on the horizon, a swirling of wind, and the atmospherics are getting put together for [conflict]."
Though postelection racist incidents haven't posed any real danger to society or the president-elect, law enforcement is taking note.
"We're trying to be out there at the cutting edge of this and trying to stay ahead of groups that are emerging," says Special Agent Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the Secret Service, which guards the US president.
"Anytime you start seeing [extremist propaganda] floating around, you have to be concerned," adds Lt. Gary Thornberry of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. "As far as it being an alarmist situation, I don't see that yet. From a law enforcement point of view, you have to be careful, because it's not illegal to have an ideology."
After sparking conflict and showdowns in the 1990s – think Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing – white supremacist and nationalist groups began this century largely splintered and powerless. Though high immigration levels helped boost the number of hate groups from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2007, key leaders of such groups had died, been imprisoned, or were otherwise marginalized.
But postelection, at least two white nationalist websites – Stormfront and the Council of Conservative Citizens – report their servers have crashed because of heavy traffic. The League of the South, a secessionist group, says Web hits jumped from 50,000 a month to 300,000 since Nov. 4, and its phones are ringing off the hook.
"The vitriol is flailing out shotgun-style," says Mr. Levin. "They recognize Obama as a tipping point, the perfect storm in the narrative of the hate world – the apocalypse that they've been moaning about has come true."
Supremacist propaganda is already on the upswing. In Oklahoma, fringe groups have distributed anti-Obama propaganda through newspapers and taped it to home mail boxes. Ugly incidents such as cross-burnings, assassination betting pools, and Obama effigies are also being reported from Maine to Alabama.
The Ku Klux Klan has been tied to recent news events, as well. Two Tennessee men implicated for plotting to kill 88 black men, including Obama, were tied to the KKK chapter whose leader was convicted in a civil trial in Brandenburg, Ky., last week, for inciting violence. The murder last week in Louisiana of a KKK initiate, allegedly killed after trying to back out of joining, came at the hands of a new group called Sons of Dixie, authorities say.
"We're not looking at a race war or anything close to it, but ... what we are seeing now is undeniably a fairly major backlash by some subset of the white population," says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report in Montomgery, Ala. "Many whites feel that the country their forefathers built has been ... stolen from them, so there's in some places a real boiling rage, and that can only become worse as more people lose jobs."
In an election in which barely 20 percent of native Southern whites in Deep South states voted for Obama, the newly apparent political clout of "outsiders" and people of color has been unnerving to some.
"In states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, there was extraordinary racial polarization in the vote," says Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. "Black Americans really do believe that Obama is going to represent their interests and views in ways that they haven't been before, and, in the Deep South, whites feel exactly the opposite."
But for nonviolent secessionist groups like the League of the South, the hope is for a more vigorous debate about the direction of the US and the South's role in it, says Michael Tuggle, a League blogger in North Carolina.
Mr. Tuggle says his group isn't looking for an 1860-style secession but, rather, a model that Spain, for one, is moving toward, in which "there's a great deal of autonomy for constituent regions" – a foil to what is seen as unchecked, dangerous federal power in Washington.
"To a lot of people, the idea of secession doesn't seem so crazy anymore," says Tuggle. "People are talking about how left out they feel, ... and they feel that something strange and radical has taken over our country."
Obama Says He Will Do `Whatever It Takes' on Economy
President-elect Barack Obama said the U.S. government will do ``whatever it takes'' to revive the economy, and that means ``we shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after.''
In the short term, ``the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession,'' Obama said in an interview broadcast last evening on CBS News's ``60 Minutes.''
Obama, who yesterday resigned his Illinois Senate seat, effective today, said the government needs to provide assistance to the automobile industry. Such aid -- in the form of a ``bridge loan,'' he suggested -- must be provided on condition that management, labor, suppliers and lenders come up with a plan to make the industry ``sustainable,'' he said.
``For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment -- not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire,'' Obama said. If that were to happen now, he said, ``you could see the spigot completely shut off so that it would not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet.''
The hour-long interview with Obama and his wife, Michelle, was taped on Nov. 14 in Chicago, where he is working to build his government team before his Jan. 20 inauguration. The president- elect discussed the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and energy. He and his wife also talked about the changes in their lives after he defeated Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 presidential election.
National Security
Obama also said he's moving quickly to assemble his national security team. ``I think it's important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack,'' he said.
Obama reiterated his intention to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and ban torture during interrogation of suspected terrorists as part of ``an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.''
He said that after he takes office, he will begin executing a plan to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and send some to Afghanistan, ``which has continued to worsen.''
Obama said it is ``a top priority for us to stamp out al- Qaeda once and for all,'' and that a critical aspect will be capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. The terrorist group's leader is ``not just a symbol'' but remains ``the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets,'' the president-elect said.
Energy Plan
On energy, Obama said that, with oil prices dropping in recent weeks, ``it may be a little harder politically'' to enact measures to lessen U.S. dependence on foreign energy. ``But it's more important,'' he said, noting that the country has gone through earlier cycles of energy shocks only to return to its heavy reliance on foreign oil.
As a result of such behavior, he said, ``we never make any progress. It's part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.''
Obama said his job as president will be to bolster confidence in the economy.
``Part of the way to think about it is things could be worse,'' he said. ``We could have seen a lot more bank failures over the last several months. We could have seen an even more rapid deterioration of the economy -- even a bigger drop in the stock market.''
Obama said he soon will begin to make Cabinet appointments. He already has named about a half-dozen top White House staff. Obama said there would be a Republican in the Cabinet.
`A Great Feeling'
On more personal matters, Obama, 47, said he was enjoying sleeping in his own bed in Chicago, and seeing his two daughters in the mornings, after almost two years of non-stop campaigning. ``It's a great feeling,'' he said.
One adjustment, he said, is the loss of privacy, such as not being able to take a walk in his Chicago neighborhood.
Michelle Obama said she hopes the White House ``will feel open and fun and full of life and energy'' when the family moves in. She said first lady Laura Bush was ``gracious'' and ``excited and enthusiastic'' when giving her a tour last week.
Obama said his family plans to get a dog after settling into the White House. ``I don't think it would be good to get a dog in the midst of transition,'' he said.
In excerpts of the interview released Nov. 15, Obama said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may be disappointed with some aspects of the federal government's $700 billion bailout of the banking industry.
``Hank Paulson has worked tirelessly under some very difficult circumstances,'' Obama said. ``I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge that probably not everything that's been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work.''
Obama also said the government must do more to help distressed homeowners.
``We have not focused on foreclosures and what's happening to homeowners as much as I would like,'' Obama said. He called for setting up ``a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes.''
Does Obama have an Arab-link?
LONDON: Here is more about larger-than-life Barack Obama. The US President-elect apparently has an Arab-connection too.
Around 8,000 Bedouins, Arab nomadic pastorates, living in the Galilee area of Israel have claimed that America's first black President is a lost member of their tribe, a media report said.
"We knew about it years ago but we were afraid to talk about it because we didn't want to influence the elections," Ha'aretz quoted Abdul Rahman Sheikh Abdullah, a local council member from the tribe, told The Times.
"We wrote a letter to him explaining the family connection," Abdullah added. Obama has not yet responded to the letter, the report said.
The claim originated with Abdullah's 95-year-old mother, who believes the US President-elect bears resemblance to the African migrant workers once employed by the Sheikhs in British Mandate Palestine in the 1930, the report said.
Abdullah's mother said that a relative of Obama's Kenyan grandmother had once been employed in such capacity and married a local Bedouin girl who he later returned home with.
Abdullah has said that he has documentary evidence to the family connection, but has promised his mother not to reveal them until he has presented them to Obama.
The claim has brought a slew of visitors to the small Bedouin village, where tribesman have celebrated the "Bedouin Obama's victory.
Abdullah plans to hold a massive party next week, including the slaughter of a dozen goats, 'The Times' reportedly said and has already been marking the occasion of Obama's win by handing out traditional sweets to guests and locals.
"We want to send a delegation to congratulate him and we know we'll get an answer soon," ‘The Times’ quoted him as saying.
The clan based in Israel's northern village of Bir al-Maksour is so certain of the connection that two of its newest members have already been named Obama.
Abdullah said the tribe is pinning its hopes on the president-elect to "end all wars and intervene here to solve our problems in Israel".
"The Bedouin are the people who suffer the most here," he was quoted as saying.
Around 8,000 Bedouins, Arab nomadic pastorates, living in the Galilee area of Israel have claimed that America's first black President is a lost member of their tribe, a media report said.
"We knew about it years ago but we were afraid to talk about it because we didn't want to influence the elections," Ha'aretz quoted Abdul Rahman Sheikh Abdullah, a local council member from the tribe, told The Times.
"We wrote a letter to him explaining the family connection," Abdullah added. Obama has not yet responded to the letter, the report said.
The claim originated with Abdullah's 95-year-old mother, who believes the US President-elect bears resemblance to the African migrant workers once employed by the Sheikhs in British Mandate Palestine in the 1930, the report said.
Abdullah's mother said that a relative of Obama's Kenyan grandmother had once been employed in such capacity and married a local Bedouin girl who he later returned home with.
Abdullah has said that he has documentary evidence to the family connection, but has promised his mother not to reveal them until he has presented them to Obama.
The claim has brought a slew of visitors to the small Bedouin village, where tribesman have celebrated the "Bedouin Obama's victory.
Abdullah plans to hold a massive party next week, including the slaughter of a dozen goats, 'The Times' reportedly said and has already been marking the occasion of Obama's win by handing out traditional sweets to guests and locals.
"We want to send a delegation to congratulate him and we know we'll get an answer soon," ‘The Times’ quoted him as saying.
The clan based in Israel's northern village of Bir al-Maksour is so certain of the connection that two of its newest members have already been named Obama.
Abdullah said the tribe is pinning its hopes on the president-elect to "end all wars and intervene here to solve our problems in Israel".
"The Bedouin are the people who suffer the most here," he was quoted as saying.
Obama gets the Clinton band back together
Obama considers Clinton for secretary of state: reports AFP/File – Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton address supporters during last month's electoral rally in Orlando, …Here's how you can tell the campaign is over and the transition has begun: Barack Obama's aides now wear suits and ties, their desks are in the Federal Building on 6th Street in Washington — and Clintonites are everywhere.
Obama's victory in the general election produced what his primary campaign couldn't: A swift merger of the Clinton Wing of the Democratic Party with the Illinois Senator's self-styled insurgency. The merger began, during the campaign, in the policy apparatus — which is now rapidly becoming the governing apparatus.
The absorption of the Clinton government in waiting represents Obama's choice not to repeat what he and his advisors see as an early mistake made by the last two presidents: Attempting to wield power in Washington through an insular campaign apparatus new to town.
Obama's first major appointments have been Democrats who worked for President Clinton and did not endorse him in the primary: Transition chief John Podesta and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, stayed neutral, and Ron Klain, who will be Joe Biden's chief of staff, backed Biden. Obama, advisers told Politico, may even be weighing offering Hillary Rodham Clinton herself the Cabinet plum of Secretary of State.
"Obama is showing great good sense in making use of their experience," said William Galston, a former Clinton domestic policy adviser who’s now at the Brookings Institution. "You have an entire cadre of people in their 30s and 40s and early 50s who were either in senior jobs or second- and third-tier jobs in the Clinton administration, who really earned their spurs and know their way around — and know something about how the institutions in which they served actually function."
Galston noted that while Clinton shunned the remnants of the Carter Administration in 1992, Obama's Democratic predecessor led a popular eight-year administration, and the party is no longer riven by deep ideological splits.
"The president-elect has the great good fortune of having a Democratic Party with a usable past," said Galston, who downplayed the differences between the Clinton and Obama camps during the primary. "It was never a substantive or an ideological split — it was more like Team A and Team B."
While only one pure Clintonite, former White House chief of staff Podesta, has been added to the Obama inner circle, the shift in Obama's universe is not to be understated. From the top down, his early choices reflect an openness, and even a warmth, to the veterans of 1990s governance. It’s a shift from a campaign that in the primary explicitly attacked President Clinton's tenure as a time of partisan strife and missed opportunities.
The single most important change in that respect is at the top, and the replacement of the slim, tightly-wound campaign chief of staff, David Plouffe, 41, with the slim, tightly wound Podesta, 59.
Plouffe was the guiding hand, operationally and often strategically, of Obama's campaign. He was also, insiders say, a sharply anti-Washington voice, key to the candidate's outsider message.
Plouffe came of political age inside the House Democratic leadership in the 1990s, and he was part of a core Obama group who had never worked for Clinton, and who harbored the sense of frustration and missed opportunity that prevailed on the Hill during Clinton's second term.
Plouffe remains a key adviser and was spotted in the transition office Thursday, but with a new baby, credit for a historic victory, and plans to return to the private sector, he's no longer running the show.
Podesta, who heads the Center for American Progress, was Clinton's chief of staff from 1998 to 2001 and a key figure in his second term. As one Clinton loyalist noted with some satisfaction (if anonymously) on Thursday, Podesta’s role in the transition, and the new prominence of Clinton administration officials, suggests that Obama has absorbed one of Hillary Clinton's talking points: That it takes experience to make change happen.
Thirty-one of the 47 people so far named to transition or staff posts have ties to the Clinton administration, including all but one of the members of his 12-person Transition Advisory Board and both of his White House staff choices.
Most of those appointees weren't West Wing heavy-hitters, but lower-profile policy hands such as former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White and former State Department official Wendy Sherman. They include former deputies to National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Defense Secretary William Perry, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and some currently work at consultancies run by those Clinton administration principals.
Others are old Obama allies who also have Clinton ties, like Michael Froman, a transition adviser who was Obama's classmate at Harvard Law School and served as Robert Rubin's chief of staff at the Clinton Treasury Department, and Christopher Edley, who taught Obama at Harvard and also served Clinton, and who is married to a former Clinton deputy chief of staff.
"This is a good way to try to be helpful without giving up my new life at Berkeley," said Edley, who is now dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley, in an email.
The highest-ranking member of the group with deep ties to both Clinton and Obama is Emanuel, a Chicagoan who is very close to Obama and his chief strategist, David Axelrod.
Though the transition is still young, former Clintonites say they feel a change in the atmosphere.
"It's heartening to see that that was just primary rhetoric," said a former Clinton aide of Obama's criticism of Clinton's administration.
Obama has continued to keep his distance from aspects of Clinton's legacy, however, and even his decision to bring Clintonites into the transition and administration is in part a judgment of his Democratic predecessor’s chaotic, insular transition 16 years ago.
And there remains a distinction between the policy and political sides of Hillary Clinton’s operation. Soon after the primary, top Clinton policy aides, such as economic adviser Gene Sperling, were quietly integrated into Obama's campaign. The only member of Clinton's inner circle to join Obama's campaign staff was her policy director, Neera Tanden.
A campaign's policy shop feeds the bulk of a new administration's appointments: Most of the key positions on White House staff and in executive agencies are policy posts.
But while the Clinton policy shop may feel like the gang is getting back together, the political team has yet to be invited in.
Said one former Clinton campaign aide, "Obama has clearly made a distinction between the small group of Clinton campaign staff, who clearly aren't much welcome, and the large number of Clinton White House personnel who are."
October budget deficit hits record of $237.2B
WASHINGTON – The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system.The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year.
The big surge reflected the government spending $115 billion to buy stock in the nation's largest banks. Those were the first payments made from the $700 billion government rescue program passed by Congress to deal with the most severe financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s.
The October deficit began a period in which economists are forecasting the red ink for the entire year could well hit $1 trillion, reflecting what many expect to be a severe recession, which will depress tax revenue, and the heavy costs of the financial system bailout.
President-elect Barack Obama has said that getting the economy back on track will be his top priority and has promised to work with Congress to pass a second stimulus program.
The $237.2 billion deficit for October included total government spending of $402 billion, a record in terms of outlays.
The spending figure included $115 billion paid to some of the country's largest banks to buy stock, the beginning of a program in which the government will spend $250 billion before the end of the year to take ownership shares in hundreds and potentially thousands of banks. The goal is to bolster banks' balance sheets so that they will resume more normal lending and keep the country from falling into a prolonged recession.
The deficit also was boosted by the government's move to purchase $21.5 billion in mortgage-backed securities, an effort the Bush administration announced when it took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September because of rising losses in that market.
Government receipts in October totaled $164.8 billion, down 7.5 percent from October 2007, reflecting the impact on revenues from the slumping economy.
For the 2008 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, the deficit totaled a record $454.8 billion, reflecting the impact of the weak economy on revenues and a $168 billion stimulus program which sent stimulus payments to millions of Americans during the spring and early summer.
The Bush administration in July estimated that the deficit for the current budget year could hit $482 billion, but that projection was made before the administration got Congress to pass a $700 billion rescue program on Oct. 3.
Officials: Sen. Clinton eyed as secretary of state
CHICAGO – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for secretary of state, according to two Democratic officials in close contact with the Obama transition team.Clinton, the former first lady who pushed Obama hard for the Democratic presidential nomination, was rumored to be a contender for the job last week, but the talk died down as party activists questioned whether she was best-suited to be the nation's top diplomat in an Obama administration.
The talk resumed in Washington and elsewhere Thursday, a day after Obama named several former aides to President Bill Clinton to help run his transition effort.
The two Democratic officials who spoke Thursday did so on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Obama and his staff. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines referred questions to the Obama transition team, which said it had no comment.
Other people frequently mentioned for the State Department job are Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson.
Obama arrives for White House tour, talk with Bush
WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama and President Bush met in the Oval Office Monday, a visit that comes during a historic shifting of power to a new administration.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the South Portico 11 minutes early with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush waiting for them. Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Obama enjoyed a warm greeting, while the president and his successor exchanged smiles and a handshake.
Taking a bit of prerogative, the president-elect put his left hand on Bush's back as the two couples entered the Diplomatic Reception Room.
Bush and Obama strolled along the Colonnade and waved for their cameras while their wives began a meeting of their own. The president and the president-elect then headed into the Oval Office to talk about the future of the country, with topics likely including the financial crisis and the war in Iraq.
It was the president-elect's first visit to the White House since his landslide election victory — and his first visit ever to the Oval Office.
The scene was a sunny fall day with moderate temperatures and colorful — but fading — autumn leaves.
Their arrival had the look of a foreign head-of-state state visit — although there were no fife and drum bands, speeches or official pageantry.
Earlier, Obama arrived in Washington, stepped of his plane and was greeted by transition manager John Podesta, the former chief of staff to President Clinton.
Obama climbed into a black limousine with tinted windows, instead of his normal SUV; the limo looked just like the one that the president rides in, without the seal or flags. The entire motorcade was upgraded from campaign mode to presidential-level, with a second identical decoy limousine, a black haz-mat truck, a communications truck and the counter-assault team hanging out the back of an SUV.
Mrs. Bush was to give Mrs. Obama a tour of the first family's living quarters, including the bedrooms used by children of past presidents. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the two women were expected to talk about living in one of the world's most famous building, from family life to the help provided by executive staff.
The Obamas have two daughters: Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Obama started his day in Chicago, dropping the two girls at school, each with a kiss, and then going to a gym for a workout.
Ahead of the meeting, Obama told reporters last week that he was headed to the White House meeting with "a spirit of bipartisanship."
Obama won the presidency in an electoral landslide on Tuesday. He ran a campaign in which he relentlessly linked Republican opponent John McCain to Bush and presented his ideas as a fresh alternative to what he called Bush's failed policies.
Yet the tone changed almost immediately after Obama's win.
Bush, who had endorsed McCain, lauded Obama's victory as a "triumph of the American story." He warmly invited the Obama family to the White House.
Obama, in turn, thanked Bush for being gracious. The president-elect has made clear to the people of the United States and those watching around the world that there is only one president for now, and that's Bush. Obama is in the transition to power but does not assume the presidency until Jan. 20.
Josh Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, said Bush and Obama will likely each have a list of issues to go down.
"I know the president will want to convey to President-elect Obama his sense of how to deal with some of the most important issues of the day," said Bolten, interviewed on C-SPAN by reporters from The Associated Press and The Washington Post. "But exactly how he does that, I don't know, and I don't think anybody will know."
Unlike the incoming president, Bush knew his way around the Oval Office by the time he was elected in 2000 — his father had been president. Still, like many before them, President Clinton and President-elect Bush had their own private meeting, keeping up a tradition that temporarily puts the presidency above politics.
Obama has been to the White House before, including an emergency leadership session to deal with the financial crisis in September.
But an Obama spokeswoman said the president-elect had never been in the Oval Office.
Obama plans Guantanamo closure, US terror trials
WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.
The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.
The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
The plan drew criticism from some detainee lawyers shortly after it surfaced Monday.
"I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake," said Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees. "We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems."
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been "theoretical" before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.
"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."
The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.
"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."
Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.
"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."
Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.
Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.
But Tribe said the current military commission system represents a "nonstarter" and other advisers agreed. With lax evidence rules and intense secrecy, the commissions have been criticized by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit in protest.
"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.
That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what that something would look like remains unclear.
According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system, appointing a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.
Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team was an improvement over the current system. But he said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.
"If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail," Alshahari said. "But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial."
With more than 90 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, the country is home to the largest group of prisoners. The U.S. and Yemen have negotiated but failed to reach a deal on a prisoner release.
Whatever form Obama's plan finally takes, Tribe said the next president would move quickly.
"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."
Obama planning US trials for Guantanamo detainees
WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.
The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.
The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been "theoretical" before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.
"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."
The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.
"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."
Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.
"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."
Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.
Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.
In theory, Obama could try to transplant the Bush administration's military commission system from Guantanamo Bay to a U.S. prison. But Tribe said, and other advisers agreed, that was "a nonstarter." With lax evidence rules and intense secrecy, the military commissions have been criticized by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit the process in protest.
"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.
That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what that something would look like remains unclear.
According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system, appointing a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.
Whatever form it takes, Tribe said he expects Obama to move quickly.
"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."
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