Obama Transition Hits Ground Running

Obama Transition Hits Ground Running

After emerging from his home in Chicago for an early workout, Obama spent most of the day ensconced in a downtown office building where he held discussions with Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.; John D. Podesta, who was President Bill Clinton's chief of staff; Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.); and senior campaign advisers. At his campaign headquarters nearby, aides began stripping posters from the walls and disbanding the sprawling organization that helped propel the senator from Illinois to a decisive victory over Republican John McCain on Tuesday.

Amid new indications of a weakening economy, the president-elect must now decide how to insert himself into the most pressing issues facing the nation over the next 75 days, particularly the global economic summit that President Bush will convene in Washington on Nov. 15 and a new economic stimulus package being pushed by Democrats when a lame-duck session of Congress begins days later.

Leading the Obama-Biden Transition Project are Podesta; Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of Obama's; and Pete Rouse, Obama's former Senate chief of staff. Its work can be monitored online later at www.change.gov. Obama hopes to quickly name a Treasury secretary, a decision that will set the tone for his relationship with the battered financial world, and is expected to name his chief of staff, most likely Emanuel, this week.

In remarks delivered from the Rose Garden, the current occupant of the White House called Obama's election "uplifting."

"It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their beautiful girls step through the doors of the White House," Bush said. "I know millions of Americans will be overcome with pride at this inspiring moment that so many have awaited so long. I know Senator Obama's beloved mother and grandparents would have been thrilled to watch the child they raised ascend the steps of the Capitol and take his oath to uphold the Constitution of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth." First lady Laura Bush also called Michelle Obama to offer her congratulations.

Bush and Obama showed early signs of cooperation, with the president inviting his successor to visit the White House "as soon as possible" and promising to help make the changeover a smooth one.

With the economic summit on the horizon, a Bush administration official said the White House is "consulting closely with the president-elect's team," but could not say whether Obama or one of his representatives would be included in the meeting with 20 foreign leaders next week. "This effort will obviously straddle the two administrations, and it will be up to the president-elect as to how he would like to have input," the official said.

But in bureaucracies across the government, federal agency chiefs ordered their staffs to welcome the next president's aides and to begin preparing for an influx of appointees, a process that will place special emphasis on the departments of Treasury and Defense at a time when the nation is waging two wars and attempting to stave off further economic decline.

After weeks of speculation about who might fill the Treasury post, financial industry and Obama sources said the list includes Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Lawrence H. Summers, who was Treasury secretary at the end of the Clinton administration and has been a close adviser to Obama on the economy.

Geithner has been deeply involved in the government's response to the nation's economic crisis since it began in September. While he has extensive knowledge of the financial system, he is not as well known to Obama as is Summers.

Obama could also draw from his core economic team, which includes former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, who chaired Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the president-elect.