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When President Obama takes to the airwaves Monday evening to rally support for his $800 billion-plus stimulus plan, he'll find himself in the tricky position of simultaneously needing to inspire confidence in the long-term strength of the economy while also dramatizing the current crisis as so dire that immediate action by Congress is necessary.

It's part of a White House publicity blitz to sell his strategy to the public, and it'll be in press conference format so the president can defend criticism of his plan rather than just laying out the details.

Earlier Monday, the president made a targeted pitch at a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., where unemployment reached 15.3% in December. Tuesday, Obama takes the same message on the road to Florida. Meanwhile, Congress is struggling to come up with a bill to send to the president's desk.

Lately, he's done little to balance these competing positions. In Indiana Monday, Obama warned that delay would mean that "millions of jobs will be lost, and national unemployment rates will approach double digits," also adding that no matter what is done "recovery will likely be measured in years, not weeks or months."

It wasn't exactly a fireside chat. Don't expect one tonight, either. Here's what you're likely to see in Monday's press conference:

The selling points

Expect Obama's remarks Monday to be directed at individuals, just as they were during his Indiana speech. He'll point out that the plan will provide extended unemployment benefits, tax credits of up to $1,000 for families, partially refundable student tax credits and that more than 90% of the jobs created will be in the private sector.

President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress on Thursday to pass a major piece of legislation, authorizing unprecedented spending and tax cuts, in the next few weeks.

Obama called for spending on clean energy and energy efficiency programs, infrastructure, updating the nation's electrical grid digitizing health records, and increasing Broadband access. He also called for tax cuts and a big effort to halt foreclosures. His speech mentioned no specific spending level, but plans are hovering around $700 billion to $800 billion.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course. But it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said. "If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years."

Inadvertently, the speech also highlighted something else: the difficulty of authorizing so much spending in a matter of weeks in a wise and prudent way.

The closest the speech came to details was Obama's statement that the stimulus would include a $1,000 tax cut for 95% of families, echoing his campaign pledge.

But for other tax cuts and spending no specifics were provided. The spending package will provide for rebuilding crumbling bridges, roads and schools by eliminating a backlog of infrastructure projects, Obama said. He also pledged there will be no "earmarks and pet projects."

So, who then determines what's an infrastructure project? The infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" was "infrastructure." Plans were drawn up for it. Workers would have been employed to build it. What's the difference between pork, a boondoggle and useful infrastructure?

In Pictures: The Stimulus Cities

As part of his plan to revive a flailing economy, President-elect Barack Obama recently pledged to "Create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s."

His plan would include potentially hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects. And while economists debate whether this is the most effective form of fiscal stimulus, the mayors of the nation's cities line up at the trough. Schools, roads, rails, pipes and airports? Can we have some more, sir?

Even by Washington standards this would be a once-in-a-lifetime spending spree on projects that would be called pork in less-prodigal times. Cities across the country are ready to pig out.

On Dec. 8, just two days after Obama's pledge for massive infrastructure spending, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released an 803-page report--a wishlist of some 11,391 infrastructure projects they would love to press ahead with.

Talk about a dream scenario. Build all those projects, do it with federal money, say you're rescuing the economy with the spending and, since it's not your local taxpayers' money, don't even stress too much about whether or not the project's cost effective.

Give the money to banks or individuals and they might just horde it. Give it to states or the federal government and it will get stuck in the bureaucracy. But give it to the cities and they'll spend, says Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the president of the Conference of Mayors. (Not that the governors are sitting idly by--they have $136 billion in plans they'd like to initiate.)

In the weeks since Barack Obama and his family walked out on that Grant Park stage, our euphoria about the world's euphoria must surely count as the most endearingly silly outcome of this election.

News from overseas fed the excitement. The birthplace of Obama Père, Kenya, declared a national holiday. Western Europeans, the Chinese and Russians (the people if not their rulers), even that fabled Arab Street, all seemed to rejoice. So many of us have heard from family and friends overseas awed--as Bill Clinton once said--by the "mystery of American renewal." A black man, the son of a foreigner, a virtual unknown a mere four years ago, rose to the highest office on the planet. Only in America, they say, What a country! They mean it, and they're right.

Of course, Andrew Sullivan told us it would be so on the cover of last December's Atlantic--and subsequently told us, repeatedly, that he'd told us that "Obama matters" because the world will see us differently. He has plenty of company in the commentariat and among (admittedly) Democratic politicians. All together, they channel Gidget: "You like me, right now, you like me!" I imagine Sally Field (of 1985 Oscar ceremony fame) partakes fully in the Obama-as-America's-salvation-overseas mania, though I haven't bothered to ask.

One hates to spoil a good party, but here's a bet that's far safer these days than a U.S. Treasury bill: Even with Obama at the White House, they won't really like us any more than before.

It's not because America's not a special country, a City upon a Hill, from the Pilgrims to Obama, the Blagojevich couple and other American horrors notwithstanding. It's because it is. And as ever, our earnest assertion of our superior ontological uniqueness--not to mention its reality in and of itself--is exactly what always grated on the unfriendlies grouped together under the banner of anti-Americanism.

The past few years for sure were especially happy ones for the flag burners, intellectual bomb throwers and suicide attackers. George W. Bush gave this crowd a great excuse to hate America--and the Democrats a highly effective partisan political weapon against the ruling party.

Barack Obama and NASA administrator Michael Griffin,

Charles Dharapak / AP; NASA; Matt Stroshane / Getty

Getting into a shouting match with the HR rep is not exactly the best way to land a job. But according to the Orlando Sentinel, that's just what happened last week between NASA administrator Mike Griffin and Lori Garver, a member of Barack Obama's transition team who will help decide if Griffin keeps his post once the President-elect takes office. If the contretemps did occur, it could help doom not only the NASA chief's chances, but the space agency's ambitious plans to get Americans back to the moon.

The mere fact that the story is making the rounds reflects the very real friction between NASA and the transition team — which has sparked a groundswell of support among space agency employees to keep the boss. Within NASA, there is a real concern that while the Obama campaign rode the call for change to a thumping victory in November, change is precisely what the space agency does not need. (See photos of different countries' space programs here.)

The stagnant NASA of the past 20 years has been poised to become a very new NASA — thanks, in many respects, to the outgoing Bush Administration. In 2004, the President announced a new push to return astronauts to the moon and eventually get them to Mars. Many skeptics saw the hand of political whiz Karl Rove in that, suspecting that the whole idea was just a bag of election year goodies for space-happy states like Florida and Texas, as well as for voters nostalgic for the glory days of Apollo. But Bush, NASA and Congress did mean business, and eventually came up with a plan under which the space station would be completed and the shuttle would be retired by 2010. That would free up about $4 billion per year, which would be used to pay for a new generation of expendable boosters as well as a 21st century version of the Apollo orbiter and lunar lander for those rockets to carry. (Read about the space moon race here.)

"At the time, the shuttle had flown 290 people, and out of those 14 were dead — nearly one in 20," says Scott Horowitz, a four-time shuttle veteran who designed the Ares 1, one of the new boosters. "We needed something that was an order of magnitude safer."

NASA has moved with uncharacteristic nimbleness in the last five years and is already cutting metal on the new machines in the hope of having crews in Earth orbit by 2015 and on the moon by 2020. Schedules have slipped some — the original plan was to launch the orbital missions in 2014 — and costs have swollen, though so far not dramatically. (See the Top 50 space moments since Sputnik.)

"We've been moving in the right direction since the Columbia accident [in 2003]," says Chris Shank, NASA's chief of strategic communications. "The concern is that we'll lose that." Lately, that concern appears well-placed.

The Obama team picked Garver to run the NASA transition, in part because of her deep pedigree and long history at the space agency, which saw her climb to the rank of associate administrator. But Garver started as a PAO — NASA-speak for a public affairs officer — and never got involved in the nuts and bolts of building rockets. She is best known by most people as the person who in 2002 competed with boy-band singer Lance Bass for the chance to fly to the International Space Station aboard a Russian rocket. Neither of them ever left the ground.

Garver's lack of engineering cred is especially surprising in light of the eggheads with whom Obama has been surrounding himself — most recently, Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Chu, who has reportedly been tapped to be Secretary of Energy. Garver is also not thought to be much of a fan of Griffin — who is an engineer — nor to be sold on the plans for the new moon program. What she and others are said to be considering is to scrap the plans for the Ares 1 — which is designed exclusively to carry humans — and replace it with Atlas V and Delta IV boosters, which are currently used to launch satellites but could be redesigned, or "requalified," for humans. Griffin hates that idea, and firmly believes the Atlas and Delta are unsafe for people. One well-placed NASA source who asked not to be named reports that as much as Griffin wants to keep his job, he'll walk away from it if he's made to put his astronauts on top of those rockets.

NASA is right to be uneasy about just what Obama has planned for the agency since his position on space travel shifted — a lot — during the campaign. A year before the election he touted an $18 billion education program and explicitly targeted the new moon program as one he'd cut to pay for it. In January of 2008, he lined up much closer to the Bush moon plan — perhaps because Republicans were already on board and earning swing-state support as a result. Three months before the election, Obama fully endorsed the 2020 target for putting people on the moon. But that was a candidate talking and now he's president-elect, and his choice of Garver as his transition adviser may say more than his past campaign rhetoric.

The dust-up between Griffin and Garver is said to have occurred last week at a book launch party in Washington when, according to the Sentinel, a red-faced Griffin told Garver she was "not qualified" to make engineering decisions. Horowitz, who was not at the party but knows the NASA boss well, says he doubts that Griffin raised his voice.

"I think that's bulls---," he says. "I believe that anything he was asked he was very honest in answering because he's a systems engineer. And Lori Garver is not equipped to make technical judgments on the architecture of a space exploration system." The unnamed NASA source concedes that Griffin can be brutally honest and occasionally tactless, but insists that his shouting is simply improbable. The Obama transition office did not return an e-mail seeking comment from Garver.

For now, says the NASA source, both present and former astronauts as well as some NASA contractors are quietly — and sometimes not so quietly — lobbying for Griffin to stay. But the incoming administration is not saying anything so far. It was President John F. Kennedy who famously committed Americans to reaching the moon. Now it is Obama — who so often invokes the themes and style of JFK — who may decide if we go back.

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Barack Obama has announced the single largest new investment in the nation's infrastructure since the creation of the interstate highway system in the 1950s under Eisenhower. Speculation begins to build up about the precise nature of this investment.

I have been in Singapore for the last two weeks and have been observing how this tiny country has created a superbly modern infrastructure that flows seamlessly by leveraging technology and process automation.

From the minute I walked through immigration, I began noticing the country's well-conceived mechanisms for efficiency enhancement. Singapore residents have a special smart card that lets them clear immigration without human intervention. Taxis link up via transponders to a central system through which the country implements congestion control, including peak hour and business district surcharges.

As I have watched the city in motion during my stay, it has made me think about the possibilities for infrastructure modernization in the U.S., now that we're embarking on a new era. The problems--health care, energy, traffic congestion, education, poverty and security--each have major implications when you apply smart-card-based process control in the Singaporean way.

Dominique Trempont, former CEO of smart-card firm Gemplus Corp. (now part of Gemalto), believes that the U.S. should roll out one multi-application smart card to the entire population in order to automate various government and private-sector functions. "The card can be partitioned into application segments, and the companies rolling out applications on it can pay for the privilege," Trempont says.

The first application category for a smart card is a government-owned, centralized patient record database that then becomes the heart of the U.S. health care system. A patient goes to a new doctor, and the doctor's office can access the records with the card, without the hassle of gratuitous paperwork handling by multiple office administrators and frustration on the part of the patient. Insurance claims and processing could also be integrated with this central system, closing the loop with the doctor's office and the insurance company.

A second application category could belong in the realm of security and identity. Passports and driver's licenses could be implemented on the smart card: It can enable a smooth transition through immigration and other functions, such as traffic management. After all, why do we need cops to monitor whether drivers are staying within the speed limit? If there is scientific evidence that the most energy-efficient speed at which cars should be driven is 60 mph, then drivers should pay for driving above that speed limit. Fines can be automatically charged on a smart card. Congestion-control applications can also be implemented on the same infrastructure based on time, geographical zoning, vehicle type (with incentives for fuel-efficient cars and penalties for gas guzzlers), etc.

"Not only is a smart-card-based infrastructure great for efficiency enhancement, it can be a major revenue generator," Trempont says. No kidding! If every car that drives above 60 mph is charged a fine, and there were an efficient way of collecting congestion taxes, that revenue alone could be enough to finance the $136 billion that the nation's governors need for infrastructure projects related to roads, bridges and railway. It will also generate ongoing revenue for years to come that can pay for many more ambitious projects.

Editor's Note: Angela Burt-Murray is the editor-in-chief of Essence magazine. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Read veteran journalist Gwen Ifill's interview with Michelle Obama on Essence.com

Angela Burt-Murray says Michelle Obama shouldn't be pressured to hide her considerable ability.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- She's been clear about her priorities.

The self-professed Mom-in-Chief is focused on getting her family settled into a new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, buying a puppy, and enrolling daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, in their elite new private school.

Admirable concerns and certainly ones that every mother, or father, would consider in the face of any move -- let alone a move to the most famous address in the world. But when you're discussing a woman as accomplished as Michelle Obama, you can't help but wonder: Can't there be more?

Perhaps, but for the nation's first black first lady, it won't be easy.

When black women initially met the statuesque double Ivy League-degreed hospital exec with coiffed hair and smart outfits, it was love at first sight: supportive spouse, loving mother -- the total package.

On the campaign trail, many journalists noted she was a gifted speaker, pulling in large crowds at solo events, capturing the attention of audiences for 40 minutes and more, without notes, even holding her own while sharing the stage with megawatt personalities like Oprah Winfrey and Maria Shriver.

For us she was instantly recognizable. She was a self-made six-figure sister who was like so many women in our communities -- leading church boards, chairing neighborhood programs, running the show at work -- as well as a reflection of the women we saw in our own mirrors. But for some whites, she was different, a bit unsettling. Not what they were used to. And then she made that infamous comment:

"For the first time in my adult life, I'm really proud of my country."

You could practically hear white folks saying, "Aha!" The sound bite heard around the world would be impossible for her to fully recover from, at least during the campaign. She was vilified -- labeled Mrs. Grievance and Angry Black Woman.

Like Michelle, Hillary Clinton was attacked for everything from her cookie-baking and Tammy Wynette comments to the national health care debacle she led during her husband's administration. The attacks on Michelle, though, were rooted in racist stereotypes.

There was the Fox News producer who dubbed her Obama's Baby Mama; the incendiary New Yorker magazine cover that featured an Afro-wearing, fist-bumping, Uzi-toting Michelle; the hunt for a videotaped panel that didn't exist, in which Michelle Obama was allegedly featured with controversial Minister Louis Farrakhan, talking about "Whitey" as if channeling 1970s TV character George Jefferson.

The Huffingtonpost.com ran a piece called "Why Do We White People Dislike Michelle Obama?" It was based on a New York Times/CBS News poll showing that 24 percent of white Americans had an unfavorable opinion of her.

Huffingtonpost.com later pointed out that they omitted the number of people who said they were "Undecided" (17 percent) or "Haven't Heard Enough" (37 percent) about Michelle Obama, but the negative perception had by then been encoded.

More recently, there was the misguided Salon.com essay by African-American journalist Erin Aubrey Kaplan about Mrs. Obama's behind, a piece that harkened scarily back to the story of Saarjite Baartman, the young South African woman who was brought to Europe in 1810 by an English surgeon so fascinated by her large bottom that he changed her name to Venus Hottentot and displayed her naked in cages in museums for more than five years. Seriously, people?

The attacks got so bad at one point that blogger Gina McCauley of Whataboutourdaughters.com said Michelle was becoming a "verbal punching bag." So she launched a Web site called MichelleObamawatch.com to keep track of every article, video clip and interview to mobilize her visitors to voice their concerns.

"Whether you support her husband or not," McCauley wrote on the site last July, "Let's be clear, any and every black woman who walks in her footsteps can expect the same treatment, so we might as well pull a Gandalf, draw a line in the sand and yell, 'Thou shall not pass!' "

White America may be trying to relax -- after all they really like her husband. Yet even after Barack Obama's decisive victory, it still seems that Michelle's team wants to dial down her fabulousness. And black women know why.

Allison Samuel's recent Newsweek cover story "What Michelle Means to Us" clearly articulates the double-edged sword she faces: "While every first lady -- and plenty of professional women -- walk the line between being confident and seeming like a bitch, African-American women are especially wary that being called 'strong' is just another word for 'angry.' "

It's the thing that many black woman face at their jobs -- the appearance of confidence and ability can be threatening to people. And so Michelle's smart outfits were replaced with sensible sweater sets. Her focus became military families and photo-ops of her packing supplies.

There's certainly value in Michelle Obama playing the traditional first lady role as she greets heads of state, travels the world meeting with foreign dignitaries, and continues her important work with military families.

But lest everyone decide that Mom-in-Chief is enough to keep her busy for the next four to eight years, Michelle has said in interviews that she and her family always try to get involved in the communities in which they live.

In Washington, which has some of the nation's worst high school graduation rates, and HIV/AIDS infection rates that rival African countries, there will be no shortage of issues for the new first lady to tackle.

Perhaps her team could take a bit of inspiration from the hit NBC series The West Wing. During the fictitious first term of President Jed Bartlett, played brilliantly by Martin Sheen, his administration is unable to achieve any of its goals because it tries to manage to the middle and not upset anyone. Ultimately, they decide to create the sort of change they campaigned on by letting "Bartlett be Bartlett."

Like most black women, I look forward to watching Michelle be Michelle, no matter what form that takes.

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that "no representatives of mine" engaged in any deal making with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich over who would fill the state's U.S. Senate vacancy.

President-elect Barack Obama says he has never spoken with the Illinois governor about the vacant Senate seat.

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FBI agents arrested Blagojevich on Tuesday on federal corruption charges related in part to the selection of a replacement for Obama's Senate seat, which became vacant after the presidential election.

Federal officials allege Blagojevich was looking to sell or trade the position.

Obama said the Senate seat is not for "any politician to trade," and he said he had never spoken to the governor on the subject.

He said he was confident that "no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat."

The Senate position "belongs to the people of Illinois, and they deserve the best possible representation," he said.

Obama said he's asked his staff to gather the facts of any contacts made with the governor's office.

The president-elect added that the public trust has been violated.

"Part of the reason that I got into politics, ran for the state Senate, ran for the United States Senate and ultimately ran for the presidency is because we have to reclaim a tradition of public service that is about people and their lives and their hopes and their dreams. And it isn't about what's in it for me," he said.

Obama also repeated his call for Blagojevich to step down.

"So let me be absolutely clear: I do not think that the governor at this point can effectively serve the people of Illinois." Watch as Obama says Senate seat belongs to the people »

Earlier Thursday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she is prepared to "take action" against Blagojevich if he does not resign.

"Obviously, the easiest way for us to move on in the state of Illinois is for Gov. Blagojevich to do the right thing for the people and to resign," Madigan told CNN's "American Morning."

"If he fails to, the two other options are obviously the Legislature moving forward on impeachment, or I have the opportunity to actually go to our Illinois Supreme Court and ask them to declare basically that our governor is unable to serve," she said.

In that case, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn would become acting governor, Madigan said.

Meanwhile, Quinn said if the governor did not resign, he would likely be impeached. "Hopefully, upon reflection, the governor will decide that the interest of the common good and the people of Illinois require that he step aside and resign from office," Quinn told NBC.

"If the governor doesn't act, he will be impeached," he said, adding that he believed the impeachment process would be unhealthy for Illinoisans.

The lieutenant governor said if he becomes acting governor, he may appoint someone to the vacant U.S. Senate seat, rather than hold a special election.

"In general, I'm for the voters deciding who the next senator would be, or any other public official," he said. However, "we may have extraordinary circumstances," he added.

"Illinois does not want to go to Washington in this time of economic crisis without having two senators, so if I am governor, I'm going to evaluate everything at that moment and decide what's best for the people."

Obama's former partner in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, also has called on Blagojevich to step down immediately.

"Beyond guilt or innocence, the charges against you raise serious questions about your ability to carry out your duties as chief executive of our state," Durbin wrote in a letter sent to Blagojevich. Explainer: Federal complaint against Blagojevich »

Durbin also asked Blagojevich not to name a successor to Obama.

"Because of the nature of the charges against you, no matter whom you were to select, that individual would be under a cloud of suspicion. That would not serve our state, our nation, or the United States Senate," Durbin wrote.

Even if Blagojevich named a replacement for Obama, it is unclear whether the Senate would seat the governor's choice. The Constitution gives the Senate the sole authority to decide who is qualified to serve as a senator. Watch whom Blagojevich has considered »

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president-elect supported legislation that Illinois lawmakers will consider next week to authorize a special election to choose his successor. Explainer: Illinois governor is in hot water »

The Illinois Legislature will begin a special session Monday to consider legislation that would authorize a special election to choose Obama's successor.

Cindy Davidsmeyer, a spokeswoman for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, said a House committee was scheduled to consider the bill Monday afternoon and then the full House would vote afterward. iReport.com: Do you trust your leaders?

The Senate could consider the legislation as soon as the next day, Davidsmeyer said. Watch what was in the complaint against Blagojevich »

After the arrest Tuesday, Obama said he had not contacted Blagojevich about his possible successor, adding, "I was not aware of what was happening."

But Obama adviser David Axelrod told a Chicago television station in November that Obama had spoken to the governor about his successor.

Axelrod corrected himself Tuesday, saying, that the president-elect and Blagojevich "did not then or at any time discuss the subject."

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, left, and Barack Obama attend a 2007 rally for Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid.

"The president-elect agrees with [Illinois] Lt. Gov. [Pat] Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

FBI agents on Tuesday arrested Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, on federal corruption charges related in part to the selection of Obama's successor to the Senate.

Obama's former partner in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, has also called on Blagojevich to step down immediately.

"Beyond guilt or innocence, the charges against you raise serious questions about your ability to carry out your duties as chief executive of our state," Durbin wrote in a letter sent to Blagojevich. Explainer: Federal complaint against Blagojevich »

Durbin also asked Blagojevich not to name a successor to Obama.

"Because of the nature of the charges against you, no matter whom you were to select, that individual would be under a cloud of suspicion. That would not serve our state, our nation, or the United States Senate,"

Even if Blagojevich named a replacement for Obama, it is unclear whether the Senate would seat the governor's choice. The Constitution gives the Senate the sole authority to decide who is qualified to serve as a senator. Watch whom Blagojevich has considered »

Gibbs said Obama also supported legislation that Illinois lawmakers will consider next week to authorize a special election to choose his successor. Explainer: Illinois governors in hot water »

Obama believes the lawmakers should "put in place a process to select a new senator that will have the trust and confidence of the people of Illinois," Gibbs said.

The Illinois Legislature will begin a special session Monday to consider legislation that would authorize a special election to choose Obama's successor.

Cindy Davidsmeyer, a spokeswoman for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, said a House committee was scheduled to consider the bill Monday afternoon and then the full House would vote afterward. iReport.com: Do you trust your leaders?

The Senate could consider the legislation as soon as the next day, Davidsmeyer said. Watch what was in the complaint against Blagojevich »

Obama on Tuesday declined to comment on the arrest, saying, "Like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. attorney's office."

Obama also said he had not contacted Blagojevich about his possible successor, adding, "I was not aware of what was happening." Watch Obama's ties to the Illinois governor »