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(CNN) -- When it comes to vetting potential high-level advisers, is President-elect Barack Obama too cautious for his own good?

As a presidential candidate, the former Illinois senator quickly adopted the nickname "No Drama Obama" for the meticulous level of prudence he applied to nearly every campaign speech, strategy decision and personnel appointment. The result was a nearly two-year-long presidential bid most notable for its seeming lack of a damaging gaffe or embarrassing misstep.

But some political observers say the president-elect's similar caution with respect to recruiting new administration officials and key high-level advisers may be turning away a string of qualified candidates wary of subjecting themselves and their families to the most rigid presidential vetting process on record.

After all, in addition to the already invasive FBI background check, the Obama team is requiring prospective candidates to complete a seven-page questionnaire that requires the disclosure of nearly every last private detail. In addition to the obvious questions involving past criminal history, candidates are asked about personal diaries, past blog posts, and the financial entanglements of extended family members.

"This questionnaire they've been giving to people who are thinking about signing up for a government job is extremely invasive," said David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst and adviser to four past presidents

"I've never seen anything like this at the presidential level before -- the FBI asks these kind of questions, but to have the presidential transition team asking these questions requires ... great volumes of records that have to be checked out."

The most recent victim of the process appears to be Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, the longtime Obama supporter and major Democratic fundraiser who was said to be the president-elect's top choice for commerce secretary.

Pritzker publicly took herself out of the running on Thursday, issuing a statement saying she had submitted no information to begin the vetting process and citing "obligations here in Chicago that make it difficult for me to serve at this time."

It could also be the case the multibillionaire Pritzker didn't want her corporation's financial ties fully made public or her family, among Chicago's most prominent, painstakingly investigated.

Sources close to the Obama transition say Pritzker's decision is not surprising given the nature of the vetting process, one they themselves have described as stressful.

But political analysts say the Obama team's unprecedented degree of scrutiny could result in several qualified individuals deciding to forgo consideration for a top post. This could especially be true among individuals considered for economic roles in the administration from the private sector who might be more financially entangled than those who have been longtime public servants.

"There is no question about the fact that the burdensome nature and the probing nature and the disclosure required for people coming into the administration is a deal killer for them," said Kenneth Gross, a political law and ethics lawyer in Washington.

"It could in several instances cause people who are qualified who will do a great job in the administration say, 'Look, I'm just not doing it.' "

The meticulous process has also reportedly caused a degree of consternation between the Obama aides and those to Sen. Hillary Clinton, believed to be the president-elect's top choice for secretary of state.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the relationship between the two camps has grown "increasingly sour" as the process dragged on and information steadily leaked to the media about the degree of which former President Bill Clinton's finances were being investigated. Still, aides close to the Obama transition team say the president-elect is on track to nominate his former rival to the secretary of state post next week.

But even if Obama's vetting process appears overly scrupulous, aides to the future commander-in-chief are likely more wary of an early disastrous appointment that would cause a wave of negative media coverage and raise early questions about Obama's leadership skills.

Such was the case in 1992, when the fresh-faced Bill Clinton nominated two separate attorney generals -- Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood -- both of whom had to withdraw themselves from the nomination process over revelations they had previously employed illegal immigrants. The embarrassing debacle came at the worst time for the new president, already facing criticisms over his shaky and seemingly disorganized transition.

"You'd rather have a smooth transition than a bumpy one," said Paul Begala, a former top aide to President Clinton and an analyst for CNN. "But a bumpy start does not necessarily presage a bad presidency."

President Bush and his aides also were embarrassed after nominating former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to be the homeland security secretary. Heavily recommended by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Bush administration appeared to do little significant vetting of New York's top cop, and Kerik withdrew his name shortly after he was nominated.

Kerik said he was resigning because he had inadvertently employed an illegal immigrant, though questions about his stock holdings and an affair with book publisher Judith Regan soon arose -- further reflecting poorly on the Bush administration's judgment in selecting candidates to top leadership posts.

As presidential advisers look to past transition mistakes, it may only be natural that the staff vetting process gets more intense with each new administration. This is especially the case with Obama's transition team, largely constituted of former staff members to President Clinton who witnessed his bumpy first several months in the Oval Office.

"The Clinton transition was the worst in presidential history, so it's not surprising Obama's strict vetting process was designed by Clinton people," said Stephen Hess, a veteran staffer of the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and the author of the new book "What Do We Do Now?: A Workbook for the President-elect."

President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday offered an outline of his economic recovery plan and jobs were the top priority.

American workers will rebuild the nation's roads and bridges, modernize its schools and create more sources of alternative energy, creating 2.5 million jobs by 2011, Obama said in the weekly Democratic address, posted on his Web site.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis," he said. "These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long."

Details of the plan are still being worked out by his economic team, Obama said, but he hopes to implement the plan shortly after taking office January 20. Watch how Obama's Cabinet is taking shape »

He referred to figures out this week showing that new home purchases in October were the lowest in 50 years, and that 540,000 new unemployment claims had been filed -- the highest in 18 years.

"We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again," he said. More than a million jobs have been lost this year, he said, and "if we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year."

The plan will be aimed at jump-starting job creation, Obama said, and laying the foundation for a stronger economy.

"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, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years head," he said.

He noted he will need support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass such a plan, and said he welcomes suggestions from both sides of the aisle.

"But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action," he said. "Right now, there are millions of mothers and fathers who are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills.

"There are Americans showing up to work in the morning, only to have cleared out their desks by the afternoon. Retirees are watching their life savings disappear, and students are seeing their college dreams deferred. These Americans need help, and they need it now."

Throughout history, he said, Americans have been able to rise above their divisions to work together, he 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," Obama said. "It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will."

Editor's Note: Anthony J. Badger is Paul Mellon Professor of American History at Cambridge University and Master of Clare College. He is the author of "FDR: The First Hundred Days," "North Carolina and the New Deal" and "The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933 --1940."

CAMBRIDGE, England (CNN) -- Students here in Cambridge watched in horror in September 2005 as they saw lines of desperate people snaked round the convention center and the Superdome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

In the past couple of months, they watched with admiration the lines outside polling stations both on Election Day and in the early voting states. They found it difficult to imagine that voters in Britain would be prepared to queue for hours to vote.

No American election in recent history has aroused such interest in Britain among old and young alike. Partly, this is the result of the compelling drama of the long drawn-out primary battles, partly the result of the feeling that, whichever candidate was elected, there would be an end to the "arrogant unilateralism" (Robert McNamara's phrase in Cambridge in 2002) of U.S. foreign policy.

Partly, of course, it was the powerful narrative of an African-American running for the White House. Each August I teach 35 American high school teachers about the civil rights movement for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in the far-removed historic buildings of Clare College. This year they reported their students were unprecedentedly enthusiastic about both Barack Obama and the political process.

I expressed deep skepticism that an African-American candidate could win a southern state. They had more faith in southern voters and they were right and I was wrong. As I have told British audiences, it was a stunning achievement for an African-American candidate to carry Virginia for the Democrats when three white southerners -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore -- failed to do so.

Now that President-elect Obama is preparing to take office, I was interested to hear he is reading about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first 100 days in office.

The situations in 1933 and 2009 do have similarities. In both cases, there is a discredited outgoing administration, a financial crisis, a lame-duck Congress which finds it difficult to act, a new President who is a talented communicator and has a popular election victory and large congressional majorities.

But 1933 was also very different from the situation that will face Obama in January. The Depression had been going on for four years. Between a quarter and a third of the industrial workforce was out of work. Farmers, who were a third of the workforce then, were desperate.

There were none of the stabilizers that exist now to protect ordinary Americans: no bank deposit insurance, no social security and the welfare and relief resources of private charities and local and state governments were exhausted.

The day FDR took office, the banks in New York and Chicago closed. The whole U.S. banking system ground to a halt.

The result was that Congress was desperate for bold leadership. Constituents let their representatives know that they expected them to support the president as if the country was at war.

When FDR proclaimed a national bank holiday and worked to reopen the banks, Republicans and Democrats supported him. The House passed the banking bill -- and they only had one copy of it -- in 43 minutes.

When Roosevelt addressed the nation on Sunday, March 12, it was a tremendous gamble. He told Americans it was safer to put their money back in the banks reopening the next day than to hide it under the mattress.

They believed him and the next day the money flowed back into the banks that had been allowed to open. There was no Plan B: If people had continued taking money out, absolute disaster would have followed.

Despite four months to prepare -- FDR was the last president to be inaugurated in March -- Roosevelt had no great template to put into effect when he took office. He seized opportunities. He used the banking proposals of holdover Republican officials at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

He proposed the National Recovery Act only after Congress threatened to pass share-the-work legislation that would have mandated a maximum 30- hour work week.

He only brought Harry Hopkins to Washington to set up a national relief program after existing appropriations relief allocation to the states ran out. He did not favor bank deposit insurance but accepted it. He accepted large public works spending reluctantly.

FDR had a penchant for quick-fix solutions for the economy like currency tinkering. But he also launched the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Tennessee Valley Authority, crop control programs for farmers, and regulation of the stock market and the banks, and he underwrote the refinancing of mortgage debt on a long-term basis.

Are there lessons for President-elect Obama? Perhaps there are several.

First, in the New Deal's industrial recovery programs, a provision for loans to businesses disappeared. As a result there was no mechanism for creating extra jobs in the private sector.

Perhaps Obama should preserve jobs in the economy by bailing out the auto industry.

Second, infrastructure investment works, as the New Deal's public works programs showed in highways, education, cheap electrical power and flood control.

Third, the first 100 days can be a window of opportunity to pass reforms that will not be possible later on, but complex structural changes -- like FDR's introduction of social security -- may have to wait. For Obama, health care reform may be one of those issues that has to wait.

And finally, responding to an economic crisis requires the ability to improvise, to work across the aisle and to take measures that might at first be at odds with your original plans.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President-elect Barack Obama is expected to nominate New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary.

Two sources close to the transition told CNN on Friday that Geithner is "on track" to be offered the post. An announcement is expected within days.

Geithner has played a central role in the government's efforts to wrangle the credit crisis, which has damaged markets and economies worldwide. While a number of those efforts have been controversial, Geithner remains a well-regarded figure from Wall Street to Washington.

In the wake of the Geithner news, stocks soared in late-day trade on Friday. The Dow closed nearly 500 points higher, pushing back above 8,000, after a dismal week.

Many believe the post of Treasury Secretary will be the most important in the next administration's cabinet. And indeed, Geithner would inherit one of the toughest jobs in Washington.

Geithner would be charged with restoring stability to the financial markets, the banking system and the housing sector through oversight of the controversial $700 billion financial rescue package, of which about half is still available for use at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary.

He would also be chief overseer of the international push to reform the regulatory regime for the financial system, which, like a sputtering lemon on the autobahn, has been severely outrun by 21st century developments in financial practices and products.

His overarching task: Ensure that what happened to world markets and economies in the fall of 2008 never happens again.

In the span of just two months, Americans and investors around the world have lost trillions in wealth, economies have fallen into recession like dominoes and the current prospects for recovery are insufficient to offer comfort. All the while, the foreclosure beat goes on, with roughly 165,000 more Americans losing their homes in September and October, bringing the total to 936,000 since August 2007.

Expect Geithner, if nominated, to roll up his sleeves and get busy even before his confirmation hearings with Congress, which could come before Inauguration Day.

Henry Paulson, the current Treasury Secretary, has indicated that he's reserved office space for his successor so that the Bush and Obama Treasury teams can work closely to insure a smooth transition during what has become the most tumultuous period for the U.S. financial system and economy in recent history.

Often described as brilliant but modest, Geithner, 47, has held for the past five years one of the most powerful, if little known, jobs in the country as president of the New York Federal Reserve. His post at the New York Fed is essentially one of Wall Street watchdog. He also sits on the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the country's monetary policy.

Geithner was the U.S. Federal Reserve's point person on the rescue of Bear Stearns and American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) as well as in the failed talks to keep Lehman Brothers out of bankruptcy.

Lehman's demise is blamed by many for the freeze up in global credit markets that followed immediately afterwards.

He is typically cited as one of the few people on or off Wall Street who can begin to untangle the murky and unregulated market of credit default swaps, the so-called "side bets" that felled AIG. He has pushed for greater transparency and the creation of a central clearinghouse where credit default swaps could be recorded and secured. And, according to Fortune, he has gotten informal promises from banks that they would participate.

Prior to joining the Fed, he served as director of policy development and review at the International Monetary Fund. Before that, he was the under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs under Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.

His is an international background, which would come in handy at a time when G-20 governments have pledged to coordinate efforts to dig out their economies and markets. Geithner has lived in China, Japan, Thailand, India and East Africa. He got his bachelor's from Dartmouth in government and Asian studies and his master's in international economics and East Asian studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Indeed, during his years at the Treasury, he played a central role in the agency's handling of international crises. A profile of him in The New Republic asserted that without his influence "the '90s might have looked very different ... [His role made him] Treasury's first-responder to foreign-currency emergencies, like the kind that plagued East Asia throughout the decade."

(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain met Monday for the first time since the presidential election to talk about how they can work together on problems facing the country.

McCain arrived at Obama's transition headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, at around 11 a.m.

Obama aides said the president-elect was expected to focus on common ground issues, like climate change and ethics reform, in Monday's meeting.

The two were not expected to talk about any possible Cabinet position for McCain, according to both McCain and Obama advisers.

"We're going to have a good conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country, and also to offer thanks to Sen. McCain for the outstanding service he's already rendered," Obama told reporters shortly before the meeting got under way.

Asked whether he would help Obama with his administration, McCain responded, "Obviously." Watch what to expect at the meeting »

The meeting comes as Obama is trying to fill out his Cabinet with the most capable people and show he can reach across party lines.

In Obama's first television interview since the election, he told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the global economic crisis provides an opening for the two parties to come together.

"You actually have a consensus among conservative, Republican-leaning economists and liberal, left-leaning economists. And the consensus is this: that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we're going to have to spend money now to stimulate the economy," Obama said on the program, which aired Sunday.

The last time Obama and McCain appeared together was in a debate during the bruising campaign season.

hey were joined Monday by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, said he expects the former rivals to "bury the hatchet" when they meet.

"I think John McCain can serve a very important role as a liaison in the Congress to Republicans, and I think he'll be willing to do that," Rollins said.

Obama last week met with two former rivals for the Democratic nomination -- Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson -- about the secretary of state position in his administration, sources told CNN.

Rollins said Obama's meeting with Clinton "makes the Democratic Party very powerful."

"I think it shows Barack Obama's a bigger man than most people in the sense that he's willing to take the person who gave him a real race for his money into his Cabinet," he said.

Obama's transition team has made public some key staff appointments, but no Cabinet positions have been announced.

Republicans have praised the prospect of Clinton becoming secretary of state.

Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said Clinton would be an "outstanding" selection, Bloomberg News reported.

GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona told Fox News, "She's got the experience; she's got the temperament for it."

And California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told ABC it would be a "great move."

A new poll suggests that most Americans are confident that the president-elect will make the right decisions when it comes to picking his top officials.

Forty-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday morning are very confident that Obama will make the right choices, with 34 percent somewhat confident and only 23 percent not confident.

"Obama is having the kind of honeymoon that no president-elect has had in at least 30 years," said CNN polling director Keating Holland. "It's no surprise that Americans have a positive view of anything Obama might do -- at least until he does something controversial."

Asked which appointment will matter the most to the country's future, 41 percent said the secretary of the treasury; 25 percent said secretary of state; 24 percent, secretary of defense; and 8 percent named the attorney general.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted November 6 to 9, with 1,246 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The transition team over the weekend announced several White House appointments.

Peter Rouse, Obama's chief of staff in his Senate office, will serve as a senior adviser to the president. Watch more on the Obama transition picks »

Mona Sutphen will serve as a deputy chief of staff. Sutphen is a member of the transition team staff and has been managing director of Stonebridge International LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Washington.

Jim Messina was also named a deputy chief of staff. Messina is currently the director of personnel for the president-elect's transition team. He served as a national chief of staff for Obama's presidential campaign.

Also, a longtime friend of the Obamas, Valerie Jarrett, was officially named Saturday as a senior adviser to the incoming president.

Obama, in a statement released Saturday morning by his transition staff, announced that Jarrett will serve as senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison.

Jarrett is currently co-chair of Obama's transition team and was senior adviser for his presidential campaign.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Sunday he would "welcome" and "support" a meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il if Obama were to take such a step after taking office.

In an interview with CNN's Alina Cho at the Group of 20 financial summit in Washington, Lee said that when he spoke with Obama after the U.S. presidential election, Obama promised to consult with South Korea before taking any major action on North Korea.

In response to a question at a presidential debate, Obama said he would meet without preconditions during the first year of his administration with leaders of several nations whose governments have been at odds with the United States, including North Korea.

Laying out his foreign policy on his campaign Web site prior to the election, Obama said he and his running mate would "use tough diplomacy -- backed by real incentives and real pressures -- to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapon program."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will not take any options off the table, but they will emphasize first and foremost the power of American diplomacy and make clear the substantial benefits to Iran and North Korea of abandoning their dangerous nuclear programs while simultaneously conveying the enormous costs to them should they fail to do so," according to the Web site.

Lee told CNN he has high expectations for Obama, calling him "the right leader at the right time." He said any damage done in recent years to U.S. global leadership may be because the country relied too heavily on "hard power," and that he believes Obama will be effective in utilizing "soft power."

A former CEO of Hyundai, Lee criticized the idea of a bailout of the U.S. auto industry, saying it would set a bad precedent

Among the small number of White House staff announcements made so far by President-elect Barack Obama, most of the top spots have gone to recent Capitol Hill veterans.

The latest wave, announced early Sunday morning, includes Senior Adviser Pete Rouse, who served as Senate chief of staff to Obama and former Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, who was the chief of staff to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.

They join incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago congressman who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House leadership, and White House lobbyist Phil Schiliro, who worked as Daschle's policy director and was House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman's top aide before joining the Obama campaign as a liaison to Capitol Hill.

While Capitol Hill experience is not the primary reason for the appointments, the hires reflect Obama's sensitivity to the importance of Congress in governance, according to a senior transition official who spoke on the condition of anonymity