Obama plans his Cabinet to make lightning transition in 'most important transfer of power since American Civil War'
By
David Gardner
Last updated at 10:44 AM on 05th November 2008
Barack Obama will line up his White House Cabinet later today to make a lightning transition from the deeply unpopular lame duck Bush administration.
Former Republican secretary of state Colin Powell could be one of the surprise names for a top job, aides have revealed.
With the US economy teetering and America fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, historians claim the presidential transition is the most important since the eve of the Civil War in 1861.
Former secretary of state Colin Powell may have a place in Obama's Cabinet
Determined to avoid a power vacuum before his inauguration on January 20, Mr Obama has already picked out a Democrat government waiting in the wings to smoothly take control now he has beaten John McCain.
John Podesta, a chief of staff under President Clinton, is said to have been working for a year with 50 experienced Washington advisers to vet potential secretaries of state and draw up a 50-chapter blueprint for a new Obama administration.
Experts warned there is no time to waste now the fate of the presidency has been decided.
‘I don’t mean to be hysterical, but this is the toughest transition faced by any president since Abraham Lincoln,’ said Paul Light, a professor at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.
‘There is very little wiggle room. There’s the financial crisis, we are in a couple of wars and there is international tension,’ he told the Los Angeles Times.
Mr Obama, 47, has already said that Colin Powell, who stunned his longtime friend Mr McCain by crossing party lines to endorse the Illinois senator, ‘will have a role as one of my advisers'.
Leaving the door open for a more formal role in his government for the retired general, Mr Obama added that would be ‘something we’d have to discuss.’
Many of those involved in Mr Obama’s transition team worked previously for President Clinton and were involved in Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful primary campaign.
They include former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and ex-White House economic adviser Gene Sperling, who are helping shape an Obama administration strategy to deal with the nation’s turbulent finances.
Among the leading contenders to head the US Treasury are Laurence Summers, who was President Clinton’s last Treasury Secretary, Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman and Tim Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Democrat insiders say Mr Obama is considering asking President Bush’s current Defence Secretary Robert Gates to stay on in the post.
The short list for Secretary of State includes unsuccessful 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
There’s unlikely to be a role for Hillary Clinton unless she’s interested in spearheading a healthcare initiative, but another woman, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, is being tipped as a potential Energy or Education Secretary.
Congressman Rahm Emanuel, an outspoken former Clinton aide, is likely to be Mr Obama’s White House chief-of-staff.
Many of Mr Obama's transition team were involved in Hillary Clinton's campaign
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The US President is the conductor of the orchestra. He needs to get the best players he can into his Cabinet. He has the advantage of not having to use only elected politicians as in Britain. He can call on any US citizen he thinks can do the job. Good luck to the man.
- Peter, SW France, 05/11/2008 09:15
How do people 'know' there's no room for Hilary? What's another 'pig in lipstick' - as Obama calls it.
- mims, Arizona USA, 05/11/2008 08:55
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congratulations to Barack Obama ,i am sure he will have the best team to progress with his dreams for better America and the world ,if anyone can change the world for better he is the one and only in the eyes of majority of the people in the land
good luck
- roger, NOTTINGHAM, 05/11/2008 09:56