Wow. We won. There's going to be a President Barack Obama in the White House.
Wow.
So now what? We've shown over the last few years what a powerful community we can be along with the rest of the netroots. We have a real tool to ensure that our leaders' feet are held to the fire and that we, who played such a pivotal role in helping to get our candidate elected, stay well informed.
That's why I'm testing this experimental series. We've followed the campaign with an unwavering fixation. If we can look at the Obama administration with the same fixation that we applied to the Obama campaign, then I think it'll be far easier to have our voices heard.
Anyway, onto the first day.
November 5, 2008: 76 days until inauguration
Though many polls saw it coming, today was the first day that Barack Obama woke up as President-Elect. Obviously there's been a lot of celebrating, but now we're coming to the sobering reality of the situation: now what?
Well, now we know that, as expected Obama was quietly building a transition team in the days leading up to the election.
According to the NYT, the three members of Obama's transition team are John Podesta, Bill Clinton's former Chief of Staff, Valerie Jarret, a longtime Obama advisor, and Pete Rouse, who has served as Obama's Chief of Staff while in the Senate.
Left to right: John Podesta, Valerie Jarret, and Pete Rouse
Obama is applying some of the lessons learned from the some of the early problems shown by the administration of Bill Clinton in the days leading up to his inauguration. One such problem was the amount of time it took Clinton to fill his Cabinet positions, making known some of his staffers just five days before taking over as President.
Obama could make his choice for White House Chief of Staff as early as today, and it looks like the front-runner is Rahm Emanuel, currently a member of the US House of Representatives, serving the fifth district of Obama's home state of Illinois.
Rahm Emanuel
Just in case you were wondering what exactly the White House Chief of Staff does, this describes it pretty well:
[The White House Chief of Staff] is responsible for overseeing the actions of the White House staff, managing the President's schedule, and deciding who is allowed to meet with the President. Because of these duties, the Chief of Staff has at various times been dubbed "The Gatekeeper" and "The co-President".
Essentially, depending on who the President chooses and how much influence they let them have, the Chief of Staff can be a very powerful position.
There has also been some speculation as to how Barack Obama will staff his Cabinet. One of the most important decisions he'll make is for Secretary of the Treasury, certainly crucial in the midst of our economic crisis. Names circulating include Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers and Paul Volcker.
In the midst of two wars, the choice of his economic security team is also crucial, and there are some names floating around for positions there. These include current Defense Secretary Robert Gates in addition to Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel
In other, more somber news, Barack Obama is not expected to make any public appearances today as the jubilation of his victory is tempered by the untimely death of his grandmother. It is expected he will travel to Hawaii for her funeral. But clearly, her legacy lives on in Barack Obama.
In happier news, so as to not end on a downer, I'll leave you with some details from a Colin Powell interview.
Colin Powell, the former secretary of state in the Bush administration who endorsed Mr. Obama, became emotional on Wednesday in an interview with CNN from Hong Kong, confessing that he and his family had wept when the networks declared Mr. Obama the victor.
"I have to share in the pride that Americans have now for the fact America did this," said Mr. Powell, one of the country’s most prominent black leaders.
Mr. Powell added that he believed this was a time for "deep introspection on the part of the Republican Party."
So ends the first of hopefully a lot more Obama Administration Updates. Let me know what you think.