President-elect Barack Obama won what can only be described as a resounding victory yesterday: More than 62 million popular votes and at least 338 electoral votes. His victory caps off a grueling two-year campaign that overcame the well-funded Clinton machine, a popular Republican opponent and a series of domestic and foreign crises.
That was the easy part.
Obama now faces the most difficult presidential transition in a century: The economy is stagnating. The country is still fighting two wars. The national debt has ballooned past $10 trillion. The American people do not trust their government to serve the public good.
So sources say the president-elect isn’t wasting any time.
I’m told that Obama will likely name a chief-of-staff and a transition director this week — possibly as early as today. I’ve heard a few rumors about his chief-of-staff pick; the most likely choice seems like Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat who campaigned hard for Obama.
We’ll have ongoing coverage of Obama’s transition planning on the blog, on the Web site and in the newspaper.
