Obama's White House Brain Trust Starts To Form

Barack Obama has started to assemble his brain trust, the inner circle of advisers who will guide him as he leads the country and navigates the shoals of Congress.

In addition to chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who accepted the post today, Obama has reportedly selected his campaign's chief strategist, David Axelrod, to be his senior adviser in the White House, according to ABC News.

Axelrod and Emanuel would make a formidable duo, both known for their expertise in brass-knuckle politics and experienced at tough Chicago-style politicking.

In addition, Robert Gibbs, a campaign spokesman known for his steady presence on Air Obama, the campaign plane, will be named the White House press secretary, Democratic officials told Politico.

Gibbs is a more genial presence, although he made headlines at the tail end of the campaign by aggressively confronting Fox News host Sean Hannity over the host's inclusion of an anti-Semite in his documentary on Obama.

The next step for President-elect Obama will be his Cabinet picks, especially the crucial post of Secretary of the Treasury.

Read more about Obama's potential Cabinet picks here.

And check out HuffPost's BigNews Page on Obama's potential Cabinet.

Comments

[blackbandit]

Lets not forget the Clintons and there loyalty,Hillary and bill showed what party loyalty and unity are all about.Hillary showed what leadership after defeat is all about.We the American people the American Middle class want also to see Hillary Soar with the eagles.

[rollingdivision]

Everyone on the Obama transition team is a lawyer, not one scientist, physician, engineer, businessman or anything other than lawyers. So the transition team's prospective and knowledge is limited to that of just one profession. There is nothing wrong with lawyers, but their areas of expertise excludes much more than it encompasses. This extremely narrow perspective not good for Obama or the country. Obama needs to immediately expand his transition team to include people with expertise outside of the law. Imagine if the situation were reversed and the team were composed of all scientists or businessmen.

[statsguy]

They are also mostly men. You have Janet Napolitano, who I hope will be in a Cabinet position. But take a look at the picture of Obama's 'brain trust.' His Achilles heel throughout the election, and only occasionally reported by the media, was the lack of women in his inner circle beyond Michelle's friend Valerie Jarrett. Where are the politicos, lawyers, and elected officials who he will truly rely on that our women? He will have window dressing, but we are back to a man's world. It is sad that GW Bush relied on more women than Obama does (C. Rice, K. Hughes, etc.).

[amistad]

Can you just give the brother a freakin break? Obama is not pulling together a team with only diversity in mind; he is pulling together the most competent, the most qualified.
Bush relied more on women and gave them positions because they were women or based on the color of their skin and Rice and Hughes were BOTH INCOMPETENT.
NOW Obama has to deal with THIS criticism when the economy is in the tank and America's reputation is tarnished. Why does this charge fall to only him?
How about this: the charge for diversity in the lies with YOU. Why don't you go to your work place and complain to your boss about the lack of diversity or if you are a supervisor or a boss, hire more women and people of color. Charity begins at home...

[gladys46]

"extremely narrow perspective" seems more your problem ... on day 2-3 you make your assessments ... yep, extremely narrow !!!

[rollingdivision]

Obama has had months to assemble his transition team, not just 2 or 3 days. It is a very non-diverse team. It would be good for Obama and the country if he would immediately put more non-lawyers on his team to broaden the perspective of the team which will then produce better information for Obama.

[realpolitic]

Hello Rolling fascist!

It is so funny how conservatives suddenly respect scientists, have concern for deficits, and want accountability in government. Everything you guys ignored during the Bush administraion. Don't worry the Obama administration will lead the way on climate change. Obama respects knowledge and learning. Unlike Bush, he will listen to scientists and not try to change the results of their studies as Bush did. I am sure he will have the best engineers working on infrastructure projects and not have cronies like "heck-of-a-job" Brownie.

The transition team prepares for the transition. Obama's team has a diverse and rich backfround. Many terrific scientists already work for the government , only they were silenced during the Bush years. I am sure they are waiting for a much improved internal environment without undue political influence.

[Nan2008]

Where's the WOMEN?

[MNmommy]

We've had three appointments - calmthefuckdown.

[PAposter]

LMAO!

[abby4ever]

"I'm feeling almost as bad as I felt when Bush was elected and he wheeled Donald Rumsfeld into the position of Secty of Defense.

I'm not seeing the change! I'm seeing Clinton III and more of the same."

Posted 08:10 AM on 11/07/2008
_______________________________________

I left out the screenname, not wanting to embarrass this poster, for it seems like genuine panic, not a wind-up. Is this what we are going to be seeing now? Help!

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

You are a poet, Mommy. :)

[MCMetalReturns]

Avoiding you ; and with good reason (obviously).......

[gladys46]

Nan ... is that hot flashes ... hahaha, they're coming !??

[statsguy]

This is an excellent point, and I wonder why there hasn't been more reporting on it. I am sure women will dominate the 'pink collar' cabinet appointments in which the president doesn't really interact (for example HHS). But Obama is an inclusive president, except he rarely mentions women when discussing his vision of a more diverse America. Go back to his 2004 speech at the convention. Every group was mentioned other than women.

To his credit, near the end of the general, he started mentioning women more and won them handily. But turnout among white women was pretty low this year, no doubt due to some ambivalence among some about Obama vs. Palin (agree with Obama on issues, but he passed over a number of qualified VPs for a man vs. Palin on the ticket which is symbolically exciting but you can't agree with her on anything).

Let's hope Obama does have a fully inclusive INNER CIRCLE, not just tokenism for Cabinet positions he will rarely work with.

[amistad]

Can you just give the brother a freakin break? Obama is not pulling together a team with only diversity in mind; he is pulling together the most competent, the most qualified.
Bush relied more on women and gave them positions because they were women or based on the color of their skin and Rice and Hughes were BOTH INCOMPETENT.
NOW Obama has to deal with THIS criticism when the economy is in the tank and America's reputation is tarnished. Why does this charge fall to only him?
How about this: the charge for diversity in the lies with YOU. Why don't you go to your work place and complain to your boss about the lack of diversity or if you are a supervisor or a boss, hire more women and people of color. Charity begins at home...

[amistad]

Can you just give the brother a freakin break? Obama is not pulling together a team with only diversity in mind; he is pulling together the most competent, the most qualified.
Bush relied more on women and gave them positions because they were women or based on the color of their skin and Rice and Hughes were BOTH INCOMPETENT.
NOW Obama has to deal with THIS criticism when the economy is in the tank and America's reputation is tarnished. Why does this charge fall to only him?
How about this: the charge for diversity lies with YOU. Why don't you go to your work place and complain to your boss about the lack of diversity or if you are a supervisor or a boss, hire more women and people of color. Charity begins at home...

[statsguy]

The above blogger says "Why does this charge [of more gender diversity] fall only to [Obama]?"

Because he is the president-elect! Who is choosing the Cabinet and the White House staff! These are critically important decisions that will affect the implementation of public policy for his presidency!

This is HIS responsibility. We work on these issues at home, but we are talking about diversity in his own Cabinet. Where is it? Obama getting elected is an amazing step for the United States, but it does not mean we take steps backwards for women and others in the U.S.

[bob8788]

GOBAMA

http://www.barackobamacans.blogspot.com/

[DJBrunner]

Everything about the ReThug party just makes me sick. Taking apart this clown's bile:

(1) "Barack Obama's first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to 'heal the divides,' " said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Now the ReThug party is "concerned" about healing the divides, where were they the last eight years?

(2) "Rahm Emanuel is a partisan insider who played a lead role in breaking Washington".

Since he's pointing fingers, wonder what his point of view is on the roles that Bush, Cheney, Delay, Hassert, Boher, Frist and McConnell have played in poisoning Washington?

(3) "Our nation will be ill-served if Obama runs the White House the way 'Rahmbo' ran the Democratic Congress"

But it was OK the way the original Rambo ran the White House the past eight years? We collectively as a society need to work hard to ensure that these vile, corrupt and worthless people are never again allowed to be placed into the position of controlling either house of Congress.

[schicklett3]

Lets all rally behind this wonderful man and give him our full support!
He will need lots of help to clean up our country and we can all pitch in.

[blastocyst]

Go Lawrence O'Donnell.

[gladys46]

Absolutely !!!!!!!

[Teadye]

Listening to the foolishness coming from the right, I just want to point out that Obama was talking about limiting special interest influence as the change he would bring to Washington, not that he would go in and appoint a bunch of know-nothing, ineffective newcomers. Let us cast our memories back to "Brownie" and poor dumb Sara Palin. What he is bringing to Washington is pragmatism and competence over ideology and cronyism, not an administration full of idealistic N00bs who will fall over the first time the right wing dragon breathes at them. I'm sure what's left of the neocons were hoping for just that, and then on with business as usual. They are singing the same old song... bipartisanship means Democrats bend over and take it with a smile. Sorry guys, not this time around. We aren't interested in Washington "looking" different, we want it to "be" different.

[scandals&skeletons]

Looks like many a tr0ll were released from the asyl um

[abby4ever]

The one above you is Da, who is Za, who is Zaff, who is oreilly2008, who is oreilly2008, who is TheLight, who is DaMan (but always in anagram) 1-6, and earlier someone else posted that CBS is Za. Note the little 'da' tucked in the name above. Newborn. This is a 12-sock tro//...so far. About 6 have been ba'nned.

Just saying.

[abby4ever]

WAY above you, i.e. seekdatruth.

[realpolitic]

Why do they have so many names?

[realpolitic]

Yes, they are here in force. They must hace received new marching orders from the lunatic asylum.

[LCLiberal]

Treasury needs to be named immediately to calm the markets. Not sure if a Larry Summers repeat is the way to go...

http://www.political-buzz.com/

[BreakfastatTiffanys1]

I cannot stomach Bob Johnson.

He can stick that Obama pin up his you know what...

[gladys46]

Yeppers !!!

[gladys46]

Bob Johnson eats c r o w !

[breakingnews]

On AC360 they pointed out that McCain's largest voting block was white men making under $25,000 without a college degree, many (25%) without a high school diploma. That is what the REpubes are down to, low income white guys.....that is a great start for fund raising! LOL!

[gladys46]

Just imagine ... in a few years they may work hard to educate themselves under P.E.Obama's education plans, demand higher salaries and be happy not bitter !

[TLV]

Put them all together and you might have a enough teeth to chew a sandwich. These are the people who need help the most! Red State Road Trip is a video based on a series of visits to rural America before and after the 2004 election. The clueless poor who voted for Bush because he is "a good Christian man" also acknowledged he was doing nothing to produce jobs or otherwise improve the economy but they liked his claim to being a Christian? Please! Why can't they see the stupidity of their ways?

[realpolitic]

Yes, it is the very angry, uneducated, white male crowd who are afraid that minorities are passing them up. They are the low information voters whom the Republican message appeals to. So many of the conservative posters here seem to fit that description.

[aliceinthewater]

So, Neo-Cons how did that Bradly effect work out for you?

[sunny555]

That was a long time ago. Happily, the world has changed since then. We now have a president elect who is brilliant, educated, inspiring and hard-working. Those qualities were more important to the majority than race. Thank God.

[seekdatruth]

Good. Keep up that God stuff. We like that.

[seekdatruth]

Yea funny how Americans arent as racist as blacks and liberals thought.

[Tsk Tsk]

Rethug racists and bigots can't rely on it any longer. tsk tsk

[breakingnews]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/jdccccc

For your flagging pleasure :)

[ThunderclapNewman]

Why, thank you.

[BreakfastatTiffanys1]

I love Joe Torre. I had no idea he went through that.