President-elect Barack Obama, flush from his groundbreaking victory over Republican John McCain, has just 10 weeks to assemble a new government to chop through the thicket of troubles the Bush administration will leave behind.
Obama on Tuesday night made history as America's first black man to be elected president, but times are bleak: the country is in the grips of its worst economic crisis in nearly eight decades even as it fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama was quick out of the starting blocks Wednesday, calling on Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a fellow Illinois politician, to serve as White House chief of staff.
While several Democrats confirmed that Emanuel had been offered the job, it was not clear he had accepted. But rejection would amount to an unlikely public snub of the new president-elect swept toward power in an electoral college landslide.
With hundreds of jobs to fill before his Jan. 20 inauguration, Obama and his transition team confronted a formidable task complicated by his anti-lobbyist campaign rhetoric.
The official campaign Web site said no political appointees would be permitted to work on "regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration."
But almost exactly one year ago, on Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama went considerably further than that while campaigning in South Carolina. "I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House," he said of lobbyists at the time.
Obama took time on Wednesday to see his two daughters off to school, a simple pleasure he's missed during nearly two years of virtually nonstop travel. Then he headed to the gym for a workout.
The nation's top intelligence officials planned to give him top-secret daily briefings starting Thursday, sharing with him the most critical overnight intelligence as well as other information he has not been allowed to see as a senator or candidate. And Obama planned to give the first of his daily briefings to the media on Thursday as he moves quickly to begin assembling a White House staff and selecting Cabinet nominees.
Obama said in an interview with ABC News a week before the election that he had a pretty good idea of whom he might invite with him to the White House, and that some of his job offers might go to Republicans.
"On a whole host of these issues, I think we need Republicans, not just as show pieces," Obama told ABC News. "In some cases, Republicans have good ideas. And, you know, I've always been more than happy to steal good ideas from whatever the source." (
Read: Cabinet Speculation)
President George W. Bush pledged "complete cooperation" in the transition and called Obama's victory a "triumph of the American story." (
Video: Bush Speaks)
Naming the staggering list of problems he inherits in his decisive defeat of Republican John McCain -- two wars and "the worst financial crisis in a century," among them -- Obama sought to restrain the soaring expectations of his supporters late Tuesday night even as he stoked them with impassioned calls for national unity and partisan healing.
"We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."
Helping him to get there will be a strengthened Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. When Obama becomes the president on Jan. 20, with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his vice president, Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.
Economy Dominated
Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation in an Associated Press exit poll. None of the other top issues -- energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care - was selected by more than one in 10. Obama has promised to cut taxes for most Americans, get the United States out of Iraq and expand health care, including mandatory coverage for children.
McCain conceded defeat shortly after 11 p.m. EST, telling supporters outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."
"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."
The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, the 47-year-old Obama has had a startlingly rapid rise, from lawyer and community organizer to state legislator and U.S. senator, now not even four years into his first term.
Almost six in 10 women supported Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a narrow margin, according to interviews with voters. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.
In terms of turnout, America voted in record numbers. It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate, the highest since 65.7 percent in 1908, he said.
Election Features: Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
