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Presidential transition of Barack Obama

The presidential transition of Barack Obama began when he won the United States presidential election on November 4, 2008, and became the president-elect. Obama was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 15, 2008. The results were certified by a joint session of Congress on January 8, 2009, and the transition ended when Obama was inaugurated at noon EST on January 20, 2009.[1][2]

Date of election

November 4, 2008

January 20, 2009

Barack Obama (Democrat)

Joe Biden (Democrat)

George W. Bush (Republican)

Dick Cheney (Republican)

Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

Chris Lu

$12 million

450

http://change.gov/

– Executive Director

Chris Lu

– Communications Director

Dan Pfeiffer

– Chief Spokesperson

Stephanie Cutter

- Press Secretary[11]

Robert Gibbs

– General Counsel

Cassandra Butts

– Personnel Director

Jim Messina

– Associate Personnel Director

Patrick Gaspard

- Personnel Counsel

Christine A. Varney

– Co-director of Agency Review

Melody Barnes

– Co-director of Agency Review

Lisa Brown

– Director of Congressional Relations

Phil Schiliro

– Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs

Michael Strautmanis

– Co-director of Operations

Katy Kale

Brad Kiley – Co-director of Operations

: Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois was selected by President-elect Obama on November 6, two days after the election.[69]

Chief of staff

: Jim Messina, current director of personnel for the Obama Transition team and former chief of staff to Senator Max Baucus; and Mona Sutphen, a former career foreign service officer who worked for President Clinton's National Security Council.[70]

Deputy Chiefs of Staff

: Campaign strategist David Axelrod[71] and Pete Rouse, who has been serving as Obama's Senate chief of staff.[70]

Senior Advisors to the President

for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison: Valerie Jarrett, a lawyer who served as Chicago's planning commissioner and later was chairperson of the Chicago Transit Authority. In 1995, Jarrett left public service to join the Habitat Corporation, a Chicago real estate management company.[72]

Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President

Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs: .[73]

Phil Schiliro

: Greg Craig.[74]

White House Counsel

: Chris Lu, former legislative director of Obama's Senate office.

Cabinet Secretary

: Lisa Brown, executive director of the American Constitution Society.[75]

Staff Secretary

: Robert Gibbs, announced on November 22.[76]

Press Secretary

: Ellen Moran.[76]

Communications Director

Deputy Director of Communications: .[76]

Dan Pfeiffer

Chair of the White House : Nancy Sutley, a well-known member of the LGBT community, and Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles.

Council on Environmental Quality

Deputy Director of : Jeanne Lambrew.

White House Office of Health Reform

White House photographer: .[77]

Pete Souza

Improved coordination and cooperation between the military and the , as well as other civilian agencies.

State Department

Improving the "security capacity" of US to allow them to increase their participation in the War on Terrorism.

allies

Being attentive to the risk from , as well as insurgencies.

conventional military forces

Shifting troops and other resources from to Afghanistan.

Iraq

Continued expansion of the and Marine Corps.

Army

Overhaul of the 's procurement system.[128]

Pentagon

Assessment of the transition[edit]

Experts have given the transition high praise. Numerous experts have referred to the transition between Bush and Obama as the "gold standard" for presidential transitions.[148][149][150][151][152] Both the Bush and Obama ends of the transition have been praised.[20]


The transition has been praised as "seamless", in part, for its adherence to Obama's insistence that there be "one president at a time", with Obama largely avoiding giving comment during the transition on matters Bush was handling, such as the ongoing financial crisis.[20][19]

Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign

Barack Obama election victory speech 2008

First inauguration of Barack Obama

Halchin, L. Elaine (November 25, 2008). (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved January 14, 2009.

"Presidential Transitions: Issues Involving Outgoing and Incoming Administrations"

. The New York Times. November 7, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2008.

"Transcript: President-Elect Obama's First News Conference"

Sweet, Lynn (November 5, 2008). . Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008.

"Jarrett, Podesta, Rouse to lead Obama transition; Bill Daley co-chair"

Baker, Peter; Jeff Zeleny (November 5, 2008). . The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2008.

"For Obama, No Day to Bask as He Starts to Build His Team for Transition"

Baker, Peter (November 4, 2008). . The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2008. (Initial likely appointments to the transition team.)

"No Time for Laurels; Now the Hard Part"

. The New York Times. October 25, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008.

"Possible Presidential Appointments"

Espo, David (October 17, 2008). . Associated Press. Archived from the original on October 21, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008. (Pre-election meeting of the Obama transition team.)

"Obama's transition team meets, candidate pushes on"

official General Services Administration (GSA)/National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) website

Presidential Transition Resource

archive of the Obama-Biden presidential transition project

Change.gov

from BBC News

Obama's Presidency

from the Financial Times

The Obama Transition

from the National Journal

Lost in Transition

from the IBM Center for the Business of Government

The Presidential Transition

from The New York Times, profiles of potential members of the Obama administration

The New Team

from the Harvard Law Record, November 13, 2008

HLS and the new administration: Whom will Obama choose?

January 9, 2009 (C-Span video)

Joint Session of the 111th Congress for the purpose of certifying the Electoral College ballot count