Politico

Chris Cillizza has a thoughtful piece on an attractive new feature of Obama’s camp, leaks.

Read the thing in full; my more personalized summary is that it’s another mark of the most dramatic change in Obamaland, the shift from it’s being run by campaign manager David Plouffe, who doesn’t love the press, to chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, who does.

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It’s not a done deal, but here’s my story on Obama’s decision to talk to Hillary about State:

What is Barack Obama thinking?

We’ve heard all the rational arguments: Hillary Rodham Clinton has more star power than Richard Holbrooke, more discipline than Bill Richardson, fewer bad jokes than John F. Kerry. She’s tough and competent. She’s a woman and a Democrat, making space for a Republican guy at Defense. It would get her out of the Senate. Both Obama and Clinton loved Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, “Team of Rivals.”

But the sum of those parts seems something less than the whole explanation for Obama’s first great presidential gamble: his move toward giving his former adversary, whose judgment on foreign policy he criticized relentlessly, by offering her the most important Cabinet position in his administration.

Neither Holbrooke, Kerry nor Richardson would bring Clinton’s downsides: Her towering, volcanic husband; her own ambitions; and the endless speculation about the two of them.

“She brings so much to the table,” said Abner Mikva, a former Clinton White House counsel and an Obama mentor. “On the other hand, there are the obvious downsides, the conflicts that that her husband has.”

Insiders around Obama say the X factor at play is Obama’s icy tolerance for risk, and his belief in the power of the grand gesture.

Throughout his political career, Obama has had a tendency to “go big,” as his aides say, with dramatic moves and giant spectacles punctuating his run for president — his head-on race speech, his presidential-style tour of the Middle East and Europe, an acceptance speech held in a football stadium.

The Clinton move, like those, marries an arguably practical choice with lofty symbolism: He’s enlarging his own administration by bringing in one of the leading figures in American politics, and delivering on a promise of a new politics that doesn’t play favorites or hold grudges.

“It says that he has the personal confidence to engage someone of the notoriety and substance of Sen. Clinton,” said Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, an early Obama supporter and prominent campaign surrogate. “Implementing change is an exciting exercise.”

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Did Hillary Clinton get reported into the State Department?

Even Geffen likes the idea..

Politico’s Eamon Javers explans how Rahm got rich.

Noam wonders if he is proposing a health care horse trade to corporate America.

More Obama headlines in the Americas.

The Chicago Sun-Times tries to recapture the Obama newspaper magic by releasing prints of their Nov 5th cover.

Bill Ayer’s speech at Northwestern gets postponed, reasons a bit unclear.

Early voting for Georgia Senate runoff shows African-American turnout is down significantly from presidential early voting.

More Jewish communal turmoil, post-elex..

A student at the University of Georgia tries to reinvent the GOP

Nate Silver from 538 posts his NSFW interview with John Ziegler about a Zogby survey of Obama supporters Ziegler commissioned.

Wayne Barrett laments Mike Bloomberg’s going from benevolent politician to owner of New York City.

And we’ll all be in the mailroom soon.

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Bill Clinton’s spokesman, Matt McKenna, blasts out a Politicker item with the headline, "Bill Clinton has no problem with vetting."

Bill Clinton said he’d do "whatever they want" with respect to the vetting process and information he’d have to disclose to the Obama administration to help Hillary Clinton become Obama’s secretary of state.

Standing on stage and signing autographs after a ceremony to rename the Triborough Bridge after the late Robert F. Kennedy, Clinton was asked about the vetting process.

"Whatever they want. This is a deal between Senator–" he corrected himself, "President-elect [Obama] and Hillary," Clinton said. "You should talk to them. I’ll do whatever they want."

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A GOPer fowards over the Twitter feed of Michigan GOP Chairman, and RNC chair candidate, Saul Anuzis, who has been twittering Grover Norquist’s Wednesday Meeting, an important — and off-the-record — conservative gathering:

RNC Chair…Wednesday Meeting…my bad, it’s off the record, I just spoke but can’t tell you what I said …but a lot of folks were n … … about 4 hours ago from txtRNC Chair…Wednesday Meeting…Duncan speaking…talks about lawsuits, Republican for a Reason, GA race. about 5 hours ago from txtRNC Chair…Wednesday Meeting…Senate not in session in December…House hasn’t decided. about 5 hours ago from txtRNC Chair…at Wednesday Meeting with Grover Norquist…Mike Duncan is suppose to be here shortly. about 6 hours ago from txt

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David Axelrod, as reported previously, is going to Washington.

Obama formally announced his appointment as a senior advisor, along with three other top aides, just now.

The general sense is that Obama’s core campaign team, with the important exception of David Plouffe, will be shifting intact to the White House.

Also announced: Greg Craig as White House Counsel; Chris Lu, an Obama law school classmate who ran his Senate office, as Cabinet Secretary (which is not a cabinet post); and American Constitution Society executive director Lisa Brown, a former Gore vice presidential aide, as Staff Secretary, the powerful job held by figures ranging from John Podesta to Harriet Miers.

Continue reading post…

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The Transition films, and YouTubes, a transition meeting, and emails out the video, interspersed with an interview with an official.

I’m still pulling for a 24-hour live Podesta stream.

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State officials, finally, call Missouri for McCain.

The Republican won the state by a bit more than 4,000 votes.

That would leave Obama at 365 electoral votes.

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A source close to transition says Tom Daschle, a key, early Obama backer, will head the healthcare policy working group on the transition.

And Mike Allen reports that Daschle will be Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, according to a Democratic official. It’s a job that would likely to be key to moving healthcare reform, and Daschle, obviously, knows the Hill.

(Roll Call first reported the pick.)

UPDATE: The Transition puts out  a list of policy working group leaders, nearly all of whom are expected to hold very senior administation roles:

Economic: Daniel K. Tarullo

Education: Linda Darling-Hammond

Energy and Environment: Carol M. Browner

Health Care: Senator Tom Daschle

Immigration: T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar

National Security: James B. Steinberg, Dr. Susan E. Rice

Technology, Innovation and Government Reform: Sonal Shah, Julius Genachowski, Blair Levin

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Rahm, speaking to a Wall Street Journal event, suggested that Obama would use the crisis to go big on a range of issues, in this order: healthcare, energy, education, financial regulation and tax policy.

"Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long term, now are immediate and must be dealt with," he said.

(via TPM)

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