President-elect Barack Obama will announce his national security team this week. Here are his picks.

Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton	National Security Advisor: Marine Gen. James L. Jones	Secretary of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano
Ambassador to the United Nations: Susan Rice	Secretary of Defence: Robert Gates	Attorney General: Eric Holder

Transition chief John Podesta told Bloomberg that Obama would complete “virtually the whole Cabinet” by Christmas, and the new president’s team will reach beyond the Democratic Party. He said there will be “multiple Republicans” in the administration.

Said Podesta: “You’ll see them spread throughout the administration.”

Thoughts?

Now that President-elect Barack Obama is certain to announce former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton as the nation’s future secretary of state, some in the Obama team are expressing frustrations, the Washingtonian Independent reported. “Clinton herself isn’t so much the problem… It’s the loyalists and traditional thinkers Clinton is likely to bring into the State Dept. if she becomes secretary.”

The newspaper quotes one Democratic official, “Look, Clinton and Obama are both smart people… I’m sure their one-on-one relationship would be OK. But when you hire a Clinton, you hire more than just that one person, you get the entire package. If Clinton becomes secretary of state, it’s possible that the fissures between her loyalists and Obama’s would be a significant undercurrent of the administration’s foreign-policy decision-making.

With Clinton heading the State Department, a cohesive, diplomatic foreign policy message is a bit of a concern for others in the Democratic foreign-policy community.

“Foreign policy is probably where Clinton and Obama differ the most,” another anonymous Democratic official told the Washingtonian Independant. “They just have fundamentally different instincts. On the big decisions, Obama can and will certainly call the shots, but the consistency of follow-through could really be a problem. And the instincts on the smaller decisions will be very different. Cohesion of our foreign policy could suffer.”

How do you feel about Hillary Clinton becoming the Secretary of State?

There are two months left until President Bush leaves the White House. Are you going to miss him?

Now that the most historic election in the Unites States history is over, the world is buzzing around one thing: Who will President-elect Obama pick for his administration? On Jan. 21, Obama will inherit a country in crisis, from financial turmoil to two wars overseas. His decisions must be well thought trough, as is the fact that his picks are relevant to what his administration will do.

Last week Obama named Rahm Emanuel– a brash, bold and abrasive Democrat– for the White House chief of staff position. Emanuel, who is also a former Clinton White House aide, is a total opposite of the calm, cool and collective Obama. As John Baldoni from Business Week put it, “For someone of Obama’s temperament, Emanuel is an ideal chief of staff, a job that H.R. Haldeman, President Nixon’s chief of staff, viewed as being the ‘president’s S.O.B.’”   

There are certainly rumors and predictions flying as to who else will make up Obama’s Dream Team. Al Gore, Colin Powel, Caroline Kennedy? Robert Gibbs, one of Obama’s top aides, may be selected for the White House press secretary position. Gibss was essential to the Obama’s campaign as he helped lead the team as the senior strategist for communication and message. Another former campaign member, David Axelrod, might be appointed a White House senior advisor. Axelrod served as Obama’s chief campaign strategist.

Who would you like to see in an Obama administration?

Brack Obama, a first-term senator, made history last night by becomming the first black American president of the United States and defeating Sen. John McCain in a landslide.  With 97 percent of precincts reporting nationwide, Obama had secured nearly 63 million votes, the largest total in history. He led McCain 52 percent to 46 percent in the popular vote–the highest percentage of any Democratic presidential nominee in 40 years.

The new President-elect gave his acceptance speech in his home town, Chicago, in front of some 150,000 supporters and promised that “a new dawn of Amrican leadership is at hand.”

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” Obama said.

McCain called Obama from Phoenix to concede the election at 10pm Chicago time and later urged his supporters to unite behind the new President-elect.

“I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president, and I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair in our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit,” McCain said.�