Thursday, November 6, 2008; A01

A day after winning a historic victory that will make him the first black president in the nation's history, Barack Obama remained largely out of public view yesterday while his aides announced the first details of an ambitious plan for the transfer of power when he assumes office in January.

After emerging from his home in Chicago for an early workout, Obama spent most of the day ensconced in a downtown office building where he held discussions with Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.; John D. Podesta, who was President Bill Clinton's chief of staff; Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.); and senior campaign advisers. At his campaign headquarters nearby, aides began stripping posters from the walls and disbanding the sprawling organization that helped propel the senator from Illinois to a decisive victory over Republican John McCain on Tuesday.

Amid new indications of a weakening economy, the president-elect must now decide how to insert himself into the most pressing issues facing the nation over the next 75 days, particularly the global economic summit that President Bush will convene in Washington on Nov. 15 and a new economic stimulus package being pushed by Democrats when a lame-duck session of Congress begins days later.

Leading the Obama-Biden Transition Project are Podesta; Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of Obama's; and Pete Rouse, Obama's former Senate chief of staff. Its work can be monitored online later at www.change.gov. Obama hopes to quickly name a Treasury secretary, a decision that will set the tone for his relationship with the battered financial world, and is expected to name his chief of staff, most likely Emanuel, this week.

In remarks delivered from the Rose Garden, the current occupant of the White House called Obama's election "uplifting."

"It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their beautiful girls step through the doors of the White House," Bush said. "I know millions of Americans will be overcome with pride at this inspiring moment that so many have awaited so long. I know Senator Obama's beloved mother and grandparents would have been thrilled to watch the child they raised ascend the steps of the Capitol and take his oath to uphold the Constitution of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth." First lady Laura Bush also called Michelle Obama to offer her congratulations.

Bush and Obama showed early signs of cooperation, with the president inviting his successor to visit the White House "as soon as possible" and promising to help make the changeover a smooth one.

With the economic summit on the horizon, a Bush administration official said the White House is "consulting closely with the president-elect's team," but could not say whether Obama or one of his representatives would be included in the meeting with 20 foreign leaders next week. "This effort will obviously straddle the two administrations, and it will be up to the president-elect as to how he would like to have input," the official said.

But in bureaucracies across the government, federal agency chiefs ordered their staffs to welcome the next president's aides and to begin preparing for an influx of appointees, a process that will place special emphasis on the departments of Treasury and Defense at a time when the nation is waging two wars and attempting to stave off further economic decline.

After weeks of speculation about who might fill the Treasury post, financial industry and Obama sources said the list includes Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Lawrence H. Summers, who was Treasury secretary at the end of the Clinton administration and has been a close adviser to Obama on the economy.

Geithner has been deeply involved in the government's response to the nation's economic crisis since it began in September. While he has extensive knowledge of the financial system, he is not as well known to Obama as is Summers.

Obama could also draw from his core economic team, which includes former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, who chaired Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the president-elect.

Others suggested the possibility of a less conventional pick, perhaps a Wall Street name such as Jamie Dimon, chief executive of J.P. Morgan Chase. One industry source said the campaign talked to Dimon about the possibility several weeks ago. During one of the presidential debates, Obama suggested he would like to see billionaire investor Warren Buffett take the job. But Geithner and Summers appear the most likely picks.

Transition plans are already underway for the departure of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., who has made it clear that he will leave his post in January. Paulson's decision adds an element of uncertainty to the direction of the $700 billion financial rescue package Congress recently passed. The next Treasury secretary will have wide latitude and broad authority under the plan and could bring a much different approach to Wall Street's problems than Paulson, several market participants said. Geithner was among those working closely with Paulson in the early stages of the economic crisis, and his selection could signal a bid for continuity.

Before the change in administration, the Treasury Department is expected to announce new programs that would inject capital into a broader range of U.S. companies and that would aid homeowners struggling to keep up with mortgage payments. But Treasury officials are not eager to announce initiatives that might be reversed by the incoming administration and have been in constant communication with Obama's camp about their plans.

Developments are also underway in Congress, where Democrats are working on a stimulus package worth about $100 billion that may be considered when lawmakers return to Washington on Nov. 17. Alternatively, House leaders could urge the Senate to take up the $61 billion package that the House passed in September, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday. About half of the money in that package would go to roads, bridges and other public-works projects in an effort to create jobs. It also would expand unemployment benefits, increase spending on food stamps and offer aid to state governments battling to close their own budget gaps.

Whether Congress considers a new stimulus package this month or in January will depend at least in part on the Bush administration, which has threatened to veto Democratic proposals in the past. Now, Obama will have to decide whether to weigh in, bearing in mind the $1 trillion or greater budget deficit he is set to inherit and the broad consensus that, despite the mounting debt, it may need to grow even more to stave off a recession.

Transition efforts are also underway in the other most pressing arenas -- national security and foreign policy -- that Obama will soon control. The Pentagon has begun a robust political transition effort, seeking to minimize disruptions during the first wartime presidential turnover in 40 years, senior Pentagon officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met with the senior Pentagon leadership and "charged everyone to make sure we don't drop the baton, and to be as collaborative and helpful as possible," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Pentagon officials have cleared office space with computers and phones for dozens of Obama transition team members, anticipating that as many as 50 aides will soon arrive and, in the words of one officer, "occupy the building."

Gates conducted an inventory of the roughly 250 political appointees at the Pentagon to see who would be willing to stay in their jobs if asked.

The Bush foreign policy team also moved quickly to try to ensure Obama a smooth transition. In a letter to CIA employees, Director Michael V. Hayden wrote that the agency has "two sets of consumers" -- the Bush administration and Obama.

"Through expanded access, greater than what he had in his briefings as a candidate or as a Senator, he will see the full range of capabilities we deploy for the United States," Hayden wrote to his staff. Those briefings will begin today when Obama receives a briefing from Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.

McConnell said the president-elect's advisers probably will set up a temporary office at the DNI's headquarters. "We are prepared to brief the team on the [intelligence community's] capabilities as well as on significant intelligence issues," he said in a note sent late Tuesday to employees.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged yesterday that her agency will do "everything that we can, and I personally will do everything that we can -- that I can -- to make sure that this is a smooth transition."

Rice also noted before heading to the Middle East that as an African American, "I am especially proud." She said that "yesterday was obviously an extraordinary step forward."

Beyond the Podesta-led troika, a separate team, headed by Mark Gitenstein and Ted Kaufman, will guide the transition process for Biden.

A senior transition staff will oversee day-to-day activities: Chris Lu, Obama's legislative director, will serve as executive director. Campaign communications director Dan Pfeiffer will move into the same role for the transition. Stephanie Cutter, Michelle Obama's chief of staff, will serve as chief spokesperson. Obama friend and think tank executive Cassandra Q. Butts will serve as general counsel, a job that will include vetting job candidates for ethical conflicts. Campaign chief of staff Jim Messina will become personnel director. Phil Schiliro, a Capitol Hill veteran, will run congressional relations.

The transition team advisory committee includes numerous Clinton veterans and allies of Obama and Biden. One member key to the economic planning is Michael Froman, a former chief of staff to Rubin at the Treasury Department during the Clinton years and an Obama classmate at Harvard Law School.

Staff writers Lori Montgomery, Glenn Kessler, Ann Scott Tyson, Michael D. Shear, Karen DeYoung, Shailagh Murray and Joby Warrick contributed to this report.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110504831_pf.html