The Final Days

"At the beginning, there were times when she showed signs of being a little brittle," says NBC correspondent John Yang, but he says that has changed. "I find her very helpful away from the podium. She really gets what TV needs."

But the White House has paid a price for her politeness. Confrontational briefings make news. Sharp sound bites get replayed on television. By adopting a kinder and gentler approach, Perino has limited her ability to drive the administration's message at a time when interest in the incumbent was already waning.

When Obama visited the White House, Perino gave her successor, Robert Gibbs, a tour of the West Wing and explained how she does the job. After Bush leaves office, she plans to spend a few weeks as an AIDS relief volunteer in Africa and hopes to find a politically related job in Washington.

As last week's briefing was winding down, one reporter noted that Bush hasn't held a news conference since July and asked whether he was done with such sessions.

"Are you eager to have them back?" Perino asked.

She made no promises.

How's the transition faring? "President-elect Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with the enthusiastic support of the left wing of his party, fueled by his vehement opposition to the decision to invade Iraq and by one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate," says the New York Times.

"Now, his reported selections for two of the major positions in his cabinet -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy F. Geithner as secretary of the Treasury -- suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues."

Doesn't it feel like Obama is already president? (Especially when the Geithner leak sent the Dow up 500 points on Friday?)

"With a series of forceful actions in recent days, amid an almost unprecedented set of challenges, Barack Obama has taken an unusual step for a president-elect: attempting to alter the country's perilous course even before he takes office," says the Los Angeles Times.

"The most dramatic example came Saturday, when Obama announced a far more aggressive economic stimulus plan than previously promised -- a two-year program to add 2.5 million jobs that he said represented 'an early down payment on the type of reform my administration will bring to Washington.' "

David Brooks notes a certain homogeneity in the picks: