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Thursday, November 27, 2008

EXPERIENCE VS. CHANGE

Obama Defends Insider Choices

CHICAGO -- Barack Obama defended himself Wednesday against charges that his campaign mantra of "Change We Can Believe In" is being undermined by his decision to stock his administration with familiar faces.

"What we are going to do," the president-elect said during his third news conference in three days, "is combine experience with fresh thinking."

"I expect . . . the American people would be troubled," Obama told reporters here, "if I selected a Treasury secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council at one of the most critical economic times in our history who had no experience in government whatsoever."

Obama made clear that even though he is surrounding himself with strong personalities, he is confident of his own ability to design and execute a governing agenda.

"Understand where the vision for change comes from first and foremost," Obama asserted. "It comes from me. That's my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure that my team is implementing it."

During a week in which he has tried to show that he can handle the most worrisome economic crisis in recent history, he appointed New York Federal Reserve President Timothy F. Geithner as Treasury secretary and former Treasury secretary Lawrence F. Summers to direct economic policy in the White House.

Obama's chief of staff is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who was a top adviser to President Bill Clinton. The 47-year-old former senator from Illinois will keep Robert M. Gates, a Bush appointee, as defense secretary and is widely expected to name Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state next week.

Obama said that serving in the Clinton administration -- the last time Democrats ran the White House -- should not be a bar to running the Treasury Department, for example, "because that would mean that the person had no experience in Washington whatsoever."

"We need people who are going to be able to hit the ground running," he said.

-- Peter Slevin

SPEECH AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

Favreau, La Raza's Muñoz Tapped

President-elect Barack Obama continued rounding out his White House staff on Wednesday, naming Jonathan Favreau director of speechwriting and Cecilia Muñoz director of intergovernmental affairs.

Favreau has worked for Obama since 2005, when he joined the president-elect's Senate office as a speechwriter. He later served as director of speechwriting during the presidential campaign, building on his role as deputy director of speechwriting for the 2004 campaign of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). At the White House, Favreau will oversee a team of writers who carefully craft words for the president's many public appearances.

Muñoz, meanwhile, will oversee the White House office responsible for relations between the administration and state and local governments. The 2000 MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" winner is a senior vice president at the National Council of La Raza, a leading Hispanic civil rights group. There, she has spearheaded many of the organization's immigration initiatives. She is currently in charge of the group's advocacy and legislative agenda.

"We're continuing to build a White House team that can rise to the challenges facing this country -- and I couldn't be more excited to announce Jon and Cecilia," Obama said. "I'm confident that at a critical time in our history, this White House will restore openness and accountability to our executive branch and help to put government back in the hands of the people it serves."

-- Michael A. Fletcher