Obama to Meet with Economic Team, Hold News Conference

CHICAGO,IL(RushPRnews)11/07/08-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is meeting Friday with his economic team in Chicago and holds his first news conference since winning the election. Mr. Obama is about 10 weeks from taking office and inheriting the country’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Speculation is mounting about his administration choices, including treasury secretary, which he is expected to announce soon.

Mr. Obama’s pick for chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, accepted the job Thursday. Emanuel is an Illinois congressman who also served under former President Bill Clinton.

In a statement, Mr. Obama called Emanuel a “good friend” and said he knows no one better at “getting things done.” Emanuel said he will do everything he can to help the president-elect unite Americans and deliver the change the country needs.

Mr. Obama has returned telephone calls to nine world leaders who phoned to congratulate him on his election Tuesday. They included the leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Mr. Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, will be sworn in on January 20. He defeated Republican Senator John McCain to become the first African-American elected president. Three U.S. news agencies – the Associated Press, New York Times and NBC television – announced Thursday that Mr. Obama won the southeastern U.S. state of North Carolina, which has 15 electoral votes. The victory now gives the president-elect a total of 364 electoral votes, as opposed to just 162 for McCain.

Sources close to his transition team say the short list for Treasury secretary includes four people: Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Lawrence Summers, who served as treasury secretary under Mr. Clinton; Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve; and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a former executive at the Goldman Sachs investment bank.

President George Bush addressed staffers at the White House Thursday, thanking them for their work and urging them to do all they can to help the incoming administration make a smooth transition. The White House says the current president will meet with Mr. Obama on Monday in Washington to discuss the transfer of power.

Source- Voice of American. Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, AP and AFP