Facing massive challenges both at home and abroad and preparing to move into the White House in 10 weeks, US President-elect Barack Obama received his fi rst presidential-style intelligence briefi ng on Thursday in Chicago. He was quick out of the starting blocks Wednesday, calling on Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a fellow Chicago politician and veteran of the Bill Clinton White House, to serve as his chief of staff. A fellow Illinoisan with a far different style from Obama's, Emanuel, is known for his bluntness and single-minded determination. He was a political and policy aide to Clinton before he turned to investment banking. He then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago. In Congress, he moved quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power after 12 years in the minority. Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long primary battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, not surprising given his longstanding ties to the former fi rst lady and his Illinois connections with Obama. The day after the election there already was jockeying for Cabinet appointments. Several Democrats said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won a new sixyear term on Tue day, was angling for secretary of state. Kerry's spokeswoman, Brigid O'Rourke, disputed the reports. “It's not true. It's ridiculous,” she said in an interview. Announcement of the transition team came in a written statement from the Obama camp. The group is headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under Bill Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama's chief of staff in the Senate, and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the president-elect and campaign adviser. Several Democrats described a sprawling operation well under way. They said the group was stocked with longtime associates of Obama, as well as veterans of Clinton's White House.
