CNN

TO: 1/20/13 November 6th, 2008 1:09 pm ET

In 8 years you guys have even forgotten how to spell "Peace" LOL!

As Whoppi Goldberg said on The View, "and now I can put my suitcase down."

Could not help but think of this as I read this article.

OBAMA '08!

RealityKing: I can see you are practicing fear tactics, which is what we would expect from the failed GOP with its failed president. It won't work this time. Reasonable people all know that the terrorist threat is way overblown. Obama will capture bin laden and we will still be able to cut the military budget by 40 to 45 percent. An added benefit of not having overseas bases is that many countries that didn't like us will change their minds because they will realize we are no longer a threat to them. I see terrorism worldwide going down in an Obama administration as more and more people realize that the U.S. will no longer threaten them.

@Obama Pelose Reid = Apocaplyse

Stop listening to Limbaugh.

It is absolutely PITIFUL the garbage foisted upon this fine nation by the "always right", nose thumbing, head up the republicans. Look at this MESS, you know the one YOUR PARTY created and tell me how PROUD you are and how VERY WELL it all went! ANYTHING will be an IMPROVEMENT!

I think Hagel and Luger would be excellent choices for the Obama team. But Rahm Emanuel??? Say it isn't so, Barack! Do we really want a return to the divisive politics of the Clinton era?

Considering the position the Republican majority has left us in, the past few posts are downright comical! Hoo boy. It'll be *years* before anyone can dig us out of the rubble and make headway on any agenda of their own, but it'll *take* a Democratic majority to make headway to do just that.

You can all stop ducking and covering, kids. The world's not going to explode.

I love this blog,, this is my 3rd attempt and because I am not praising Obama my posts are be deleted,, sweet

Hang onto your hats folks - the apocalypse is upon us. With Pelosi, Reid, and Obama running the country (in that order), the Republicans should be back in the white House in 2012 and have a majority in both Houses by then as well. If Obama follows the advice of Biden, his first iraq order will be to divide Iraq into 4 pieces and separate tribal nations – one for the Sunnis; one for the Kurds; one for the Shiites; and of course, one for Al Queda.

@Faith Hope and Charity:
Maybe an exorcism would be more in order!

Terrorists all over the world are celebrating their victory..

All you libs that want to gut the military make me sick.......And all you libs that are from NY and voted for Obama you would have thought you would have learned your lesson on 9/11 from a Clinton Administration. Once again the united States will be taught a lesson on the Dems Watch cant wait

Good luck cruel world..., your on your own now.

We now know why John Kerry turned on his good friend John McCain in such a nasty way - he was interviewing for a cabinet post -- If Obama picks Kerry then we will know Obama has no brains or street savvy about this job -- God help us all

DJ...Let's see you say military spending is a waste after the next attack against US interests at home or abroad. Remember, the military is responsible for defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Turn your backs on the Iraqis and don't look back, no matter what happens.

McCain should not be allowed to be in an Obama administration because he is too erratic and unpredictable. He may not be easy to control. Plus he is already 72 years old, that's too old, he may not even make it through an entire Obama administration.

Obama's pick for Chief of Staff demonstrates his true partisan colors – he picked the most obnoxious partisan congressman in DC -- Change my arse – Obama is a fake.

America must unite

I like Laura Bush! She is one heck of a first lady to put up with that husband of hers. I think she voted for Obama!

I think that a lot of people in the military are nervous, but once they realize that President Obama is shutting down all overseas bases (except Afghanistan and the horn of Africa), then they will be overjoyed with the knowledge that most of them will not have to deploy overseas and will be able to stay with their families in the U.S.

O.K. President Obama let's get busy. The world is has witnessed the victory of positive. Lets go in history as the best Presidents ever. Take your time and fix what the republicans have messed up. We will all help, just keep being visible and keep talking to us on the Micheal Basinden show.

Obama 08'..............................................................................

Obama had more votes against him than any president ever.

DID I UNDERSTAND IT CORRECTLY THAT SOMEONE DOESN'T KNOW MCCAIN LOST THE ELECTION. OKAY, ALTOGETER NOW, ELECTION DAY WAS OFFICIALLY HELD ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2008, NOT TODAY, NOT YESTERDAY, BUT ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2008 AND OBAMA IS OUR NEW ELECTED PRESIDENT. IF YOU WERE THINKING OF INAGUARAL DAY IT IS TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2009 WHEN PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA WILL OFFICIALLY TAKE OFFICE. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE AND THANKS FOR ASKING.

John McCain should not be offered the post of Secretary of Defense. He would resist efforts to make the necessary 40 to 45 percent cut in the Defense budget that is needed to fund proposed entitlements. In addition, he would be a roadblock in bringing the troops home from Iraq as quickly as possible.

You people make me sick! Bush is responsible for bankrupting this country and you want Obama to work miracles. He is not president yet, you idiots!

Obama should consider Colin Powell as Defense Secretary.

Obama needs a political firewall between himself and the rump Republican party that is now populated almost exclusively by people who would undermine the country if that's what it took to destroy his presidency.

Then, how about William Cohen for State?

It's time to gut the defense budget. A 25 percent cut in the budget isn't going to do it. We need a cut of at least 40 to 45 percent to fund proposed entitlements. This means withdrawing from Iraq, Kosovo and Bosnia, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, while keeping a presence in the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan to fight terrorists.

I believe that it would be an INCREDIBLE show of bi-partisanship to offer SECDEF to John McCain. That kind of thinking is what would heal this country.

I respect the fact that Obama is on his job day one after he was elected however, he needs to take care of himself and spend a little time with his family..... and rest a bit... I want him fresh in January..... but I am sure Michelle is on her job and will ensure her man is okay for the task at hand.

@ CARL from MI: Agreed!

Before a new administration moves in how about getting the place blessed?

President-Elect Obama is proactive, not reactive, yay, what a change!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get in there and PITCH! Mr. President! You do have a "righteous wind at your back!" and can do anything!

Hey, how about John MCCain for SECDEF? He knows the systems, our enemies would be terrified of him, and the world would see that President Obama truly is Bi-Partisan.

Yes we did!

The best Commander in Chief ever. BO.

Colin Powell would make an ideal Sec Def in my opinion. He understands the need for military power projection while also understanding the value of good diplomatic efforts. Sen. Clinton would make a good Sec State too!

Hey dave from Illinois, i dont know where you have been living but McCain LOST.

I think the transition will be one for the record books, too. I really hope President Elect Obama picks fresh faces and lives up to his bipartisan promises.

McCain for Secretary of Defense? Would be good for waste in the budget, but bad for a less hawkish agenda. He would be better in Homeland Security than Secretary of Defense, IMO. His experience can be put to excellent use in that position!

i hope they have president barack's 'big chair' ready for him.

Reid should get rid of Liebermann. Wait until he gets a 60 seat majority and then send him packing.

First of all congratulation to 44th and the american people for a job well done: A silent revolution has taken place in America.

The establishement had it all wrong from day one. But the winner is the American people. No blood shed. Yet a revolution took place in the mist of fraud charge and voter suppression.

Yet the voice of the American people resonated like a large gong in the middle of the night of October 4th, 2008.

However, this is only the beginning of the battle: Americans cannot let their guards down. The forces of intolerance, the angry right is still at work. They need to watch both Obama and the Far Right for possible high jack of the political system.

Many are calling for the inclusion of GOP men into the government and others are calling for GOP programs to squash the Dems program. The country needs to look out for GOP Creeps who will be creeping into anything that is done what ever language that makes it either ineffective or completely takes over.

Neocons are complaining on all media and will not let go. But Dems should keep them at bay. The debate that took place in this country over two years is a good one. That should continue.

watch dogs and rapid response groups, e groups and My bo should all stay on. The president may need you to fight some of his battles. You may need to convince the president that his mandate was not a mistake, bu the will of the people.

Aliou

First of all congratulation to 44th and the american people for a job well done: A silent revolution has taken place in America.

The establishement had it all wrong from day one. But the winner is the American people. No blood shed. Yet a revolution took place in the mist of fraud charge and voter suppression.

Yet the voice of the American people resonated like a large gong in the middle of the night of October 4th, 2008.

However, this is only the beginning of the battle: Americans cannot let their guards down. The forces of intolerance, the angry right is still at work. They need to watch both Obama and the Far Right for possible high jack of the political system.

Many are calling for the inclusion of GOP men into the government and others are calling for GOP programs to squash the Dems program. The country needs to look out for GOP Creeps who will be creeping into anything that is done what ever language that makes it either ineffective or completely takes over.

Neocons are complaining on all media and will not let go. But Dems should keep them at bay. The debate that took place in this country over two years is a good one. That should continue.

watch dogs and rapid response groups, e groups and My bo should all stay on. The president may need you to fight some of his battles. You may need to convince the president that his mandate was not a mistake, bu the will of the people.

Aliou

Are we still going to need the Pentagon under an Obama Administration??? You know with alll the world piece now

BO wants to eliminate programs that don't work. Also favors cutting military, so why bother with "transition."

You liberals, there is no Peace Dividend that you can take from the Defense Department when our country is in a time of war against terrorism, fighting on 2 battlefronts, dealing with rogue nations, and Russia and China being questionable friends. The military needs to resupply their inventory and continue training. You can gety rid of cost overruns and no bid contracts but our Armed Forces need the latest and greatest to fight with and to save their lives. As someone who did 20 years in the Navy part during the Clinton years it is his role that played the greatest role in Troops not having body armor, armored Humvees, and enough troops to do a proper occupation in Iraq and Afganistan at the same time. In the Constitution a strong defense is required, entitlements are not required per the Constitution. I hope Obama does not move the Armed Forces from being 15% behind their civilian counterparts back to the 21% that Clinton took them.

I agree that Hagel could be a good Sec of Def. At this point, if Gates gets along well with Obama, it could mean that Gates could stay. it wouldn't be out of the realm of possiblities.

Chuck Hagel for Defense!

"Let's complete the West Wing "life imitating art" theme of this election as thoroughly as possible."

McCain nominated as SecDef would be one fulfillment of that, but Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State would be the other - and better.

I believe the majority of the military staff and civilians working in the Pentagon will welcome the change.

Just imagine the "very different" kind of discussion around the water cooler when the directions from the Commander-In-Chief and the Secretaries of Defense, and the different armed services–are in synch!!!

There will be a joyous banter, and a revelry in the return of reason, judgement, and clarity of orders from the White House.

For security reasons I don't think having photo's of the room and making public the exact room number is very intelligent. But this is typical of the Bush administration. I don't think the Obama people will move into that room; in fact I think they already know where they are going to set up shop and it won't be the Bush adminstration that will tell them where to do it.

Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense- that would be a great choice

"katiec", thats exactly what McCain was pushing for.
"N. S. Huntsville, Al", Bush is being much more accomodating than Clinton ever was toward him. Clinton's hacks denied Bush's transition team access to headquarters and caused critical delays.

Yes, it is possible that Bush and the Republican's will try to deliver the White House to Obama with a "Poisin Pill" so to speak to damage his presidency and ability to get a smooth start. But may this conspiracy theory be a false one. There is more at stake here than Obama's Presidency so I would hope country comes first on all sides.

Katiec has it wrong! The first thing President Obama needs to do is get briefed on what the Military is doing, what the threats to America are and the plans to mitigate those threats. To just charge into the pentagon and begin chopping away at the current military system would be a huge mistake and open us up to considerable risk.

We trust Obama is smarter than to cut without knowing the whole story.
If he is not, then we obviously voted in the wrong person.

To bad Obama has to take the white house from Bush, because I don't trust Bush for nothing, he is settign Obama up I feel it. Obama needs to be very careful and select some good people in his office because trust me there is too many people that want him to fail.

“Look like somebody’s been to Staples,” one reporter equipped.

Is that like a quip delivered over the internet?

//“Look like somebody’s been to Staples,” one reporter equipped.//

"Equipped," not "quipped?" I'm imagining the reporter being stopped by Pentagon security personnel, who find all sorts of office supplies stashed in hidden pockets.

"...one reported equipped."

Equipped? Are you sure the reporter didn't quip?

First of all congratulation to 44th and the american people for a job well done: A silent revolution has taken place in America.

The establishement had it all wrong from day one. But the winner is the American people. No blood shed. Yet a revolution took place in the mist of fraud charge and voter suppression.

Yet the voice of the American people resonated like a large gong in the middle of the night of October 4th, 2008.

However, this is only the beginning of the battle: Americans cannot let their guards down. The forces of intolerance, the angry right is still at work. They need to watch both Obama and the Far Right for possible high jack of the political system.

Many are calling for the inclusion of GOP men into the government and others are calling for GOP programs to squash the Dems program. The country needs to look out for GOP Creeps who will be creeping into anything that is done what ever language that makes it either ineffective or completely takes over.

Neocons are complaining on all media and will not let go. But Dems should keep them at bay. The debate that took place in this country over two years is a good one. That should continue.

watch dogs and rapid response groups, e groups and My bo should all stay on. The president may need you to fight some of his battles. You may need to convince the president that his mandate was not a mistake, bu the will of the people.

Aliou

budget also deals with defense which was on useless overkill. all the $ put toward all the crazy military weaponry we dont need. id rather see that money put into the economy, space science, stem cells, cancer cures and climate change. stuff that is actually important. bush and mccain only cared about defense and it's gotten us nowhere

I HOPE OBAMA PICKS COLIN POWELL! CONGRATS TO PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA!!

Ya know, we complain about our Congress people pork barreling everything, but there at the Pentagon everything recks of pork and waste and indulgence.

The new adminstration must seriously address the funding level of the military and what "perks" are appropriate and not appropriate for the guardians of our nation.

Love the military, hate the waste. The miliatry needs to be as efficient in its use of money as its use of might.

sounds like obama is already on top of things. bless this man , he is a God send.

The pentagon could use a cleaning out every week to keep the military/industrial complex in check. It seems they are one and the same. The pentagon lets contracts for items and pays more than 3 times what it cost in any store. I know for I have seen it happen years ago, it was bad now it is a ten times as bad.
I know for a fact a plumbing contract went for 900,000 dollars when the lowest bid was 300,000 dollars. The general contractors got together and decided it would ruin the whole bidding for them if they were to use the lower figure. They were afraid it would blow the lid off the all the so called bidding process.
I decided I could not work under conditions when the government was being scammed and left the company.
Back then it was worse than now for whistle blowers and it has a long way to go to protect whistle blowers in this country in all aspects of life, much less the military/industrial complex.
If anyone thinks we are getting a dollars worth of goods or services for our dollars that are spent for the military, then they are much dumber than I think and that is way down the line.

The Pentagon budget is a bottomless pit. Eisenhower was quite correct when he warned about the military industrial complex. The military officers retire into the complex and enrich selves.
Get the Pentagon under fiscal control, far too much waste.
James J. Wilson

Staples is only the beginning. I can well imagine that as intelligent, innovative and fresh minds move in so will the latest in technological and cost effective equipment.

Highlighters and files are good but how about sharing some of the Bush secrets!
President elect Obama needs a huge push broom to sweep up all the mess the Bush administration will leave him.

How come nobody has mentioned the possibility of McCain serving as Secretary of Defense? Let's complete the West Wing "life imitating art" theme of this election as thoroughly as possible.

The very second thing President Obama's team needs to do is remove ALL of Bush's Republican plants in Government positions, like in the DOJ and in FEMA.

Bush replaced competent people with his incompetent cronies and campaign contributors that have done nothing but screwed up our nation. Time to kick them ALL to the curb...

Apparently, Jamie McIntyre forgot to submit her entry for copy editing, seeing as there are more grammatical and type mistakes in that article than there are in a 5th grader's biography.

". . .One reporter equipped."

Good lord.

"They have not b een held accountable for 8 years, and the
accountability must begin."

Other than the fact that they have. But who cares about honesty.

.. agenda.

Katiec,

That and definitely revise what is that all these agencies have been up to during this past 8 years of fascism! I am more than curious how many things are going to be coming to the light. Also how has it been accommodated and to fit in our constitution and how many of our rights have been violated by Bush's fascist.

The word is "quipped", not "equipped". Unless the reported e-quipped in an email. LOL

O.K. Now Democrats- we want lower taxes, GOOD health care for everyone, bring the troops home, but keep our country from any attacks-and we want it as soon as you promised. Otherwise ,you LIED and we vote Republican in 2012!!!!

OBAMA IS ON THE JOB....FROM DAY 1 AFTER HE WON THE ELECTION.....THAT'S ONE PROMISE HE'S KEPT!!!!

MAY GOD GIVE YOU THE WISDOM AND GRACE TO LEAD OUR COUNTRY!!

OBAMA..... TAP MITT ROMNEY AS PART OF YOUR ECONOMIC TEAM!!!

Please!

The first thing the need to do is check for bugs if this office was set up by the current administration....LOL!

What transition? Obama will continue the deficit spending and policing of the world. This country is bankrupt.

The very first thing President Obama's team needs to do is
go over the budget and stop the horrendous waste by the
pentagon. Also, no bidding contracts needs to be eliminated.
They have not b een held accountable for 8 years, and the
accountability must begin.