Pentagon readying 'to-do' list for Obama administration
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/11/11/obama.iraq/art.obamairaq.ap.jpg caption="Barack Obama meets with U.S. Army personnel in Basra, Iraq, on July 21."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Defense Department will give president-elect Barack Obama's transition team a list of "key decision" that the new administration will face during the first three months of its administration, a Pentagon spokesman said.
The list of issues will be "non-prescriptive," in that it will not be pressing a policy per se, but will simply lay out decisions the new team is going to need to deal with in the first 90 days, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
The Pentagon has not spelled out what is on the list, but some elements such as upcoming NATO meetings and preparing a new defense budget to submit to Congress are long-expected items, according to department officials.
In addition, Sec. Gates had surveyed Pentagon staff to see who would be willing to stay on past inaugration day. A high percentage of current employees have said they are willing, Whitman said, although he would not say how many that would be.
On Wednesday, the president-elect's office announced that former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy will lead Obama's Department of Defense transition team. Flournoy is currently president of the Center for a New American Security policy group and White teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School.
The agency review team will be doing a "top to bottom" review, according to Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro. The team will be in place at the Pentagon by the end of the week in an effort to get "information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inaugration," the Obama transition office explained in a statement announcing the review teams.
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Well President Obama, you have a lot of work to do.
You know, the stuff that the present administration screwed up.
I have faith and confidence in this new Administration.
Best of luck, Pres. Elect Obama and VP Elect Biden! We will stand behind you!! God bless.
Bless your heart President elect Obama!
I almost wish you were not intelligent enough to vote.
surrender immediately
President Obama will be just fine with help from above and from those on terra firma. To those who choose to wallow in self-inflicted misery for the next four years – nobody will notice you but your MD. Please come on board our bandwagon, we will embrace you with open arms!
I truly have faith that if ANYONE can handle the job, Obama can. The best man won and if he can conduct his administration as he did his campagne, we'll be OK. I also like the fact that he is honest with us by letting the country know that it will take time to un-do all of Mr. Bush's messes. For once, we don't have a politician blowing sunshine up our rears.He's a straight-shooter and tells it like it is.
I pray for President-elect Obama everyday and have felt such a sense of relief since the election. Things can only get better from here.
Contain Iran with overwhelming air and seapower.
The Iranian people are ready to over throw this axis of evil. A six week comprehensive air campaign and oil embargo will do it.
I bet he gets things done a lot faster and more efficient than the current administration.
Actually, Barack Obama gave the "to do" list to the defense Department BEFORE he was elected.
January 20th can't come fast enough! Someone in the White House that will be able to speak in complete sentences. I can't wait for us to become the most powerful, respected, and greatest nation in the world again. Bush ruined it all for America, and its coming to a close!
Yeah.Let's spell it all out for CNN and the media.Let's have the Pentagon publish their list and make sure it's also released in Baghdad as well.We wouldn't want the terrorists to find out the hard way now would we?
Mr. Obama has “One Term” written all over him. President Elect Obama has made too many unachievable and unrealistic promises to too many people and he simply lacks the foresight, skills and intestinal fortitude to push forward with his pie-in-the-sky agenda. Rather than any dramatic “change”, we likely will fall into a holding pattern until 2012.
pentagons one and only thing on the "to-do" list
1. defy the future failed obama/biden/clinton administration
enough said.
As my mama would say back home, Obama is on the stick.
Meaning he is Org things now.
Just remember no to stand anywhere they point at and tell you to stand Obama...most of them are good ol' boys who go from green fatigues to white sheets when they're off duty.
Even Satan got kicked out of one of his high posts.
I have faith in you President Obama. God is with you.
God help us all.
Can not go anyway but up the way Bush left it. Good luck alot of hardwork is ahead but I believe Obama and Biden can get it done.
Hey Mike,
Was that the way it worked in Iraq? Oh yea! It didn't. Leave the militarty and strategic planning to the experts and intellects.
It's time to clean house.
Barack has to follow the military commanders on the ground or Move-On.
He needs Wesley Clark to help him plan a defense strategy. There isnt a better man than Clark. The guy has administrative experience executing orders.
Yeah fix the mess Bush left.