From NBC's Carrie Dann
Just how much does Mitch like Mike?  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell  has been a longtime ally to fellow Kentuckian Mike Duncan, the RNC Chairman who reportedly hopes to continue in the post.  Duncan will have to weather challenges from a possibly crowded field of would-be successors, including former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, former Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman, and South Carolina GOP head Katon Dawson. Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis announced his candidacy for the post yesterday.
 
But will the powerful McConnell, whom George Will called "Washington's most important Republican and second-most consequential elected official" in a column today, pull strings to protect Duncan's tenuous hold on the chairmanship?  When a hometown paper -- the Louisville Courier-Journal -- asked the Kentucky senator's shop, a spokesman declined to offer a yes-or-no, instead issuing this Rorschach-test statement: "Senator McConnell believes that Chairman Duncan is an intelligent, experienced man and did an excellent job as RNC Chair this year. He looks forward to working closely with Mike in the months and years ahead as they both work to serve Kentucky and their Party." 

McConnell himself declined an interview.

And McConnell is not the only Kentuckian not issuing a ringing formal endorsement of Inez, KY native Duncan.  First District Congressman Rep. Ed Whitfield (R) told the Courier-Journal that Duncan is "a fine fellow and everything, but I think we've got to move in a new direction."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
MIAMI -- Palin tried to tamp down speculation of a 2012 run –
speculation some say she has fueled with doing several TV interviews
just days after she and McCain lost their run for the presidency.

At a press conference here during the Republican Governors Association
conference, Palin instead focused on what governors could get done.

"The media wants to dissect the past" and talk about 2012," Palin,
flanked by a cadre of Republican governors, told a room with 27
television cameras and more than 150 reporters. "As far as we're
concerned the past is the past."

Palin, introduced by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, made brief remarks
and took just four questions in what -- in total -- wasn't much more
than 10 minutes. Organizers had said there would be 20 minutes of
questions.

Palin said her being here is not about the next presidential race, but
about governance and providing "good service" to the people they are
serving "in our states." As part of a panel this morning, though, Palin
will engage in a bit of the dissection she accuses the media of wanting
to engage in as she makes remarks on the future of the Republican Party.

Palin added at the news conference that Republican governors can "usher in the bedrock principles that do make up the Republican Party."

"The media likes to focus on us as individuals," but we are a group, she said. She said she is "proud to be a part of this team. We are united."

But Palin, some would say, has encouraged the focus on her individually. She has done a slew of interviews, intensifying her own spotlight -- a stark contrast from the limited press access to her on the campaign trail.

Palin added that the governors know what it takes to get the economy back on track, also mentioning health care, energy and other issues.

She offered less pit bull -- yesterday still focusing on Obama's connections to William Ayers -- and more conciliator. She said she wanted to "reach out to the new administration" to "offer support" and "solutions."

Palin was asked why she has been speaking out, when she held few press conferences on the trail.

"The campaign is over," she said bluntly, adding that she didn't want to get into questioning the McCain campaign strategy.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann
MIAMI -- "Fear and self-loathing in Miami" might as well be the name of the Republican Governors Association meeting, which begins a second day here. Yesterday, we witnessed the kind of self-analysis and second-guessing only heard on New York sports talk radio -- or at Democratic events. These are Republicans, after all; it's not supposed to be this way. From Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's morning warning to an afternoon vent session, Republicans were at the same time assured of what to do and searching for answers. Everyone agrees things have to change and that they need to recapture significant and lost parts of the electorate. They were unanimous in their confounded praise of Obama's ground game and his ability to reach 10 million faithful at the click of a mouse.

*** Blame and silence: There was finger pointing, too -- at John McCain, who heads to Georgia today to campaign for Sen. Saxby Chambliss -- for not being able to use a BlackBerry or a TelePrompter; for not running a great campaign; for having his bouts with the party and not stirring the activist base. There were also his defenders, like Meg Whitman and Rob Portman, who insisted he was the best there was and was facing an incredible headwind. But when the conversation turned to Sarah Palin -- who holds a press conference here today and then gives remarks on the future of the party -- there was almost dead silence. No one seemed to quite have an opinion of the woman who, as some polls showed, was the second biggest drag on the McCain ticket after Bush. For all the talk of bluntness and honesty yesterday, no one was willing to necessarily throw her under the proverbial bus. "Would any of you been comfortable with her as president?" one reporter asked Rob Portman, Meg Whitman, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, and Pawlenty. Then came an awkward pause before Portman and Whitman defended her. "Whatever you say is going to be the headline," a wryly-smiling Huntsman warned. The press corps laughed. It broke the ice. It appears the Republican governors are practicing a form of the golden rule: Do unto your other Republican governors who end up on national tickets how you want to be done unto if you get picked.

*** Today's RGA agenda: Palin holds her press conference at 9:40 am ET and then delivers her speech immediately afterward. Other morning speakers -- at a forum entitled "Looking Toward the Future" -- include retired Gen. Tommy Franks, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, Pawlenty, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. At 12:30 pm, Govs. Charlie Crist, Rick Perry, Haley Barbour, and Sanford attend a roundtable with the press. And at dinner beginning at 7:00 pm, Perry and Crist deliver another round of speeches. 

*** The same old vs. change: Reuters has a provocative analysis piece wondering how Obama can bring change to Washington when he's tapping Clinton Administration veterans to help with the transition and the new Administration. Obama, "who swept the presidential election on a mantra of change, apparently believes it is Washington old-timers who are best equipped to steer the country in a promised new direction. Obama, drawing up lists of possible appointments for his administration, has come up with a host of familiar faces reaching back to former President Bill Clinton's team and beyond." (In fact, this exact question came up at last December's Des Moines Register debate, where Hillary Clinton said she wanted to hear the answer to that question and Obama replied, "Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me, as well.") There are a couple of points worth making here. One, because Obama will be the first black president, he's never going to seem like your typical president; so no matter how familiar Obama's advisers are, he'll never seem typical. (Remember when Clinton tried to hit Obama for being just another politician. It never stuck because, simply, Obama never looked the part of "just another politician.") Two, just imagine the difficulty McCain would have picking Republicans who weren't veterans of the Bush Administration if he had won…

*** Retiring the debt: Yesterday, the Obama campaign -- under David Plouffe's name -- released a note to their email list asking donors to help purchase "Victory" T-Shirts to help retire the DNC's debt. "We've been reviewing the books, and the DNC went into considerable debt to secure victory for Barack and Joe," Plouffe said. "So before we do anything else, we need to help pay for this winning strategy." Just sayin', but note how they've sent out an email to help retire the DNC's debt, but not Hillary's. Hmmmm. Then again, Hillary's decision to rack up debt was her own, especially after she continued to campaign beyond the decisive Indiana and North Carolina contests. And the party's future doesn't rest on Hillary's finances; it does on the DNC's. Still, there had been hints during the summer from some Obama folks that they'd be a more effective surrogate fundraiser for Clinton's debt retirement post-election if Obama won. Well?

*** Is everything redder in Texas? Just a week after the election, there's already speculation about which other red states Democrats might be able to turn blue in future presidential races. And Texas -- which McCain won by 12 percentage points, down from Bush's 23-point win in 2004 -- is at the top of that list. A growing number of Hispanic voters, check. A sizable African-American population, check. A relatively young state, check. Sounds a lot like North Carolina or Virginia, right? Well, not so fast. Ideologically, Texas remains a very conservative state. Nationally, according to the exit polls, 34% identified themselves as conservatives, but that number jumped to 46% in the Lone Star State (it was 33% in VA and 37% in NC). In addition, Bush's job approval was 41% in Texas, compared with 27% nationally. (As we wrote yesterday, with the exception of Missouri, Obama won every state where Bush's approval rating was below 35%, and he lost every state where Bush's approval was above 35%.) Besides the Texan Bush, check out these numbers: While Obama almost tied McCain among white college grads nationally, McCain destroyed him in Texas among this subgroup, 74%-25%. And while Obama won the suburbs, the Texas 'burbs broke for McCain, 61%-37%. So what does this all mean? Don't bet the ranch that Democrats will win Texas in 2012 or 2016. Still, it will be interesting to see what happens to the Texas Republican brand now that a Bush isn't around to prop it up. 

*** Raising Arizona: By comparison, Arizona -- McCain's home state, which he won by nine points -- looks like a much better opportunity for Democrats, according to the exits. In that state, 36% identified themselves as conservatives (versus 34% nationally), and 37% approved of Bush's job performance (just slightly above that 35% mark). Also, Obama fared much better among college-educated whites in Arizona than he did in Texas, with McCain winning them, 58%-41% (versus the 74%-25% split in the Lone Star State). As we said before, had McCain not been on the ballot this year, Arizona would have been a real target for the Obama campaign. And it probably WILL be in 2012 without (most likely) another Arizonan on the ticket. 

*** The remaining Senate races: In Alaska, after tallying about 60,000 early and absentee ballots yesterday, Mark Begich (D) now leads incumbent Sen. Ted Stevens (R) by 814 votes. There are still about 40,000 votes that will be counted next week… In the Senate run-off in Georgia, McCain today stumps for Saxby Chambliss (R) as the National Republican Senatorial Committee has a new TV ad whacking Democrat Jim Martin. (Just askin', but will we see Obama in Georgia at all before the runoff?) … And regarding the Coleman-Franken recount in Minnesota, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman Chuck Schumer holds a press conference in DC at 1:00 pm ET to discuss the recount in Minnesota as the Republicans continue with their effort to call into question the entire re-canvass (and therefore the recount?) process.

Countdown to Georgia Senate run-off: 19 days
Countdown to Electoral Vote Count: 56 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 68 days

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The New York Times, covering the first day of the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami, writes: "As the Republican Party prepares to enter the political wilderness after its losses this month, the group that many consider its future — the Republican governors — met here on Wednesday to talk about what went wrong, and what to do next. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who was very nearly Senator John McCain's running mate this year, told the decidedly subdued, postelection conference of the Republican Governors Association about a revelation he had recently while looking into the bathroom mirror at his home in Minnesota."

"Mr. Pawlenty said that after wearily returning from the campaign trail, he looked at himself in the mirror and complained about what he saw to his wife, Mary. 'I said, "Mary, look at me,"' he said. "I mean, my hairline's receding, these crow's feet and wrinkles are multiplying on my face by the day, I've been on the road eating junk food, I'm getting flabby, these love handles are flopping over the side of my belt."' 'I said, "Is there anything you can tell me that would give me some hope, some optimism, some encouragement?"' he said. 'And she looked at me and she said, "Well, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight."'"

Also reporting from Miami, the Wall Street Journal notes the two lines of thinking espoused by Republicans seeking to rebuild their brand: expand the base, or get back to basics?

"As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin arrived in Florida for a Republican governors summit, there was a hint of a chill in the air from her potential rivals for the 2012 White House race," the New York Daily News reports. "The conference is also a showcase for up-and-coming Republican governors who might want a crack at the Oval Office themselves, including Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty, Florida's Charlie Crist and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal. And none of them was putting up Palin lawn signs. When Pawlenty said, 'Drill, baby, drill!' by itself is not an energy policy' -- referring to the chant that became a staple of Palin's rallies -- the target of his tweak was clear. … When asked if Palin was the best choice McCain could have made for a running mate, no one jumped to answer."

Palin, who holds a news conference today at the Republican Governors Association and "who clearly is looking ahead to her political prospects in 2012, said yesterday that a woman would be good for the Republican presidential ticket in four years." "I don't think it's me personally, I think it's what I represent. Everyday hardworking American families - a woman on the ticket perhaps represents that. It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation."

Current RNC Chair Mike Duncan, who might seek a second term, also gives a speech at today's RGA meeting. Here are some excerpts: "At the RNC, our role is immediate and urgent: we must strengthen our party. Especially at the state level." More: "I am announcing that today the RNC is filing legal challenges in federal district courts in (Louisiana) and Washington DC to challenge the constitutionality of the current campaign finance regime. The fight over redistricting, and the ability of Republicans to compete in future state and local races is at the heart of the RNC's decision to challenge the six-year-old campaign finance system in federal court." (The RNC filing suit here could help Duncan in his attempt to looks like he's ready for another term.)

Roll Call notes that Mike Duncan's bid for reelection to the RNC chairmanship could be boosted by fellow Kentucky native Mitch McConnell. On the paper's shortlist of his potential competitors: former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), outgoing Sen. John Sununu (N.H.), former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and outgoing Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle.

And as we wrote yesterday, Saul Anuzis has become the first announced candidate for the position.

House Minority Leader John Boehner could face a challenge for his leadership spot from Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), a Judiciary Committee member who won his reelection race in a squeaker last week.

Karl Rove has a Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which he offers a numbers-rich analysis of Obama's victory and a look forward to the next election cycle. "History will favor Republicans in 2010," Rove writes. "Since World War II, the out-party has gained an average of 23 seats in the U.S. House and two in the U.S. Senate in a new president's first midterm election. Other than FDR and George W. Bush, no president has gained seats in his first midterm election in both chambers." Another point offered by Rove: "In a sign Mr. Obama's victory may have been more personal than partisan or philosophical, Democrats picked up just 10 state senate seats (out of 1,971) and 94 state house seats (out of 5,411). By comparison, when Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in 1980, Republicans picked up 112 state senate seats (out of 1,981) and 190 state house seats (out of 5,501)."

Obama holds private meetings today in Chicago, while Joe and Jill Biden meet with the Cheneys in DC at the vice presidential residence in DC.

"President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday named two former Clinton White House officials, Joshua Gotbaum and Michael J. Warren, to oversee the new administration's takeover of the Treasury Department as it manages the still-evolving $700 billion financial rescue plan," the New York Times writes. More: "The Obama transition team named two more former Clinton administration officials, Thomas E. Donilon and Wendy R. Sherman, to head the transition for the State Department." 

The Wall Street Journal: "The group is filled with second-tier veterans of the Clinton administration and workers in the technology and financial sectors. It includes four former lobbyists, three top campaign fund-raisers and two former employees of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, with some overlap among them. Four people in the group have ties to the consultant McKinsey & Co. and two have experience leading high-tech start-ups."

So potential Obama Administration applicants need to know ANY electronic communication they've ever sent. Oy.

The Washington Post looks at the hurdles facing the new admin at Justice. "Topping the list of concerns is the Office of Legal Counsel, a once-obscure operation whose advice guides some of the government's most sensitive and controversial policies, from domestic wiretapping to the appropriateness of handing out public funding to religious groups. Many of the OLC's memos on interrogation and warrantless eavesdropping remain secret, even though lawmakers have clamored for their release. Democrats say they expect to find fresh surprises when they open the legal vault."

"Officials at interest groups, including the Center for American Progress and People for the American Way, have called on President-elect Barack Obama to devote significant attention to the legal office. Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, urged this week that the new administration withdraw all of the OLC opinions in the interrogation and detention area and replace them with "a single opinion that should be made public." 

"Mary Nichols, the savvy negotiator who is leading California's complex effort to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, is reportedly a candidate to head President-elect Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency."

OUR OBAMA CABINET SPECULATION LIST:
Chief of staff: Emanuel NAMED / Deputy: Pete Rouse
Press Secretary: Gibbs
Biden chief of staff: Ron Klain
 
POTENTIAL CABINET MEMBERS:
Agriculture: Tom Vilsack, Tom Buis (Natl Farmers Union), Charlie Stenholm, Jim Leach
Commerce: Penny Pritzker, Kathleen Sebelius, Jason Furman, John Thompson (Symantec)
Defense: Robert Gates, Richard Danzig, Chuck Hagel, Sam Nunn, Jack Reed, Colin Powell, John Hamre
Education: Joel Klein (NYC), Linda Darling-Hammond, Kathleen Sebelius, Colin Powell, Jim Hunt, Arne Duncan, Inez Tenenbaum.
Energy: Kathleen Sebelius, Philip Sharp, Ed Rendell, Arnold Schwarzenegger (has said no), Al Gore, Jeff Bingaman, Jennifer Granholm
HHS: Tom Daschle, Howard Dean, Eric Whitaker
Homeland Security (priority): Tim Roemer, Ray Kelly, James Lee Witt, Tom Kean Sr, Jane Harman, Janet Napolitano
HUD: Jim Clyburn, Valerie Jarrett, Shirley Franklin (Atlanta mayor)
Interior: Bill Richardson, Inslee, Kitzhaber, Tony Knowles, Ken Salazar
Justice (AG): Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, Charles Ogletree, Deval Patrick, James Comey, Patrick Fitzgerald, Artur Davis, Tim Kaine, Jamie Gorelick (but was vice chair of Fannie), Ken Feinberg
Labor: Andy Stern (SEIU), Richard Gephardt, George Miller, David Bonior
State: John Kerry, Bill Richardson, Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Richard Holbrooke, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton
Transportation: Ed Rendell, Jane Garvey, Mortimer Downey, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Heminger, James Oberstar
Treasury (priority): Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin, Jon Corzine, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, Laura Tyson, Jamie Dimon, Jacob "Jack" Lew, Sheila Bair
Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland, Tammy Duckworth
 
OTHER POSITIONS:
CIA: Tony Lake, John Brennan
DNI: Tony Lake, John Brennan
FEMA: James Lee Witt
EPA: Howard Learner (Pres, Exec. Dir, Environmental Law and Policy Center), Ian Bowles (MA), RFK Jr, Sebelius, Kathleen McGinty (former secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection), Mary Nichols (chair of California's Air Resources Board)
FBI: Robert Mueller (term expires 2011)
Fed Chair: Ben Bernanke (at least for first year)
FDA: Steven Nissen (Cleveland Clinic), Joshua Sharfstein (Baltimore health commissioner), Janet Woodcock (Big Pharma's choice), Susan Wood (GWU occupational and environmental health professor), Diana Zuckerman (president, National Research Center for Women & Families).
Joint Chiefs: Michael Mullen (term ends in late 2009, can expect to be appointed for second term, per tradition.)
Natl Economic Council: Jason Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Laura Tyson
NSA: Jim Steinberg
NSC: Dennis Ross, Greg Craig, Susan Rice, Tony Lake
OMB: John Spratt Jr, Gene Sperling, Furman
Peace Corps: Chris Shays
UN Amb.: Caroline Kennedy, Susan Rice
USTR: Cal Dooley (American Chemistry Council president), Daniel K. Tarullo (Georgetown University law professor), Lael Brainard (Brookings Institution vice president)
 
Other mentions for various White House staff posts: Patti Solis Doyle, David Wilhelm, John Rogers, Bill Daley, Cass Sunstein, Bob Bauer (WH counsel), Michael Froman, Federico Pena, Lawrence J. Korb, Carol Browner (Clinton's EPA head)

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson yesterday backed away from the original strategy behind the $700 billion US plan for propping up the limping economy, opening the door to pump government cash into credit card companies, auto financing firms, and other consumer lenders in addition to banks."

Does anyone else get the funny feeling that we're going to discover very soon that the $700 billion has been spent and no one is quite sure what it got spent on? So far, the Bush Administration has committed nearly $300 billion of the $700 billion. And the Washington Post notes there's no oversight. "Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste. Nor has the first monitoring report required by lawmakers been completed, though the initial deadline has passed. 'It's a mess,' said Eric M. Thorson, the Treasury Department's inspector general, who has been working to oversee the bailout program until the newly created position of special inspector general is filled. 'I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing.'" 

As for the auto industry bailout, "The White House and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. made clear that while they are open to helping the auto industry, they are strongly opposed to Democrats' plans to carve cash out of the government's $700 billion financial rescue program. Despite those warnings, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he would move ahead and draft legislation, setting up a final showdown with the Bush administration."

With the auto industry taking center stage, Congressional Democrats are expressing doubt about the feasibility of one of Obama's other top priorities: an economic stimulus package. "House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in separate comments to reporters both cast doubt on Congress and the White House agreeing to a stimulus package. With no deal, anything Democrats could move through Congress might be vetoed by the White House."

"A leading Senate Democrat rolled out a sweeping healthcare plan yesterday, signaling that Democratic leaders in Congress intend to aggressively pursue significant - and probably expensive - healthcare legislation despite an expanding federal deficit and President-elect Barack Obama's intense focus on the ailing economy," the Boston Globe writes. "Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the head of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, unveiled an 89-page policy proposal that in many ways resembled the one Obama put forward during the campaign, with an important difference - it requires everyone to buy health insurance. In that respect, it is even more like the plan Massachusetts enacted in 2006 than Obama's, which did not include an individual mandate."

Here's the Baucus blueprint.

"Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 -- an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect's vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress," the AP's Fouhy writes. Republican pollster Frank Luntz marveled at Obama's 10 million-strong network, warning Republicans at the Republican Governors Association that Obama and his supporters are the most influential special interest group in America.

"Despite objections by Russia, the outgoing head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency urged President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to stick to the Bush administration's plans to place missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Dropping the planned installation of missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic 'would severely hurt' U.S. ability to protect against Iran's growing missile force, said Lt. Gen. Henry Obering of the Air Force." Obama "has said he would make sure any missile defense system has been proven to work before it is deployed." Obering said he has "confidence in the system."

LATE BLOOMERS: Remember how some kept repeating the mantra that undecideds would break 70-30 for McCain? Among those who decided in the two weeks leading up to the election, they broke right down the middle, 48% for Obama, 48% for McCain.

FIRST-TIMERS: The ratio of first-time voters to repeats was actually identical to the 2004 split. Eleven percent of the electorate voted for the first time in both the '04 and '08 contests. Here's the jaw-dropper, though: First-time voters went almost 70%-30% for Obama in this election, compared with a 53%-46% split for Kerry.

The AP looks at how early voting and same-day registration tipped the balance for Obama in North Carolina.

GEORGIA ON THEIR MINDS: Thirteen percent of Jim Martin's voters were first-time voters (versus 6% for Chambliss). Another weird quirk of the race: Democrat Martin actually LOST among voters who are worried about the economy, but won among those who aren't worried about it.  Nationally, that trend was reversed for Obama.

VETERANS DAY: John Kerry, a Vietnam vet who became an outspoken critic of the war, lost the veterans vote by a margin of 57%-41%. Obama, who never served, closed that margin against former POW John McCain, only losing by 10 points among vets.

ABOUT YOUR BERETTA: Barack Obama made gains over John Kerry among many target groups: Jewish voters, born-again Christians, veterans, and working women.  One place where the red and blue margins were static: gun owners.  The same percentage of gun owners supported Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008. 
 

ALASKA: "Mark Begich made a dramatic comeback Wednesday to overtake 40-year incumbent Ted Stevens for the lead in Alaska's U.S. Senate race," the Anchorage Daily News writes. "Begich, who was losing after election night, now leads Stevens by 814 votes -- 132,196 to 131,382 -- with the state still to count roughly 40,000 more ballots over the next week. The state Division of Elections tallied about 60,000 absentee, early and questioned ballots from around the state on Wednesday. The ballots broke heavily in the Democrat's favor, erasing the 3,000-vote lead the Republican Stevens held after election night Nov. 4."

Also: "While Stevens' era in the Senate is in danger of ending, another longtime Alaska Republican is returning to Washington, D.C. Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young maintained his solid lead over Democratic challenger Ethan Berkowitz after Wednesday's count. Berkowitz made some headway but Young still led by more than 15,000 votes."

CALIFORNIA: Per NBC's Jeff Hanley, backlash to the passage of California's Prop. 8 continues with the group Join the Impact coordinating the efforts of hundreds of local community organizations to hold protests simultaneously across the nation and abroad in Canada and the UK. Protests against the recently passed California ban on same-sex marriage are scheduled to occur in every US state and major city at 1:30 ET this Saturday.

GEORGIA: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previews McCain's return to the campaign trail.

The AP adds that McCain stumping for Chambliss "is in stark contrast to criticism McCain leveled against Chambliss after he ousted Democrat Max Cleland, a triple amputee wounded in Vietnam, in 2002. McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, condemned a Chambliss ad that questioned Cleland's commitment to national security and flashed a picture of Osama bin Laden. Democrats are now using McCain's comments against Chambliss in an Internet ad of their own. 'I've never seen anything like that ad,' McCain said then. 'Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to a picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield, it's worse than disgraceful, it's reprehensible.'"

Check out the Martin campaign's quote about an Obama visit. Clearly, they don't expect one.

ILLINOIS: The New York Times writes about the speculation about who will succeed Obama as Illinois senator. A Valerie Jarrett friend says she's not interested in the Illinois Senate seat.

MINNESOTA: Per the Star Tribune, "Minnesota won't know who won the contested U.S. Senate race until at least mid-December, but now the final arbiters for the recount have been named. They include a cast of heavy-hitters topped by Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, a former law partner of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, three other high-ranking judges and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a DFLer, who made the selections Wednesday."

The paper also has the skinny on the upcoming timeline for the recount. "For now, the grittiest, most challenging work will begin next Wednesday morning, when auditors, clerks, lawyers and volunteers gather in 120 locations across the state to methodically sort ballots, with lawyers from both campaigns at their elbows, in a process expected to last at least until Dec. 5. By Dec. 16, Ritchie said, the Canvassing Board … will start ruling on challenged ballots one by one, in favor of either Republican Sen. Norm Coleman or Democratic challenger Al Franken. Votes for other candidates will not be included in the recount, and ballots where no voter intent can be determined will be set aside."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
MIAMI -- The circus has come to town.

While Republican governors are introspectively and seriously examining what went wrong and how they can move forward, the woman who many think is the future of the party was spotted -- outside the room.

There was a noise and a usual media scrum of cameras and shouted questions.

What was all the commotion? It was Sarah Palin, of course. The scrum moved through the second floor after Palin got off an elevator. She answered a couple of questions as she walked, exited through the door and was gone.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
MIAMI -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
(R) laid out his vision for the Republican Party and how it can move
forward. It needs to get younger, more diverse and build a broader
coalition, he said here at the Republican Governors Association
conference a little more than a week after Republicans lost the
presidency and suffered big losses in both the US House and Senate.

"If we're going to successfully travel the
road, as a Republican, we need to see clearly, and be honest about
where we've been and where we're headed," he said.

Pawlenty implored the room of Republicans not
to give in to the emerging reform-versus-traditional arguments as to
what's wrong with the party.

"If we're going to be the majority," he said,
"we're going to have to see we need to grow the party. We cannot
compete in the Northeast, the West; we're losing seats in the Great
Lakes region. We have a large deficit with women, Hispanics, African
Americans -- people with modest financial circumstances. That is not a
formula for a majority."

Pawlenty stressed that the Party both needs to
modernize and be true to its values. "Both are true, and both can be
harmonized."

How?

Pawlenty said the party's values and principles
are "time tested." "We can build on them. We can be both conservative
and modern at the same time."

Pawlenty went on to emphasize fiscal policy (particularly on reducing debt), health care, education, and energy.

On the latter, he delivered a line that might sound like an opening 2012 shot at Palin. "'Drill baby, drill' by itself is not an energy policy," he said. "It's not enough. We're going to need wind and solar and bio mass."

That got a round of applause.

He added that the party couldn't be "co-conspirators" with big business and big unions, adding that the party had to reconnect with average working people and could no longer be viewed as a party of the rich.

Pawlenty has often talked about Sam's Club Republicanism -- the need to connect with Sam's Club shoppers instead of being perceived as the party of the Country Club. He expanded that to include K-Mart and Costco, people of "moderate means" and "small-business owners."

He also said the party needed to move beyond Ronald Reagan. "We all grew up in the age of Reagan," he said. "I passed out fliers for him; I got spat on by hippies. But he was president a long time ago."

He said Republicans needed to start confronting issues like health care, energy, and education. "Don't talk about it (health care)?" he said, referring to Republican candidates' aversion to addressing the issue. "It's one of the most pressing needs for our country."

Pawlenty kept it light, peppering jokes and self-deprecating humor through his speech in order to get across his message -- a little Minnesota nice with some tough medicine. 

"We're going to have our differences," he said. "But in places like the Northeast and Minnesota and out West, there aren't enough Republicans to throw people overboard."

From NBC's Chuck Todd, Carrie Dann, and Abby Livingston
Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis watched his state slip from a tossup to a 16-point slam-dunk for Barack Obama, after the McCain campaign dropped its ads there. Some would call him an endangered species -- a Republican in a heavy manufacturing state north of the Mason-Dixon line. He recently predicted in a blog post that "when our party once again adheres to our core values and beliefs, and can again demonstrate to America that we can be trusted on those issues, we will make a comeback – stronger than ever."
 
And today, he's announcing his intention to try to lead that comeback, becoming the first official candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. 
 
In a party relegated to the South and patches of the Western Plains on November 4th, Anuzis may end up being the only candidate for the post who hails from a northern blue state.
 
A former tech wizard who Twitters, Facebooks, and blogs on his website "That's Saul, Folks!" the Michigan Republican hopes to run as an ideological and tactical innovator who can bring the Republican Party into the 21st century. He announced his intention to run this afternoon via Twitter, Youtube, and emails to the RNC -- all before a formal release to mainstream media sources.
 
"The country asked for change," he told First Read this morning before formally announcing his bid as RNC leader, "And that was not just Democrats."

Other than sluggishness on the technological front, Anuzis believes that the Republican Party has suffered because Americans' trust in the brand has all but eroded. "We have to start walking the walk," he said. "When we have members who vote for higher taxes, higher spending, get caught in scandals, we lose our credibility. We have to start having candidates talking about the issues that they have credibility on."
 
The Michigan GOP chair since 2005, Anuzis hoped to steer the state back into the Republican fold for the first time since 1988. Economically hard-hit Michigan looked to be in play until the McCain campaign abandoned its efforts there in early October. Still, Anuzis says, his blue-state battle scars have readied him for the fight to recreate the Republican Party. "I'm coming from a state that has to fight for every vote in every election," he says. "That's how we are going to rebuild the GOP majority in America."
 
Among other potential candidates for the RNC post are former Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman, Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, South Carolina GOP leader Katon Dawson, and former presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Current RNC Chairman Mike Duncan also has signaled he may run for re-election in January.
 
Anuzis is a Reagan follower with an atypical background. He grew up in Detroit as the son of a member of the UAW.  While paying his way through college at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, he himself joined a union, the Teamsters. His political interest was sparked in college during the ascension of Ronald Reagan, and in the 1980s, Anuzis went on to help build the modern Republican Party in Michigan.
 
In the 1990s, he left politics to own Quick Connect USA, a telecommunications firm providing local, long distance, VOIP, Internet, and data services to residential and small businesses throughout Michigan.
 
Although he is still chairman of the company, he gave up day-to-day operations when he returned to political activism. In 2007, he branched out from the Michigan chairmanship and was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Republican National Committee. He also served on the Committee on Arrangements for the 2008 Republican National Convention. 

From NBC's Mark Murray
As a reminder that the political season isn't over just yet, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is airing a tough TV ad in Georgia against Senate challenger Jim Martin (D).

The ad's kicker tries to advance the argument that a Democratic victory in the December 2 run-off could give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. "With unchecked power hanging in the balance, Georgia can't afford another liberal like Jim Martin in Washington." (Politico's Ben Smith also smartly points out that the ad doesn't mention Obama at all.)

[Youtube:pPOK02wnkfs]

Meanwhile, in advance of McCain stumping tomorrow for incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R), Democrats have unveiled a new Web video noting that McCain denounced the controversial TV ad that Chambliss aired back in 2002 to help topple Democrat Max Cleland.

[Youtube:k5z5E2npJgw]

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann
*** The Bush factor: Many have attributed Obama's win to his organization, his performance among minorities and young voters, his nearly unlimited campaign cash, and his response to the economic meltdown -- and all deservedly so. But don't forget how big of a role Bush's unpopularity played in this election. With the single exception of Missouri (which barely went for McCain after a delayed call from NBC News), Obama won every state where Bush's approval rating was below 35% in the exit polls, and he lost every state where Bush's approval rating was over 35%. The state with the highest Bush rating? Utah, at 47%, which supported McCain by a 29-point margin. The place with the lowest? Washington DC, at 8%, where McCain got just 7% of the vote. Nationally, according to the exits, Bush's approval rating stood at a stunning 27%, mirroring the all-time low hit in the late October NBC/WSJ poll. Of those nationwide who approved of Bush's handling of his job at the White House, 89% voted for McCain, while those who disapproved broke for Obama by a margin of more than 2-1. The state that mirrored the exit poll data on the approval vs. victory margin split? Virginia, where Bush's approval rating stood at 27% and where Obama won by a seven-point margin. 

Video: NBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray offers his first read on the significance of Sarah Palin and the GOP governors meeting in Miami and John McCain's role now.

*** A new hope: The Republican Governors Association meeting kicks off today in Miami, where there will be plenty of opportunities to read the tea leaves for 2012. There's no doubt that most of the hope for the future of the GOP rests on the shoulders of many of these RGA members. On the agenda today: a luncheon at 1:15 pm ET featuring Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; a 2:00 pm roundtable discussing the 2008 election (which includes Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour); a 4:10 pm press roundtable (with Pawlenty, former Congressman and Bush Administration official Rob Portman, and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who hopes to join the RGA as California governor in 2011); and a 7:30 pm reception featuring Barbour. Thursday is Palin Day at the meeting, where the Alaska governor will hold a press conference with reporters at 9:40 am and then deliver a speech afterwards. Also speaking tomorrow at a "Looking Toward the Future" panel: Pawlenty, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, Tommy Franks, and Bill Kristol. And Thursday wraps up with a press roundtable (which includes Barbour, Sanford, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry) and a state dinner (featuring remarks from Crist and Perry). There will be a lot of little sidebar stories to cover, including the budding RNC chair race as potential candidates are all making their way down to Miami this week as well.

*** Backtracking on lobbyists? Yesterday, the Obama team announced new restrictions on lobbyists for serving in the transition. Among the rules: Federal lobbyists can't contribute money to the transition; if they've lobbied in the past year, they're prohibited from working in the fields of policy where they have lobbied; and they're prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they have worked. Yet it seems that these rules have opened up Obama to potential criticism that he's backtracked on an earlier promise he made during the campaign. Lobbyists, Obama once said, "will not work in my White House," although he later revised that line to say that they will not "run my White House." Are these new rules as strong as his language early in the campaign? No. Are these the strongest lobbyist rules for a White House transition that we've seen? Yes. But all this reflects Obama's struggle with keeping his campaign promises while facing the reality that so many people he may want to appoint might be people who have previously lobbied.

*** The Mormon church's power? The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder notes that the Mormon Church "has earned some serious cred in social conservative circles" after its work in helping to pass California's gay-marriage ban. Just askin', but does this have repercussions for Romney in 2012? Here's the official word from the church in an article a spokesman references: "Mormon church members undertook a perhaps unprecedented mobilization, contributing an estimated 40 percent of the individual donations made to the Yes on 8's $30 million-plus campaign. Yet the Salt Lake City church, which did not contribute to the campaign, sees its involvement in politics as unusual. 'I don't think there's any sense in the church that this coalition has more life beyond this one issue,' said Mike Otterson, a church spokesman. 'We haven't created a permanent alliance of churches here. What we did here was we came together to protect traditional marriage.'" Whether intentional or not, the potential help for Romney is this: to convince evangelicals that a Mormon in the White House wouldn't somehow undermine their own religion and their own values.

*** Si, se puede: During the sunset of Hillary Clinton's primary run, her supporters warned that Obama's failure to win Latino voters in the primaries spelled potential disaster for the general election. Those prognostications turned out to be overblown as Obama won 67% of the Hispanic vote, up from Kerry's 53% in 2004. Latino voters carved out a bigger piece of the electorate than in past years in every battleground state other than Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey. That includes jumps in relatively non-diverse states like Iowa (+2% from 2004), Montana (+3), and New Hampshire (+1). In the key Western states of Nevada and Colorado, Hispanics accounted for a 5% larger slice of the electorate than they did in 2004. In New Mexico, that number was a whopping 9%. And what about in those new swing regions where Obama mobilized coalitions of young and minority voters to flip red states into blue ones? In Virginia, Latino voters broke 2-1 for Obama and made up 5% of the electorate; in Indiana, they went 3-1 for the Democrat. In fact, this should be the single most worrisome trend for the GOP -- the spike in Latino turnout was across the country, not just in states that were already known to have large Latino populations.

*** The remaining races: Today, we might have a better sense of the outcome in the Alaska Senate race, when the state's Elections division expects to count most of the outstanding 90,000 early, absentee ballots or questioned ballots. Ted Stevens (R) currently holds a 3,257-vote lead over Mark Begich (D)… In Georgia, it's being reported that McCain will stump for Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) on Thursday… And in Minnesota today, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie holds a press conference to provide additional details of the recount in the unresolved Coleman-Franken Senate race.

*** More on Minnesota: The Republicans may be struggling how to deal with rebuilding their brand, settling the Georgia Senate run-off, or dealing with the Ted Stevens situation. But the party -- both in Minnesota and nationally -- seems to have quickly settled on a strategy to deal with the Minnesota recount. The party apparatus seems to be in sync in labeling the recount and the recanvass as somehow a questionable process. Using the fact that Franken picked up so many votes during the recanvass, the GOP talking point appears to be to question the recanvass and use that to issue a cloud over the recount process. Bottom line: It appears we're quickly heading to a situation where neither side is going to believe the final result of the recount.

Countdown to Georgia Senate run-off: 20 days
Countdown to Electoral Vote Count: 57 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 69 days

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Per the Obama team, the president-elect and vice president-elect are in Chicago today, where they will hold private meetings. There are no public events scheduled.

The Boston Globe's front-page headline: "Obama softens ban on hiring lobbyists." "President-elect Barack Obama, who vowed during his campaign that lobbyists 'won't find a job in my White House,' said through a spokesman yesterday that he would allow lobbyists on his transition team as long as they work on issues unrelated to their earlier jobs. … [I]ndependent analysts said yesterday that the move is less than the wholesale removal of lobbyists that he suggested during the campaign -- and shows how difficult it will be to lessen the pervasive influence of more than 40,000 registered lobbyists. 'That is a step back and there is no other way of seeing it,' said Craig Holman, who lobbies on governmental affairs for the watchdog group Public Citizen. Nonetheless, he said, Obama is still making 'a very concrete effort to avoid what I consider a potentially corrupting situation.'"

The New York Times adds that "the new rules do seem to leave some wiggle room. Aides to Mr. Obama, who declared during the campaign that lobbyists would not 'find a job in my White House,' said the guidelines allowed for lobbyists to work on the transition in areas where they have not done any lobbying. Further, the rules apply to lobbyists who must register with the federal government; many people who work for lobbying firms or in other areas of the influence business in Washington do not have to register, because they do not personally lobby federal officials on specific issues." 

Bloomberg notes that while lobbyists will have a hard time getting in the door, major bundlers for Obama who did not lobby will be able to be involved.

The price tag on the Obama transition? $12 million.

Politico's Martin writes on how Obama faces less pressure for a diverse cabinet. "It's a potentially dicey decision. Obama campaigned around the notion that old divisions should be consigned to the past, a belief his election underscores. But he also won with overwhelming support from black Americans and is the very embodiment of the hopes and dreams of that community. To surround himself with a mostly white coterie of top advisers could turn off African-Americans."

However… The Wall Street Journal writes that Hispanic groups, crediting Obama's win to a surge in Latino support for the Democrat, are urging the President-elect to appoint a high-profile Hispanic to the Secretary of State post. "The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, an umbrella organization of 26 Hispanic groups, called on Mr. Obama to select Gov. Richardson, who endorsed Mr. Obama in March after dropping out of the Democratic race for president in January. Gov. Richardson, a Mexican-American, is a seasoned diplomat, having served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton."

The AP says, "President-elect Obama has hired former Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sam Nunn to help shepherd his Pentagon transition, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. … Transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Nunn will perform 'an informal senior adviser role throughout the defense transition process.' Nunn's role has been described by others, speaking anonymously because the transition teams have not been announced, as the leader of Obama's defense transition. Similarly, a senior administration official said former Secretary of State Warren Christopher would advise Obama on his State Department transition."

But NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports that Nunn has an informal advisory role only, while Christopher has no role whatsoever. NBC's Libby Leist adds that a senior US official confirmed that Tom Donilon and Wendy Sherman have both been tapped to help the Obama transition team at the State Department

A source close to the Secretary of Defense tells CQ Politics that Robert Gates is "reluctant but willing to stay on in the short term" in a new Obama administration.  The expectation under that scenario would be that Gates be replaced after as much as a year in his current post by former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig.  
 
Former Iowa governor and one-time presidential candidate Tom Vilsack is shaping up to be the frontrunner for Obama's Secretary of Agriculture.

Obama wants the U.S. Senate to accelerate the confirmation of his top appointees to help Obama get started early in tackling major problems, a top Obama adviser said on Tuesday.

Chief of staff: Emanuel NAMED / Deputy: Pete Rouse
Press Secretary: Gibbs
Biden chief of staff: Ron Klain
 
POTENTIAL CABINET MEMBERS.
Agriculture: Tom Vilsack, Tom Buis (Natl Farmers Union), Charlie Stenholm, Jim Leach
Commerce: Penny Pritzker, Kathleen Sebelius, Jason Furman, John Thompson (Symantec)
Defense: Robert Gates, Richard Danzig, Chuck Hagel, Sam Nunn, Jack Reed, Colin Powell, John Hamre
Education: Joel Klein (NYC), Linda Darling-Hammond, Kathleen Sebelius, Colin Powell, Jim Hunt, Arne Duncan, Inez Tenenbaum.
Energy: Kathleen Sebelius, Philip Sharp, Ed Rendell, Arnold Schwarzenegger (has said no), Al Gore, Jeff Bingaman, Jennifer Granholm
HHS: Tom Daschle, Howard Dean, Eric Whitaker
Homeland Security (priority): Tim Roemer, Ray Kelly, James Lee Witt, Tom Kean Sr, Jane Harman, Janet Napolitano
HUD: Jim Clyburn, Valerie Jarrett, Shirley Franklin (Atlanta mayor)
Interior: Bill Richardson, Inslee, Kitzhaber, Tony Knowles, Ken Salazar
Justice (AG): Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, Charles Ogletree, Deval Patrick, James Comey, Patrick Fitzgerald, Artur Davis, Tim Kaine, Jamie Gorelick (but was vice chair of Fannie), Ken Feinberg
Labor: Andy Stern (SEIU), Richard Gephardt, George Miller, David Bonior
State: John Kerry, Bill Richardson, Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Richard Holbrooke, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton
Transportation: Ed Rendell, Jane Garvey, Mortimer Downey, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Heminger, James Oberstar
Treasury (priority): Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin, Jon Corzine, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, Laura Tyson, Jamie Dimon, Jacob "Jack" Lew, Sheila Bair
Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland, Tammy Duckworth

Other positions:
CIA: Tony Lake, John Brennan
DNI: Tony Lake, John Brennan
FEMA: James Lee Witt
EPA: Howard Learner (Pres, Exec. Dir, Environmental Law and Policy Center), Ian Bowles (MA), RFK Jr, Sebelius, Kathleen McGinty (former secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection), Mary Nichols (chair of California's Air Resources Board)
FBI: Robert Mueller (term expires 2011)
Fed Chair: Ben Bernanke (at least for first year)
FDA: Steven Nissen (Cleveland Clinic), Joshua Sharfstein (Baltimore health commissioner), Janet Woodcock (Big Pharma's choice), Susan Wood (GWU occupational and environmental health professor), Diana Zuckerman (president, National Research Center for Women & Families).
Joint Chiefs: Michael Mullen (term ends in late 2009, can expect to be appointed for second term, per tradition.)
Natl Economic Council: Jason Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Laura Tyson
NSA: Jim Steinberg
NSC: Dennis Ross, Greg Craig, Susan Rice, Tony Lake
OMB: John Spratt Jr, Gene Sperling, Furman
Peace Corps: Chris Shays
UN Amb.: Caroline Kennedy, Susan Rice
USTR: Cal Dooley (American Chemistry Council president), Daniel K. Tarullo (Georgetown University law professor), Lael Brainard (Brookings Institution vice president)
 
Other mentions for various White House staff posts: Patti Solis Doyle, David Wilhelm, John Rogers, Bill Daley, Cass Sunstein, Bob Bauer (WH counsel), Michael Froman, Federico Pena, Lawrence J. Korb, Carol Browner (Clinton's EPA head)

The AP has some more names on the transition list.

The Los Angeles Times tackles the issue of Obama managing the high expectations for him. "The high visibility of old hands and familiar faces underscores a tension that is already running through Team Obama: The president-elect has promised to overthrow Washington's habits of partisanship and cronyism. But it's tempting to turn to seasoned veterans to help him avoid the kinds of rookie mistakes that hobbled Clinton and President Carter. Both learned the hard way that a Congress controlled by the president's party does not guarantee smooth sailing."

"President-elect Barack Obama will not meet any foreign leaders attending the global financial summit in Washington, but Obama aides would likely be tapped for meetings, a top Obama adviser said on Tuesday," Reuters reports.

The New York Times: "Coming so soon after last week's election, the summit meeting has proved an uncomfortable moment for the president-elect and an early test of his handling of international diplomacy. Even as aides are still closing his campaign headquarters and just beginning to assemble a governing team, they are fending off interest from foreign governments eager to take the measure of the next president and trying to avoid tying him to the departing administration. Several Obama advisers, in separate interviews, all used the word 'awkward' to describe the situation. But Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, said: 'While some may say it's awkward that he's not there, it would be far more problematic to be there. We firmly believe there is only one president at a time.'"

"Aides to President-elect Barack Obama distanced themselves on Tuesday from reports that President George W. Bush had pressed Obama to back a free trade deal with Colombia in exchange for help for the struggling automobile industry. … 'I would characterize our relationship as collegial,' said John Podesta, co-chair of Obama's White House transition. 'Whatever happened this morning was the result of reports which I think were not accurate.'"

With all the advice President-elect Obama is being given (whether he's asking for it or not), "what's a president-elect to do when confronted with a blizzard of conflicting counsel and competing priorities, particularly if he's to avoid overtaxing Congress's limited attention span?" the Boston Globe's Lehigh asks. "Well, keep in mind that most basic of axioms: Dance with the one that brung ya. If there was one issue that gave Obama traction in this campaign from the beginning, it was his opposition to the Iraq war. Aside from the endless discussion about whether and how to meet with foreign rascals and rogues, the war was certainly the largest general-election foreign-policy difference between Obama and McCain. As president, Obama needs to stay focused on a careful, phased withdrawal from Iraq."

Between 2004 and 2008, Hispanic voters INCREASED as a percentage of the electorate in the following battlegrounds: AZ (+4), CO (+5), IA (+2), IN (+2), MI (+1), MN (+2), MO (+1), MT (+3), NV (+5), NH (+1), NM (+9), NC (+2), ND (+2), OH (+1), PA (+1), SD (+3), VA (+2), WV (+3), and WI (+1).
 
Between 2004 and 2008, Hispanic voters DECREASED as a percentage of the electorate in the following battlegrounds: FL (-1), GA (-1), NJ (-1).

In an appearance on Leno -- his first interview since losing the general election -- McCain defended Palin and gave a bit of analysis on the campaign. "'I knew I had a headwind. I can read the polls,' he said, in an obvious reference to a political climate soured by an economic crisis and unpopular Republican president and war. What's this say about the GOP brand? The 'party has a lot of work to do. We just got back from the woodshed,' he said."

"Aside from wryly indicting his own 'personality,' Mr. McCain declined to speculate on why he lost the election," the New York Times adds. "He defended his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who some of his own aides, speaking anonymously, have blamed for his defeat. 'Did you expect mavericks to stay on message?' he asked, before saying he 'couldn't be happier with Sarah Palin' and identifying her as part of a group of young governors, including Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who represent 'the next generation of our party.'"

Also: "When Mr. Leno asked Mr. McCain about a run in 2012, when he would be 76, he responded: 'I wouldn't think so, my friend. It's been a great experience, and we're going to have another generation of leaders, and I'll hope I can continue to contribute.'"

The Times' Alessandra Stanley on Palin's recent TV interviews: "Unleashed and not humbled, Ms. Palin is on a speed date with history, upending protocol as she goes. She put herself on full display, in interviews with NBC and Fox News before Mr. McCain had a chance to take a no-victory lap on 'The Tonight Show.' And she has many more appearances scheduled throughout the week, including a star turn at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami on Thursday."

More: "Ms. Palin could be turning to television to restore her tarnished image, jumpstart a 2012 presidential bid, or both. But so far, viewers have mostly witnessed some of the very traits — disarming candor and staggering presumption — that drove some McCain campaign aides to leak damaging accusations about her."

MoDo also targets Palin this morning.

Is this Charlie Crist's coming out party as a future national leader of the GOP? The St. Pete Times frames the RGA meeting this way. "As Republicans analyze last week's results, they need look no further than outside their hotel to see how Floridians split their tickets. Miami-Dade gave Obama a huge 140,000-vote margin, but also returned three Republicans to Congress. Even as voters embraced diversity by choosing the nation's first black president, they also approved a ban on gay marriage in the Florida Constitution."

"Crist says the key to success is for Republicans to be like him: work with Democrats, seek 'common sense' solutions and avoid wedge issues that divide Floridians. 'I'm very proud of how our administration has been able to bring people together in a bipartisan fashion — almost a nonpartisan fashion,' he said."

"Crist's centrist, hopeful style has kept his approval ratings strong even during a prolonged economic slump, but it has at times strained his support among conservatives  in his own party."

In an interview with Hotline's On Call, current RNC chairman Mike Duncan suggested that he's open to holding on to his job and said he'll make up his mind in the next 70 days if he runs for re-election. "You should believe that you can do a better job the second time," Duncan said. "Certainly, I think I've learned a lot of things that I would be able to apply the second time. It's also, you don't have the constraints when there's not a (Republican in the) White House. You involve your membership more. You have more of a responsibility, everything from fundraising to candidate recruitment. So there's a lot of exciting opportunities with it."

ALASKA: "A week after Election Day, about 30 percent of the Alaska votes that will decide the fate of convicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens haven't been counted. The Alaska Division of Elections expects to count most of the roughly 90,000 early, absentee ballots or questioned ballots remaining on Wednesday. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, leads Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, by 3,257 votes."

GEORGIA: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that McCain "will campaign for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Chambliss's campaign has confirmed… McCain's Georgia visit will be one of his first public appearances since he lost the presidency to Obama on Nov. 4."

Chambliss' opponent, Jim Martin (D), will hold a press conference today to discuss McCain's visit to the Peach State. While Saxby Chambliss has cast the run-off election as the first campaign of the 2010 election cycle, Jim Martin is focusing his campaign on who will work with our new president to help get the economy moving again," the Martin campaign said in a release.

"Aides who worked in Barack Obama's presidential campaign are heading to Georgia to help Jim Martin in his hotly contested Senate runoff, two Democrats close to Martin's campaign said Tuesday," the AP reports. "The sources, speaking only on condition of anonymity on a matter of campaign strategy, said about 100 Obama field operatives will help with Martin's grass roots turnout in the three weeks left before a Dec. 2 runoff against incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. They stressed that the campaign is still staffed primarily with Georgia volunteers. The Obama ground troops are coming mostly from other Southern states." Martin himself confirmed the NBC's Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC yesterday that some Obama aides were heading to the state to help and that at least 25 offices in the state are continuing to be run by the Campaign for Change.

MINNESOTA: Secretary of State Mark Ritchie holds a press conference today in St. Paul, MN, where he will reveal additional details for the recount in the Coleman-Franken Senate race. Per a release, Ritchie "will release the names of the state canvassing board members who will seated for both the Nov. 18 meeting and the board meeting following the recount. He will also provide a preliminary list of recount locations, as well as dates and times when counting will occur in the counties and cities who have established their schedule."

The lawyers are coming! The lawyers are coming! The Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Fritz Knaak, an attorney with Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign, said Tuesday that 'perhaps 120 Coleman lawyers" may descend soon on each of the estimated 100 recount sites to be set up in each of the state's 87 counties and in large cities as the process gets underway next week. Spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said that DFLer Al Franken's campaign is also busy assembling a team of supporters, volunteers and lawyers with plans to cover every recount site."

Also… Here's a CW-setter for the CA GOV race. A new Field poll about the 2010 race labels Feinstein and Whitman as the very early favorites for the Dem and GOP nominations.

From NBC's Amna Nawaz and Abby Livingston
John Podesta, Obama's White House transition co-chair, today promised the "strictest, most far-reaching" ethics rules "ever applied" to a presidential transition. Podesta made that promise in a press briefing at his staff's offices in Washington, DC.

Those rules prevent federal lobbyists from working for the transition in the fields of policy for which they lobbied in the last 12 months. They must also "cease all lobbying activities" while working for the transition, and they can't lobby on their transition-team issues for 12 months after ending their service. A gift ban similar to the one recently passed in Congress also has been instituted.

Replying to the question on whether some expertise may be lost in adhering to these rules, Podesta simply said, "So be it," reiterating Obama's commitment have the "toughest" rules to "stop the revolving door" in Washington politics and reduce lobbyists' influence. His office today released bipartisan declarations of support for these rules from both the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution and the more-conservative American Enterprise Institute.

With an expected staff of 450 and $12 million budget to see through the transition, Podesta pledged the "most open" and "most transparent" transition in history. More than $5 million of that money will come from Congressional funding and the rest from individual donors.

He also announced the creation of "agency review teams" that will complete reviews of more than 100 government agencies, commissions, and offices in the White House. The information gathered by these teams will be used by agency officials "to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration," according to Podesta. The teams will be dispatched as early as November 17 to begin work, and their names will be posted on the transition Web site (www.change.gov) as early as this week.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
In stressing the need for an additional economic stimulus package, Sen. Hillary Clinton took her request directly to President Bush today in New York. 

"I met with the president briefly today," Clinton said on a conference call with reporters, referring to a Veterans Day event on the Intrepid Air, Sea & Space Museum. "I asked him to work with Congressional leadership so we could get a stimulus package and gave him a letter both making this request and outlining what I thought we should be doing."

In the letter, she proposes a stimulus package which includes previous proposals from Democrats including money for roads projects, increases in unemployment insurance and more food assistance. Clinton asked Bush to work with Congressional leaders to pass a bill next week when members return for a lame-duck session. (It's unclear if any package will pass at this point.)

On the conference call, she also supported more financial help for the auto industry but insisted that the aid "not be unconditional money," hinting at possible changes that could effect labor unions. Clinton said the industry "should be willing to take a hard look at salaried and hourly employees, so that we know that we're getting the maximum return, maybe with changes in work rules." 

On other political issues, there was this...

On Joe Lieberman's future: "We're [Senate Democrats] going to be addressing that next week. And I'll have more to say about it once we're back in session and have had a chance to consult and consider the options."

Has Obama asked HRC to 'spearhead' any issues in the next Congress?
"We've had an ongoing discussion going back many weeks now about our mutual commitment to the kind of changes we both campaigned on. And I have made it very clear that I am more than ready and willing to assist as a partner in the Senate to get the work done."

Will Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff be good for New York's interest?
After addressing the question with a broad answer that Obama understands the needs of big cities, the reporter asked again about Emanuel.

"Do you think that Rahm's going to be accessible to New Yorkers," a New York reporter asked.

"Rahm Emanuel?" Clinton asked with a smile in her voice. "He's going to be accessible to me."

Election Night: Witnessing Obama's Victory at LBJ's Hotel in Austin, Texas

From NBC's Rich Gardella
On Election Day, after voting at my usual Maryland polling place, I flew to Austin, Texas, to work on a story relating to the financial crisis. I was planning to watch election coverage alone in my hotel room that night, but the stars and planets aligned to make me a witness to a far more interesting scene.

I'd contacted two friends, former NBC News colleagues now in new lives out there, to ask if they wanted to meet up while I was visiting. So it was that I found myself early that evening sitting in the bar of the Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin, watching election returns in the middle of an increasingly ecstatic Obama crowd.

When one of my friends suggested meeting at the Driskill, I was enthusiastic. I had checked out its Web site when looking for an interesting place to stay in Austin. (I ended up choosing another hotel because I thought the Driskill was a bit too expensive for my employer's dime.) I knew the Driskill was an historic hotel, built in 1886 by a cattle baron as a grand hotel to rival those in Eastern cities. I knew President Lyndon Baines Johnson had watched the returns for the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections from his suite there.

What I didn't know, but probably would have guessed if I'd thought about it, was that the Driskill Hotel was the location of the local Travis County Democratic Party's election night celebration. My friend, a Democrat, was planning to attend the Party's party in the hotel ballroom with her husband later in the evening. She invited me to go along with them, but I declined. That party was a partisan political event. I'm the journalistic equivalent of a teetotaler when it comes to attending political events, unless they're related to news assignments. Although I do vote, I do not discuss my politics.

But I decided having a beer at the public bar amidst the spillover crowd with my friend and her husband was acceptable. I called my other friend, who'd driven up from Houston, and he agreed to join us there. I didn't know his politics, but he didn't object when I explained the Driskill's role that night.

I ended up in the Driskill bar, between my two friends, watching election coverage on one of the large flat-screen monitors scattered throughout the bar's lounge areas. The place was jam-packed. You couldn't make out much of what the reporters and pundits on TV were saying without reading lips. But it didn't matter much to the crowd, because the graphics were delivering most of the news by themselves. 

My Democrat friend gushed excitedly as the graphics of state after state turned blue. Her husband watched intently, rarely turning from the screen. Both broke into enthusiastic applause and cheers along with much of the rest of the crowd each time a key swing state was announced into the Obama column. Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia. It quickly became clear which way the tide was running. 

Meanwhile, my other friend, while genial and participating in conversation, was unexpressive as the results billboarded the flatscreens. Eventually my Democrat friend and her husband made their way to the party in the hotel's ballroom.

Whatever your political affiliations or leanings, Obama's victory speech was indisputably an historic event. The bar filled with deafening whooping and hollering as Obama strode to the podium in Chicago.

My thoughts turned to LBJ. What would the 36th President's reactions have been, had he been able to watch this night's election returns at his old hotel, and observe that moment? A white politician instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, prohibiting racial segregation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave millions of African-Americans in the South the right to vote.  The President who appointed Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to the Supreme Court. 

Lyndon Johnson left some good clues to how he would have reacted to that moment of history in the commencement address he delivered to graduates at Howard University in June 1965. The title of the speech was "To Fulfill These Rights." Its words ring powerfully if you imagine them playing over scenes of Election Night 2008:
 
"In far too many ways American Negroes have been another nation: deprived of freedom, crippled by hatred, the doors of opportunity closed to hope. In our time change has come to this Nation, too."

"The voting rights bill [of 1965] will be the latest, and among the most important, in a long series of victories. But this victory -- as Winston Churchill said of another triumph for freedom -- "is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

"This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result."

That day, Johnson expressed long-term goals for the civil rights movement:

"…to help the American Negro fulfill the rights which, after the long time of injustice, he is finally about to secure. To move beyond opportunity to achievement. To shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public practice, but the walls which bound the condition of many by the color of his skin. To dissolve, as best we can, the antique enmities of the heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy, and do wrong--great wrong--to the children of God."

As I replay Obama's victory moment in my head, it occurs to me how well Johnson's phrase captures the ultimate significance of Barack Obama's election: to fullfill these rights. Shattering forever the racial barriers and walls around the highest office in the land.

An African-American couple was directly in front of me, arms around each other as they watched Obama take the podium. Like many others, her cheeks were wet with tears as the crowd shushed itself into silence to hear the next President as he began to speak.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

In that bar that night, it was that line and these next two that drew the most affirmation and approval:

"It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the UNITED States of America."

Obama emphasized the word "United," and many in the crowd responded to that with an emphatic "YES!"

"…we rise or fall as ONE nation; as ONE people."

"YES!!!"

I scanned the crowd, wanting to record in my memory the emotions and facial expressions on display. Heads shaking slowly, in wonder, almost disbelief. Many soft smiles. Many wet eyes. It was a roomful, rare in life, of hope and optimism.

I turned to my previously unexpressive friend, searching his face. Was that a tear forming under in his eye? I wasn't sure.

After we pressed through the crush of beaming, embracing, high-fiving people on our way out of the Driskill, and out onto the street, where a throng had formed to cheer happily honking cars through an intersection, I asked him. 

"What did you think?"

His hand clapped down on my shoulder, a resigned look in his eyes. "Rich," he said, "I'm a Republican."

As I flew home, I mulled his reaction. 

The emotion on display in that bar was testament at least in part to how far this nation has come in fulfilling those rights. 

Perhaps the lack of emotion in some like my friend may be testament to the same thing: the nation has begun to fulfill these rights enough so that some see Barack Obama not as the first African-American president, but as just another Democrat.

Rich Gardella has been a producer for NBC News since 1994. Since 2003, he has worked for the NBC News Investigative Unit, primarily with senior correspondent Lisa Myers. He has produced hundreds of investigative reports about the war on terrorism, homeland security, political and financial issues for NBC Nightly News and the TODAY show.

Here are excerpts of the speeches from President Bush and Vice President Cheney on Veterans Day and the statement from President-elect Obama:

PRESIDENT BUSH (at the Intrepid in NY):
Veterans Day has a long and solemn history.  The event that inspired it took place 90 years ago today, in a small railway car in a French forest.  November the 11th, 1918, the Allied Powers and Germany signed an armistice that ended one of the bloodiest wars the world had ever witnessed.  By the time that day arrived, World War I had raged for more than four years, and more than 8 million soldiers had given their lives.  But on the 11th hour of the 11th day of that 11th month, the guns fell silent -- and peace began to return to Europe.

To commemorate the war's end, President Woodrow Wilson declared that November the 11th should be remembered as Armistice Day -- a holiday to honor the brave sacrifices of the American soldiers who defended democracy and freedom overseas.  Today, we know it as Veterans Day -- a day when we celebrate and thank and honor every man and woman who have served in our Armed Forces. 

These noble Americans are our sons and daughters.  They are our fathers and mothers.  They are our family and they are our friends.  They leave home to do the work of patriots -- and they lead lives of quiet dignity when they return.  Today we send a clear message to all who have worn the uniform:  Thank you for your courage, thank you for your sacrifice, and thank you for standing up when your nation needed you most. 

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA:
"As we mark Veterans Day, all Americans are united in honoring the extraordinary service and selfless sacrifice of our nation's veterans.  Our veterans are part of an unbroken line of heroes who have defended the American people and stood up for American values - from the beaches of Normandy to the battles in East Asia; from the deserts of Kuwait to the skies above Kosovo; from the cities of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan. Since 9/11, a new generation of American heroes has borne a heavy load in facing down the threats of the 21st century, and their families have been asked to bear the painful absence of a loved one. These Americans are the best and bravest among us, and they are all in our thoughts and prayers.

"On this Veterans Day, let us rededicate ourselves to keep a sacred trust with all who have worn the uniform of the United States of America: that America will serve you as well as you have served your country. As your next Commander-in-Chief, I promise to work every single day to keep that sacred trust with all who have served. May God bless our veterans, and may God bless the United States of America," said President-elect Barack Obama.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY (at Arlington National Cemetery):
There is no mystery behind the endurance and the success of American liberty.  It is because in every generation, from the Revolutionary period to this very hour, brave Americans have stepped forward and served honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States.  Every one of them deserves the thanks and the admiration of our entire country.  

Military service demands a special kind of sacrifice.  The places where you live and serve, the risk you face, the people you deal with every day -- all of these are usually decided by someone else.  For the time you spend in uniform, the interests of the nation must always come first.  And those duties are shared by family members who make many sacrifices of their own, face separation during deployments and sometimes bear extreme and permanent loss. 

Military service brings rewards as well.  There is the pride of developing one's character and becoming a leader, serving a cause far greater than any self interest and knowing that our nation's cause is the hope of the world.  Every man and woman who wears America's uniform is part of a long, unbroken line of achievement and honor.  No single military power in history has done greater good, shown greater courage, liberated more people, or upheld higher standards of decency and valor than the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
In a 13-minute address at a Veterans Day memorial service, Biden told Delaware residents even though he may be leaving his Senate seat, they will always own his heart.
 
"I want to tell you straight up with the national press here that the title that means the most to me other than father is being the senator from the state of Delaware," Biden said at the War Memorial Plaza in New Castle, Del. "Nothing, nothing. And I mean it sincerely. If you haven't figured it out yet, you own my heart. And there is no title, including Vice President of the United States that will ever be as honorific to me as being the senator from the state of Delaware for so many years, and I thank you for that, that honor, genuinely an honor."
 
Biden reflected on the national and state transitions, calling their ease a testament to veterans' service.

"It's amazing in this democracy how smoothly the transitions go," Biden said. "It is really, literally, amazing that I can tell you in my discussions with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, it is a remarkable testament to what you all fought for, that there is absolutely, absolutely, totally complete unadulterated cooperation and movement as if it's seamless. And it's a real testament to this country."
 
Unlike other wars, Biden stressed, many of the enlisted and National Guard members are serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Never have we had a war before where we sent people back into harm's way where they are shot at, cleaning blood out of their humvees, once, twice, three, four, five times," Biden said. "That has never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happened in American history."
 
Biden became solemn toward the end of his address, promising on behalf of President-elect Obama and himself to protect the troops, which includes his son Beau, while oversees and back home. "The only sacred, sacred obligation this nation has is to care for those we send to war and prepare them and equip them with the best available in the world and care for them when they come home."

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann
*** Palin-palooza: Just in case you didn't get enough of Palin during the final two months of the election, she is now conducting another round of national interviews, including one with NBC's Matt Lauer that aired this morning on TODAY. (She told Lauer she was disappointed she wasn't able to give a concession speech so she could brag up McCain; she was "flabbergasted" about the shopping spree story, saying she had never asked people to buy her anything; and she said that she didn't want to get into "inside-baseball strategy" when asked whether the McCain camp did a poor job managing her interview requests.) Then later this week, Palin heads to the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami, where she will hold a press conference, give a speech, and stoke further speculation about a possible 2012 presidential bid. All of this comes just ONE WEEK after the GOP presidential ticket lost. (By comparison, McCain goes on Leno tonight to give his first interview since losing.) No doubt Palin still remains a compelling story. And, as we wrote yesterday, she also has to defend herself to protect her reputation -- especially since Alaska is so far away. But at what point does this Northern Exposure become too much? And when do Alaskans begin demanding that, after two months on the trail, she return to her day job full time? 

*** Traditionalists vs. reformers: All the attention on Palin comes as David Brooks today writes about a divide in the Republican Party between Traditionalists (many of whom champion Palin) versus the Reformers (who want a more inclusive, modern, and moderate GOP). Brooks argues that -- at least in the short term -- the Traditionalists are going to win. "There is not yet an effective Republican Leadership Council to nurture modernizing conservative ideas. There is no moderate Club for Growth, supporting centrist Republicans… Reformist Republican donors don't seem to exist. Any publication or think tank that headed in an explicitly reformist direction would be pummeled by its financial backers. National candidates who begin with reformist records — Giuliani, Romney or McCain — immediately tack right to be acceptable to the power base." By the way, NBC's Ana Maria Arumi crunched exit poll numbers on Palin for David Gregory's "1600" on MSNBC. The results: The voters who found her to be qualified to be president were Republicans (74%), from the South (45%), and from rural areas (45%). She greatly underperformed among college grads (35%), independents (35%), and in the suburbs (40%).

*** Will he stay or will he go? This has become one of more talked-about questions in Washington: Will Bob Gates remain as Defense secretary in an Obama Administration? NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports that, per sources familiar with the transition game plan, the Obama folks would like for Gates to stick around for around nine months before a Democratic deputy secretary takes over. But a Defense official tells Mik that Gates would not want to be seen as simply a "transitional" or "holdover" Defense secretary. The official says if the Obama Administration imposed a specific timetable for a departure, Gates could immediately be labeled a "lame duck" secretary -- whose authority could be easily dismissed or even undermined by the new team of Democratic appointees. If anyone could pull it off, Mik writes, it would be Gates. But to make sure, Gates would likely ask that the timetable for any extended term in the Pentagon be loosely defined as "under four years," giving both Obama and Gates the necessary wiggle room for a gradual but smooth and orderly transition. And that, Mik adds, has always been Gates' ultimate objective, whether he leaves or stays. Our two cents: If all they are working out is a timeline, and this isn't a staffing issue, then this deal might get done. 

*** Obama's performance with white voters: We took a look at Obama's performance with white voters in all 50 states. In 13 of them, Obama received less than 35% of the white vote. His three lowest performing states: Alabama (10%), Mississippi (11%), and Louisiana (14%). The other 10: GA (23%), SC (26%), TX (26%), OK (29%), AR (30%), UT (31%), AK (32%), WY (32%), ID (33%), and TN (34%). On the other hand, Obama won the white vote in 18 states and DC: CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, IA, ME, MA, MI, MN. NH. NY. OR, RI, WA, WI and VT. Obama's lowest percentage of the white vote he received in a state that he won: NC (35%). The highest percentage of the white vote Obama received in a state he lost: MT (45%).

*** McCain's underperformance: Channeling John Harwood of CNBC and the New York Times, we also looked at the state-by-state vote totals. And we found that Obama's wins in many battlegrounds weren't solely a result of Obama increasing Kerry's totals from 2004; they were also because McCain's performance was DOWN from Bush's in 2004. (See our "Unbuilding 2008" section for the stats here.) In short, we saw a one-sided rise in turnout. Had McCain's turnout increased at the same rate as Obama's in many of the battleground states, we would have topped 140 million, which was the argument some in the McCain campaign were making. They needed a HUGE turnout -- and they didn't get it.

*** The Graduate(s): Number crunchers have already unpacked the college split for this election cycle to show Obama's gains among grads. (In 2004, 42% of voters nationwide were college graduates, and they split equally for John Kerry and George W. Bush. This time, that number was boosted to 44%, and the vote broke 53%-45% in the Democrat's favor.) But consider this: In 2008, college-educated voters outnumbered non-college grads at the polls in eleven states (CO, VA, NH, PA, NJ, CT, MD, NY, MA, VT, and DC). Barack Obama won all of them -- by an average of more than 24 percentage points. In states that McCain won, on average, 42% of voters were college grads. In states that Obama won, on average, 47% had a college diploma.

*** The remaining races: The likely December 2 run-off in Georgia between incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) and challenger Jim Martin (D) is charging full speed ahead. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has a new Web video arguing that Martin win could mean 60 votes and a rubber stamp for Obama (although that assumes that Stevens and Coleman will lose in Alaska and Minnesota). Moreover, Huffington Post reports that Obama is dispatching aides to Georgia to help Martin. And it appears that GOP big-wigs, including McCain, will campaign for Chambliss.

*** He's baaaack…: The AP writes, "Two-time presidential candidate John Edwards is returning to the public stage for a speech, three months after he acknowledged an affair with a woman hired to produce videos of him in 2006. Edwards is scheduled speak Tuesday night about the election at Indiana University. The school said the public lecture will also include a question-and-answer session."

Countdown to Electoral Vote Count: 58 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 70 days

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