| | Obama emphasizes economic proposals in first press conference
 Barack Obama addressed reporters for the first time since winning the presidential election in a press conference that took stock of the deepening economic crisis and set goals for his administration.
"This morning we woke up to more sobering news about our economy," Obama said, referring to abysmal 6.5 percent unemployment rate, the higest in 14 years. He called the current fiscal downturn "the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime."
Obama outlined a series of goals, including relief for the middle class and plans to help the struggling auto industry.
This morning, I met with members of my Transition Economic Advisory Board, who will help guide the work of my transition team in developing a strong set of policies to respond to this crisis. We discussed several of the most immediate challenges facing our economy and key priorities on which to focus on in the days and weeks ahead:
First, we need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provides relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear. A particularly urgent priority is a further extension of unemployment insurance benefits for workers who cannot find work in the increasingly weak economy. A fiscal stimulus plan that will jump-start economic growth is long overdue – and we should get it done.
Second, we must address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on other sectors of our economy: small businesses that are struggling to meet their payrolls and finance their holiday inventories; and state and municipal governments facing devastating budget cuts and tax increases. We must also remember that the financial crisis is increasingly global and requires a global response. [...]
Third, we will review the implementation of this Administration’s financial program to ensure that our government’s efforts are achieving their central goal of stabilizing financial markets while protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance. It is critical that the Treasury work closely with the FDIC, HUD and other government agencies to use the substantial authority they already have to help families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.
Finally, as we monitor and address these immediate economic challenges, we will be moving forward in laying out a set of policies that will grow our middle-class and strengthen our economy in the long-term. We cannot afford to wait on moving forward on the key priorities that I identified during the campaign, including clean energy, health care, education and tax relief for middle class families. "I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead," Obama said, flanked by his team of economic advisers.
The president-elect said he would like to see Congress pass another financial rescue package "sooner rather than later," but he promised that it would be his top priority if nothing is completed before Inauguration Day.
Obama emphasized that he was working with President Bush, who he noted would still be in charge for the next few months.
"I am not president, and I won't be until January 20th," Obama said.
Obama offered no clues about whom he would appoint to top cabinet posts like Treasury Secretary.
The transition team will "move with all deliberate haste," in vetting appointees, he said. "But I want to emphasize deliberate as well as haste."
With stock markets once again in freefall, Obama convened a meeting of his high-powered panel of economic advisers before the first press conference since his triumph in Tuesday's election against Republican John McCain.
He spoke Thursday with the leaders of nine US allies -- Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea -- as the center of political gravity shifted away from President George W. Bush.
Obama, a 47-year-old senator from Illinois serving his first term in Congress, was mulling over top cabinet picks including the all-important job of Treasury secretary as fears of a recession intensify.
Several names mentioned as potential Treasury overseers to command a 700-billion-dollar bailout for Wall Street were to attend Friday's meeting here of Obama's economic lieutenants.
They include former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, ex-Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and Laura Tyson, chairwoman of the National Economic Council under Clinton.
New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner is also in the media running for Obama's Treasury secretary, after supervising the US central bank's unprecedented explosion of intervention in the markets.
Bush said he had directed "unprecedented" cooperation between the White House and Obama before the Democrat is inaugurated on January 20, in the first presidential handover since the September 11 attacks of 2001.
The president-elect, who has spent the past two days catching up with his young family and thanking his exhausted campaign staff in Chicago, is already receiving classified CIA intelligence as he prepares to take over.
Obama received his first post-election national security briefing from Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, at the FBI building in downtown Chicago Thursday.
ABC News meanwhile reported that Obama's campaign chief strategist David Axelrod, one of the main architects of his election victory, had agreed to become a senior advisor in the White House.
But campaign communications czar Robert Gibbs told AFP that reports he would become the Obama administration's public face as White House press secretary were "premature."
This video is from CNN.com, broadcast November 7, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
With wire reports
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