If you're looking to track the transition to the Obama administration in real time, make sure you're going to the right Web site. It turns out there are two sites called "Change," and they present vastly different visions of "change we can believe in."The official site, which the tech-savvy Obama folks got up and running after a bit of a delay, is http://www.change.gov. This features Obama and sidekick Joe Biden standing in the glow of their election-night rally in Chicago's Grant Park. It's a government Web site, but it looks like a stripped-down version of the campaign site.
Then there's http://www.change.com, a snazzy page welcoming visitors with a blond model in Victoria's Secret-esque lingerie. (NSFW -- That's Internet-speak for "not safe for work." We know you wouldn't go there anyway, of course.)
The latter site is for the Change line of lingerie, beachwear and other corsetry. The products are made with "the finest silks, exclusive embroideries, the softest microfibers and sophisticated laces, sourced from reputable suppliers around the world," according to the page.
Obama's site, meanwhile, features information about the inauguration and the biographies of Obama and Biden, details Obama's policy positions and invites visitors to apply for jobs in the new administration.
This is not the only instance of similar sites related to the president-elect. Obama's campaign Web site,http://www.obama.com, differs from http://www.obama.biz, a Japanese site. That site appeared to be about Obama, an ancient coastal city in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. (Obama means "little beach" in Japanese.)
But my Japanese is a bit rusty, so we relied on a friend to translate. Apparently the site is for a legal office that helps people with personal debt. There are a fair number of loan sharks in Japan and people go into huge debt that they can't pay back. The loan adviser, Hiromi Obama, provides counseling and advice to help people out. The Japanese term is Shiho Shoshi, we're told, which can be translated as "judicial scrivner."
One topic on the Obama Web site is called "Open Government." It appears to be a dead link, but we're nevertheless sure the president-elect is very committed to open government.
An e-mail that was circulated Thursday only reinforces our notion of how open they'll be.
From: Larry Strickling
Date: November 6, 2008 6:58:14 PM EST
To: [policy groups]
Cc: Priya Singh
Subject: . . . Reminder -- Decline All Reporter Interviews and Speaking Requests.
This is a reminder that our communications department has directed all of you, as policy committee members, to decline all requests from reporters and all speaking invitations regarding the transition, the Administration's priorities and related issues. If you are contacted by a reporter to discuss these matters, please refer the reporter to Priya Singh. . . . If you receive an invitation to speak on these issues at a conference or meeting, please decline the request. At this point in time, there is no one to whom to refer the request and do not offer to do so on behalf of the organization extending you the invitation. We realize these requirements may appear Draconian but so soon after the election, with the transition effort just being organized, it is important that no one who was involved with the campaign and the policy committees be speculating in public on these sensitive matters.
Doesn't appear draconian at all. We're quite used to it.
The Obama transition team considers former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack a near shoo-in for secretary of agriculture, according to a source close to the transition. Vilsack, who dropped out of the presidential race last year after a short-lived bid, was an early backer of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. But during the general election, he campaigned hard for Obama in Iowa.
Vilsack is well-liked by both environmentalists and food industry leaders, the source said. In a sign that he is actively seeking the job, Vilsack has written opinion articles in recent weeks about agriculture policy, linking farming to energy independence and national security.
Should things not work out with Vilsack, Obama might turn to Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
Word in the military-industrial complex is that the Defense Transition Team includes several senior-level Clintonites, including Michelle Flournoy, who had been principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction; Kurt Campbell, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific and also on the National Security Council staff, and Bill Lynn, former undersecretary of defense (comptroller).
Some of the names floating in the private sector for deputy secretary of defense include the oft-mentioned former Navy secretary Richard Danzig; former undersecretaries of defense for acquisition Jack Gansler and Paul Kaminski, and Lynn. The key undersecretary for policy -- the job most famously held of late by Douglas Feith, could go to Flournoy or Campbell.
Meanwhile, students of Kremlinology, who used to carefully study who was closest to the top leader on the podium in Red Squarereviewing the troops on May Day, are now thinking former deputy national security adviser James Steinberg may have the inside track to be Obama's national security adviser. The evidence? Steinberg appeared on television walking right by the president-elect and transition chief John Podesta Thursday after the motorcade pulled to a halt in Chicago.
The Obama transition team leaders for Foggy Bottom haven't shown up yet to occupy a fine area that's been set up for them. But word is the team, said to be headed by former secretary of state Warren Christopher, his chief of staff, Tom Donilon, and Wendy Sherman, counselor to former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, should be showing up soon.
UPDATE: Obama Agenda Temporarily Off Change.gov
President-elect Barack Obama's transition team deleted from its www.change.gov Web site lengthy policy statements of how the new administration would handle some two dozen agenda topics from foreign policy to taxes to energy.
The policy statements, which had mirrored those on Obama's campaign Web site, were replaced on the transition site with a paragraph saying the new administration "has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies.
"The principal priorities of the Obama Administration include: a plan to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives."
Asked why the policy agenda items were deleted, Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said, "We are retooling the Web site."
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