Obama will announce Ms. Clinton as state secretary - I might be premature but the Obama nominations so far just say that there will be no real change. You can not change things with personalities who have a clear agenda for special interests which are not the interest of the American people or comes any close to the change mantra.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7741241.stm
US Global Trends report: Key points
Global Trends 2025, a new report written by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) ahead of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, envisages a future world marked by diminished US power, dwindling resources, and more people.
The NIC, an independent government body, emphasises that its report is not about "crystal-ball gazing" but offers a range of potential futures, including the following key trends.
The US will remain the single most important actor in 2025 but will be less dominant.
It will retain its considerable military advantages, but scientific and technological advances; the use of "irregular warfare tactics" by others; the proliferation of long-range precision weapons; and the growing use of cyber warfare attacks "increasingly will constrict US freedom of action".
The US will still have a role to play as a "much-needed regional balancer" in the Middle East and Asia, despite the recent rise in anti-Americanism.
It will also be expected to play a significant role in using its military power to counter global terrorism, and will be seen as key to finding solutions to climate change.
US policy is likely to be strongly determined by internal developments in a number of key states, particularly China and Russia.
The current trend of global wealth and economic power shifting roughly from West to East, described as "without precedent in modern history", will continue.
Brazil, Russia, China and India are picked as countries which might benefit, boosted by rising oil and commodity price rises that have generated windfall profits for the Gulf states and Russia, as well as a shift in manufacturing and some service industries to Asia.
No other countries are projected to rise to the level of China, India, or Russia, and none is likely to match their individual global clout.
China is poised to have more impact on the world over the next two decades than any other country. If current trends persist, by 2025 China will have the world's second largest economy and its military will play an increasingly important role.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,591459,00.html
Obama and the Ballooning US Debt
By Gabor Steingart
By some estimates the total cost of Barack Obama's campaign promises could come to $2 trillion. The new president will have to disappoint many of his voters -- or resign himself to an enormous government deficit.
Barack Obama has avoided the public since he was elected the 44th president of the United States. But the public has not been equally reticent. In fact, it both seeks and finds him.
A so-called protective pool, consisting of journalists from a wide range of publications, follows the new president-elect around the clock. The dispatches filed by these reporters, whose lives currently alternate between rushing around and spending hours waiting, read like excerpts from an espionage report. They write about the most mundane aspects of his life, including when he goes to the gym, how many hours he spends in his Chicago office and which restaurants he and his wife Michelle frequent.
US President-elect Barack Obama has a lot of election pledges to live up to.
The reason for the new political star's public reserve is obvious: The Democrats are busy with their own affairs. Forming a new government is a delicate and complicated business.
A tough and probably dramatic wrangling over the priorities of Obama's presidency, which begins on Jan. 20, 2009, is taking place behind the closed doors of the president-elect's headquarters in downtown Chicago. In light of the tense financial situation, both in the country and in the government's budget, the foundation is already being laid, at this early stage, for the young president's long-term success or early failure.
Learning to Say 'No'
During the campaign, he repeated his mantra -- "Yes, we can" -- several times daily. But now it will be more important for Obama to know when to say "no."
The outcome of this internal debate will depend in part on which groups have a greater say in the party in the future. The so-called "deficit hardliners," the party's frugal wing, face off against a phalanx of union leaders, leftists and professors who refer to themselves as "progressives."
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