WASHINGTON — President- elect Barack Obama plans today to announce six experienced hands to fill top administration posts, moving at record speed to name the leadership team that will guide his presidency through a time of war and recession.
His selections include longtime advisers and political foes alike, most notably Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and President Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, staying in his current post. The two were among six whom Obama planned to announce at a news conference in Chicago, Democratic officials said.
The officials said Obama also planned to name Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland-security secretary. He also planned to announce two senior foreign-policy positions outside the Cabinet: campaign foreign-policy adviser Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador and retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones as national security adviser.
The officials disclosed the plans Sunday on a condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss appointments ahead of the news conference. Those names had been discussed before for those jobs, but the officials confirmed that Obama will make them official today.
Obama also has settled on former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of Health and Human Services and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be Commerce secretary, but those announcements are not yet official. Last week, he named key members of his economic team, including Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as Treasury secretary.
