President-elect Obama talks with Senator Hillary Clinton at a December 1 news conference in Chicago.

Although Barack Obama does not take office until January 20, 2009, the president-elect is busy preparing for his presidency by meeting with former and current government officials and appointing advisers who will play key roles in his administration.

December 7

On the anniversary of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, President-elect Obama said Americans “owe it to all our veterans to honor them as we honored our greatest generation,” adding, “not just with words, but with deeds.”

Obama announced he will nominate retired General Eric Shinseki to be the next secretary of veterans affairs. Shinseki, the nation’s first Asian-American four-star general, had a 40-year career with the Army.

“We don't just need to better serve veterans of today's wars, we need to build a 21st century [Department of Veterans Affairs] that will better serve all who've answered our nation's call,” the president-elect said. “There is no one more distinguished, more determined or more qualified” to do this work than Shinseki, Obama said.

December 6

In a weekly radio address, President-elect Obama laid out goals for what he calls an economic recovery plan. Obama said his plan will jump-start the economy by making public buildings energy efficient, improving infrastructure and modernizing schools.

His plan would “launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy efficient,” Obama said. He said that would save taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Obama said his plan would “create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s.”

His economic recovery plan also would “launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen,” Obama said. By improving the American education system, “we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world,” the president-elect said.

Obama will need to work with the next Congress to pass legislation in order to make most of his proposals a reality.

December 1

Selections for several Cabinet and White House positions focused on national security were announced by President-elect Obama at a press conference in Chicago.

Topping the list is former first lady Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Current defense secretary Robert Gates is being asked to remain at his job, and James Jones, a former chief of the Marine Corps, is Obama’s choice for national security advisor.

Obama also announced Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as his choice for secretary of homeland security, Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general and Susan Rice as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

A multilateral foreign policy is needed in an increasingly interconnected world, the president-elect said, but he added that under his leadership the United States will be “relentless in defense of our people.”

For more information, see “National Security Team Announced by Obama.”

November 24

President-elect Barack Obama made his first official Cabinet selection, announcing Tim Geithner as his pick for Treasury secretary.

Obama also announced a team of financial experts and former Clinton administration officials who will help craft the next administration’s response to the current financial crisis.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers will head the National Economic Council; Christina Romer will chair the Council of Economic Advisors; and Melody Barnes will serve as director of the Domestic Policy Council.

“I’ve sought leaders who could offer both sound judgment and fresh thinking, both a depth of experience and a wealth of bold new ideas — and most of all, who share my fundamental belief that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street without a thriving Main Street, that in this country, we rise and fall as one nation, as one people,” Obama said.

For more information, see “President-elect Obama Announces Top Economic Advisers.”

November 19

Obama’s transition team announced it has established a series of policy working groups that will review existing policies and develop the priority policy proposals for the upcoming administration. The policy working groups will focus on the following areas: economy, education, energy and environment, health care, immigration, national security, and technology, innovation and government reform.

Some of the groups are led by people well-known to political observers. For example, Tom Daschle, who oversees the health care group, is a well-known former senator who published a book earlier in 2008 on health policy. One of the leaders of the national security group is Susan Rice, a former State Department official and a foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign.

More information about the working groups is available on the Obama Transition Web site.

November 18

Future first lady Michelle Obama took her daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, to Washington to visit potential future schools.

“She brought the girls to visit choices for their new schools to make sure they find the right fit,” Michelle Obama’s spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld told journalists. “Their move to Washington is her top priority.” The spokeswoman declined to say which schools the Obamas were visiting, but that did not keep Washington journalists from staking out the schools they thought were most likely contenders in hopes of catching a glimpse of the future first family.

This political transition also marks a personal transition for the Obama family, with two young children moving to a new city for the first time in their lives. Many Americans are interested in this personal transition and are following reports about how the daughters might redecorate White House bedrooms or what kind of puppy they will adopt — their father promised them a dog when they move to Washington. But avid first-family fans probably will be disappointed: Like most presidents before him, Obama has vowed to keep his daughters out of the public eye as much as possible.

November 17

Barack Obama invited the man he defeated for the presidency, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, for a private meeting at Obama’s transition office in Chicago. In the United States, it is not unusual for former political rivals to work with each other, but it is somewhat extraordinary for two presidential competitors to meet so soon after the election.

“At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family,” Obama and McCain said in a joint statement.

“We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation’s security,” they said. Few details about the meeting were released.

November 16

President-elect Barack Obama officially resigned his seat in the U.S. Senate, where he had represented the state of Illinois since 2005.

“Today, I am ending one journey to begin another. After serving the people of Illinois in the United States Senate — one of the highest honors and privileges of my life — I am stepping down as senator to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation's next president,” Obama said.

It was during Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign that his impassioned speech at the Democratic National Convention made him a national figure. On the day Illinois voters headed to the polls in 2004, an exit poll asked if the not-yet-elected Obama would make a good president. Nearly half of the respondents said he would.