Mr Obama leaving after a day of meetings with his staff, as a transition team prepares to oversee the job of vetting cabinet nominees and preparing the vital first political moves of the new administration. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
CHICAGO - MR BARACK Obama on Wednesday put the first building blocks in place for his administration even as rejoicing reverberated around the world after his election as the first black US president.
CHICAGO - BARACK Obama will bring a careful, deliberative style to the White House that differs from President George W. Bush's tendency to rely more heavily on his gut instincts.
The Democrat made history on Tuesday by becoming the first black US president-elect and did so despite his Republican rival John McCain's efforts to highlight the absence of executive experience on Mr Obama's resume.
A top Democrat said the president-elect has asked combative congressman and former Clinton White House aide Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff, a vital post which helps sets the tempo of the administration.
In an immediate reminder meanwhile of the grave economic crisis that Mr Obama will inherit when he is inaugurated in January, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 496.29 points on resurgent fears of a deep recession.
Mr Emanuel helped mastermind the Democrat's 2006 capture of the House of Representatives from the Republicans and is known as a sharp-elbowed master of the back corridors of power in Washington.
House Majority leader Steny Hoyer told MSNBC that Mr Emanuel had been offered the job, and was mulling whether to accept it.
'It is my understanding that he has not yet made that decision,' Mr Hoyer said.
A day after triggering a political earthquake not seen since Mr Ronald Reagan's 1980 landslide, Mr Obama also named key figures of the transition team which will spend the next 76 days preparing for his inauguration and presidency beyond.
The transition office in Washington will be run by co-chairs John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Mr Clinton, Mr Pete Rouse, who was Mr Obama's Senate chief of staff and the president elect's close friend Valerie Jarrett.
The transition team will oversee the job of vetting cabinet nominees and preparing the vital first political moves of the new administration.
Mr Obama, a 47-year-old Democratic Illinois senator, crushed Republican John McCain with an inspirational message of hope and change.
'Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,' Mr Obama told 240,000 people gathered at a joyous victory party here late on Tuesday.
However, he also accentuated the seismic shift of what many African-Americans thought they would never live to see, as an orgy of celebration erupted in cities nationwide.
'If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,' he said.
The Democrat and his incoming vice president, Senator Joseph Biden, must work in short order to douse the economic blaze while winding down the war in Iraq and renewing the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mr Obama is promising to renew bruised ties with US allies, and to engage some of the nation's fiercest foes such as Iran and North Korea. He has vowed to tackle climate change and guarantee health care for nearly all Americans.
Mr Obama had a quiet start to his first day as president-elect, breakfasting with his wife Michelle and their two young daughters before hitting the gym and later heading on to visit his Chicago campaign headquarters.
Washington's favourite parlour game began in earnest as rumours swirled over who he might tap for his cabinet. The secretaries of treasury, state and defence will be defining elements of the Obama administration.
Congratulations poured in from world leaders, along with demands to turn a page on Mr Bush's divisive foreign policy. China and Russia both pledged 'constructive' dialogue with the Obama government.
Top advisers to the next president will attend a White House summit being convened by President George W. Bush on Nov 15, as 20 world leaders thrash out a coordinated response to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.
The outgoing president offered generous praise to his mansion's next occupant.
Pledging his 'complete cooperation' in the transition of power, Mr Bush invited Mr Obama and Michelle to the White House at their earliest convenience.
'This moment is especially uplifting for a generation of Americans who witnessed the struggle for civil rights with their own eyes - and four decades later see (their) dream fulfilled,' he told reporters in the Rose Garden.
With results confirmed from 48 states and the District of Columbia, Mr Obama had 349 Electoral College votes, which are awarded state by state, smashing past the magic number of 270 needed for victory.
Mr McCain had just 163 electoral votes, according to several estimates, and Mr Obama joined a select club of presidential victors to win as well more than half of the popular vote, tallying 52 per cent to 46 per cent for the Republican.
The race was still too close to call in North Carolina and Missouri. But Mr Obama beat Mr McCain in all of the other major battlegrounds including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Mr Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 to take Virginia and Indiana, in a historic political realignment after Mr Bush's razor-thin victories in the past two elections.
Democrats also gained an unshakeable grip on power at the other end of Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue.
They took at least five more Senate seats to number 54 to the Republicans' 40. With another two independent senators who caucus with Democrats, that left them four short of a 'super-majority' that could overcome Republican stalling tactics.
In the House of Representatives, the Democrats picked up 20 more seats for a total of 252, against 173 for the Republicans. -- AFP
