President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rep. Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff drew fire Thursday from Republicans, and a few Democrats, who noted that a candidate elected on a call for change had turned to a veteran partisan pugilist for his first appointment. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's selection as chief of staff for Barack Obama drew criticism by Republicans and some Democrats.

The Obama transition team also announced Thursday, in a joint statement with the White House, that Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, will meet President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush on Monday afternoon at the White House.

"No matter how we cast our ballots, this election gives us all reason to be proud of our democracy and our country," Mr. Bush said to White House employees.

Mr. Obama also talked by phone with leaders of nine countries, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

But the first major task of the emerging administration was settling on a staff chief. Mr. Emanuel hinted at the difficult decision in his acceptance statement. In taking the job, the Illinois Democrat has left behind a career in Congress that began just six years ago but included engineering the Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 and rapidly ascending the ranks of leadership.

"I'm leaving a job I love to join your White House for one simple reason -- like the record amount of voters who cast their ballot over the last month, I want to do everything I can to help deliver the change America needs," he said. Mr. Emanuel, an Obama friend from Chicago's insular political world, brings to the post a hard-charging, sometimes profane voice that contrasts sharply with Mr. Obama's unflappable demeanor. He spent much of the Clinton administration inside the White House political office, shaping message and policy with a keen eye on its electoral impact. His legislative attention was focused on tax and health-care issues. But he angered some Latino organizations by steering the House away from a fight over an immigration-law overhaul.

In this amazing political year, as the Left runs around the country proclaiming Sarah Palin to be unqualified to be Vice President and that John McCain used poor judgment in selecting her, Joe Biden hands the Democrats a huge problem.  

Barack Obama's choice for VP, Joe Biden said yesterday that Hillary might have been a better pick to be Obama's running mate.  This calls into question Obama's judgment on several levels.  One, it's not just Republicans saying this and it's not just any Democrat - it's the Democrat Obama chose to be his running mate!  So for that reason alone we have to question Obama's judgment because Biden himself says maybe he wasn't the best choice.  Second, we have to question Obama's judgment because he chose a running mate who would publicly question his judgment!   In a year when conservative talk show hosts were salivating at the thought of a Biden pick, it can't be said that it was unknown that Biden often says damaging things.  There's a reason he only got 9,000 votes this year.  There's a reason why after two presidential runs he's never been the party's nominee.  Obama had to have known about Biden's debilitating foot-in-mouth disease and despite it, he chose Biden anyway. What kind of judgment does that show? 

Biden said yesterday, "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America.  Let's get that straight.  She's a truly close personal friend.  She is qualified to be president of the United States of America.  She's easily qualified to be the vice president of the United States of America and quite frankly [she] might have been a better pick than me!  But she's first rate."

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Obama Sets Standard that Puts Palin in the Lead

Pay close attention to what Obama said here because in this statement Obama compares the size of his campaign to the small Alaskan town Governor Palin led and suggests that since his campaign has more employees and spends more money that he is then the more experienced and more qualified executive. 

(Discuss this article here)

There's just one small problem here for Obama.  Obama apparently forgot that Governor Palin is also a governor.  And perhaps he didn't know, but the number of state employees Governor Palin leads in Alaska dwarfs anything his campaign could ever hope to hire.  And the Alaska state budget is some 22 times higher than the budget of the Obama campaign.