Transition Details in Chicago and at State

Marc Ambinder has the Obama administration (how weird is it to type that) announcement of the transition team here. I don't see any massive surprises in the announcement, although one might take the inclusion of New Mexico Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Federico Peña, Susan Rice in a prominent way as signaling the fact that those folks may get pretty high-level gigs. More to come on this shortly.

In actual brass tacks, the folks who will be leading up the transition at the State Department got announced today. Under Secretary for Political Affairs William Burns and Under Secretary for Management Affairs Patrick Kennedy will co-chair the transition, and Executive Secretary Daniel Smith will coordinate it.

American Foreign Service Association President John Naland writes to me "All three are highly experienced career Foreign Service Officers. Focusing on the senior two (Burns and Kennedy), I know from many converstions with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, that both are highly regarded on the Hill. Senator Obama even mentioned Bill Burns by name during one of the presidential debates (during the second debate, I think, mentioning that Bill had been sent to meet with an Iranian government official). So, this gives State a strong, talented, and respected transition team."

Naland says far and away the top priority for the transition is getting the next president to recognize the importance of devoting resources to development and foreign assistance. "Unless urgent steps are taken to strengthen the diplomatic element of national security, no amount of jetting around the globe by the President or Secretary of State will restore our nation’s role as the world’s leader in global affairs," he wrote.