CHICAGO — As the scale of his mandate widened Thursday, Barack Obama began preparing for a rare wartime transfer of power, getting his first classified national security briefing, accepting an invitation to meet with President Bush next week and naming a White House chief of staff.
Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago congressman who is widely considered one of the Democratic Party's sharpest strategists, accepted Obama's offer to run the White House.
Obama spent part of the day returning calls to nine world leaders who had phoned to congratulate him on a historic victory that put his party firmly in command in Washington. Election results still dribbling in increased his odds of achieving his ambitious agenda. Obama can bank on solid majorities in the House and Senate, plus a decisive margin of victory.
Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon conceded defeat Wednesday, pushing the Democratic hold on the Senate to 57. And fresh tallies showed that Obama narrowly won North Carolina, which had not voted for a Democrat for president in 32 years.
With that pickup, Obama carried nine states the Republicans won four years ago, while his electoral vote victory over John McCain rose to 364 to 162. Missouri is the lone state still too close to call.
At the White House, the Bush administration is making plans for the transition. The Justice Department has already given security clearances to the president-elect's transition team.
Bush told his staff Wednesday to see to it that the Obama team hits "the ground running." The two men are to meet at the White House on Monday. On the agenda will be the Iraq war and the reeling financial markets.
"We face economic challenges that will not pause to let a new president settle in," Bush told Cabinet members and other White House staff gathered on the South Lawn. "This will also be America's first wartime presidential transition in four decades. We're in a struggle against violent extremists determined to attack us, and they would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people."
In a statement released by his campaign, Obama said: "Michelle and I look forward to meeting with President Bush and the first lady on Monday to begin the process of a smooth, effective transition. I thank him for reaching out in the spirit of bipartisanship that will be required to meet the many challenges we face as a nation."
