Obama, on '60 Minutes,' talks about the challenges ahead
The president-elect also discusses his historic election, national security, Bin Laden, Lincoln, FDR and college football.
Reporting from Chicago — President-elect Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he was assembling his national security team as quickly as possible because there potentially could be "times of vulnerability" to terrorist attacks during White House transition periods.
In a wide-ranging interview on the CBS News program "60 Minutes," Obama also said that capturing or killing Osama bin Laden remained a "critical aspect" of the war on terrorism.
"He is not just a symbol," Obama said. "He's also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets."
Barack and Michelle Obama also reveled in achieving some level of normalcy again after the election, even as the president-elect confessed feeling a little overwhelmed as he prepared for the enormous challenges ahead.
"There are times, during the course of a given a day, where you think, 'Where do I start?' " he said during a session taped Friday in Chicago at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
He said he had already felt, like other presidents before him, that "there is a certain loneliness to the job."
Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are scheduled to meet today in Chicago. They are expected to be joined by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close friend to McCain, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Democrat selected to be Obama's chief of staff.
Obama refused to be pinned down about when he would make his first Cabinet appointments, responding "soon." He also said there would be Republicans in the Cabinet but declined to say whether he would appoint more than one.
On Sunday, Obama also formally resigned his Senate seat, sending a one-sentence letter to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who will select a replacement to serve through the 2010 election.
The president-elect's transition team also announced several new appointments.
Pete Rouse, a Capitol Hill veteran who ran Obama's Senate office and helped craft the foundation for his White House bid, was named a senior advisor, and Mona Sutphen and Jim Messina were selected as deputy chiefs of staff.
The Associated Press reported that Obama was also expected to name Greg Craig, who was President Clinton's impeachment lawyer, as White House counsel. In Obama's debate practice sessions, Craig played the role of McCain.
Asked by CBS' Steve Kroft whether he planned to put political enemies in his Cabinet, as Abraham Lincoln did, Obama responded by saying the first president from Illinois was a "very wise man."
