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Both Candidates Assemble Their Transition Team

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2008

ROANOKE, Va. - Sen. Barack Obama's transition team recently held a large organizational meeting as part of an accelerated effort to plan for a possible new administration, Democratic officials said Friday, as the nominee embarked on a late-campaign tour of traditional Republican states with a fresh attack on Sen. John McCain.

Under the direction of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff under President Clinton, the transition effort includes a dozen groups divided into different areas of responsibility, these officials said. One said Cassandra Butts, a longtime Obama associate, is in charge of the group dedicated to personnel for a new administration.

The effort is largely separate from the campaign structure that helped plan and execute Obama's remarkable rise to the position of front-runner in the race.

McCain's transition planning team is led by John Lehman, who was Navy secretary in the Reagan administration and a member of the Sept. 11 commission.

The disclosures came as Obama accused McCain of wanting to cut $882 billion from Medicare over a decade to finance his health care plan. He said the result would be more costly drugs, diminished services and lower quality care for seniors.

Ahead in the national polls, Obama made his accusation as he campaigned in a traditionally Republican state where he has invested heavily in hopes of collecting 13 electoral votes.

Obama's remarks on Medicare amounted to a new front in the campaign's health care wars, and were aimed at persuading older voters to abandon McCain.

Obama said his own proposals for Medicare include "eliminating wasteful subsidies to big HMOs in Medicare, and making sure seniors can access home-based care, and letting Medicare negotiate with drug companies for better prices."

Also on Friday, Obama won endorsements from two unlikely newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

Although the Chicago Tribune is the largest daily in Obama's hometown, it hasn't backed a Democrat in its 161-year history. The Times hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate since 1972, when it backed President Nixon's re-election.

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