Subject: RE: Agenda for Sunday
From: "Chris Lu" <[email-masked]>
To: "Pete Rouse" <[email-masked]>, "John Podesta" <[email-masked]>, "John Podesta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 12:04:05 -0500

Since I know John is traveling, I've pasted the draft agenda into an
email below.  

The theory of how I set up the meeting is that we've never had a
conversation with Obama about his management and decision-making style,
and how that would work under the existing White House/Cabinet
structure.  It strikes me that since we have 3 hours, it wouldn't be a
bad way to spend a half hour discussing that issue - and that will guide
the way we set up the White House and how we focus our personnel picks.
Knowing that we'll probably run out of time anyway, I thought personnel
was the most important thing we needed to cover to make Obama feel
comfortable with the process, and then if we have time, perhaps
something on policy and agency review last (which I have a feeling he's
not going to care much about).

TRANSITION MEETING AGENDA - SEPTEMBER 7

Overview of transition project

*	Components of project

*	Status and timelines

White House

*	Role of senior WH staff, especially chief of staff

*	Relationship of White House to Cabinet

*	How Barack wants to make decisions and what management structure
he wants to create will affect his personnel decisions through the
Administration

Personnel

*	Importance of identifying a broad range of candidates beyond the
usual suspects, 

	*	Diversity
	*	Public v. private sector experience
	*	Inside the Beltway v. outsiders
	*	Republicans and Independents
	*	Consideration of campaign and Senate staff, outside
advisors, supporters, friends, VP recommendations
	*	Team attitude, no drama

*	Clarification of our policy on hiring individuals who are or
have been lobbyists

*	White House priority positions

*	Cabinet and subcabinet positions

*	Management of cross-cutting issues like climate change, health
care reform, and homeland security

*	Process for making personnel decisions

	*	How will Barack participate in the process?
	*	How will Biden participate in the process?
	*	How do we incorporate Obama advisors and key people on
the Hill?
	*	Is there a way to get potential nominees to spend time
with Barack before Election Day that will not generate media
speculation?
	*	Which candidates are the most important to interview?

*	What decisions should be made before Election Day?

*	In general, how much of Barack's time should be spent on these
decisions before Election Day?

Policy

*	Is Barack satisfied with the focus on six major policy areas
(national security, health, energy, economy, education, and
immigration)?

*	Should we further prioritize these?

*	Should we consider doing some kind of summit, like the 1992
Clinton economic summit, during the transition period?

Agency review process

*	General overview of what we're trying to accomplish

Other issues that Barack thinks we should focus on

Next steps

*	How does Barack want to be apprised of developments?

*	What additional materials does he want?

*	What additional meetings does he want?

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Chris Lu

[email-masked]

(312) 505-4864 (cell 1)

(703) 309-4720 (cell 2)

From: Pete Rouse 
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 12:58 PM
To: John Podesta
Cc: Chris Lu
Subject: Agenda for Sunday

This is Chris' draft.  Do you want to edit it?