Reporter's Notebook: Gwen Ifill Discusses President-elect Obama's Cabinet Picks

Ifill also discussed what past transitions reveal about the ins and outs of picking top staff and what Sen. Ted Steven's re-election loss means for the Senate.

"They (Obama's team) want to avoid the pitfalls of what was considered to be a chaotic transition which was the Bill Clinton transition in 1992, where there were a lot of dramas going on. There was a lot of back and forth about who would get the chance to be confirmed who wouldn't. There were people who were nominated who were yanked. There were nanny scandals - people who had hired undocumented workers to work for them. All these things the Obama people want to get rid of before it happens," Ifill said.