Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obamas-white-house-transition-strategy-begins-to-emerge Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript President-elect Barack Obama is beginning to name top administration officials as his transfer-of-power plan emerges. Analysts provide insight into how the process works. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: Today's announcement that Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel has accepted the job of White House chief of staff in the new Obama administration signals the start of the complicated process of transitioning from one president to another.For a look at what's involved, we are joined by Steven Hess, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution and the author of the book "What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect."And Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, he is currently advising the Bush administration's transition council.Thank you both for being with us.Norm Ornstein, I'm going to begin with you. This selection of Rahm Emanuel, what does it say about the kind of administration Barack Obama is going to be running? NORMAN ORNSTEIN, American Enterprise Institute: It was an interesting choice, Judy. You know, this is somebody Obama has been friends with for years, knows Chicago politics, knows the House of Representative, while, of course, Obama and Biden know the Senate, and has another quality besides having worked in the White House.You know, a president needs somebody who can make things happen. Harry Truman said, when Dwight Eisenhower got elected, "Poor Ike, he comes out of the military where you give an order and it happens. He's going to get here in the Oval Office and say, 'Do this, do that,' and nothing will happen."You need somebody tough enough to put the fear of God into the people in your own government so that the president's orders get carried out. And that's a quality Rahm has. JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Hess, you're smiling. What do you make of this? STEPHEN HESS, Brookings Institution: I'm smiling, because he mentioned the Harry Truman statement about Dwight Eisenhower. And, of course, what he did Dwight Eisenhower do? He brought in Sherman Adams.Sherman Adams had been in Congress. He was the governor. He was tough. He could get things to happen. And he was a very — he was a brass-knuckles type, as perhaps Rahm Emanuel is, as well.And for six years, until he got into a scandal himself, he did a very good job. So if that's the model, not bad.