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The Rundown

By John Amick

8 a.m. ET: Barack Obama has enough on his plate as it is, but yesterday he may have entered a bizarre realm political scientists will reference for years to come. President-elect Obama, welcome to your personal Illinois Twilight Zone. It surfaced at a news conference in Chicago. The main participants were three ghosts of his Illinois past: Mr. Un-Popularity, the governor, who thrives on controversy, displays delusions of grandeur and is basically fueled by pure spite; Gov. Blagojevich's appointee to Obama's former Senate seat, Roland Burris, who seems more than willing to discard any "taint" surrounding his appointment; and Bobby Rush, the man who called Obama an "educated fool" after he defeated him in a 2000 House race and who ignited the news conference yesterday, saying, "I would ask you not to hang or lynch the appointee as you try to casitgate the appointor," adding a racial tone to the proceedings, as Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky said. Illinois aside, the Obamas have been denied access to the Blair House in Washington in the interim before January 15. Even in Kenya, where excitement from the election was high, hope is fading. At least it seems he will still have his online supporters to lean on.

As for the outgoing administration, things aren't going any smoother: Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson tells Financial Times that the U.S. didn't have the means to combat the financial meltdown; Bush Pentagon appointees are getting a pink slip from the Obama transistion team; the SEC is under fire for the Bernie Madoff scandal; former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is defending his anti-terror measures; and the press continues its calvacade of "Who is President Bush?" pieces.

It seems January 20 can't come soon enough for both administrations, for very different reasons.

By washingtonpost.com editors  |  December 31, 2008; 8:00 AM ET
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