Obama Meeting With McCain Today
Barack Obama will be meeting today with John McCain, scheduled for 12 p.m. ET at the transition headquarters in Chicago. Also in attendance will be McCain ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, and incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Poll: Public Confident In Obama's Cabinet Picks, Most Interested In Treasury
A new CNN poll finds that 77% of Americans are either somewhat confident or very confident that Barack Obama will make the right choices for his yet-to-be-selected cabinet. The poll also finds that 41% say the Secretary of the Treasury position will matter most to the country's future -- a sign of the country's overall economic stress -- followed by Secretary of State at 25%, Secretary of Defense at 24%, and Attorney General at eight percent.

Obama Team Vetting Bill Clinton, Ahead Of Possible Hillary Appointment
The New York Times reports that the Obama team is carefully vetting not just Hillary Clinton, but also Bill Clinton, in order to determine whether his dealings with foreign businesses and governments could create an unavoidable conflict of interest: "Among the known Clinton Foundation donors are the Saudi royal family, the king of Morocco, a foundation linked to the United Arab Emirates, the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, and a tycoon who was the son-in-law of Ukraine's ousted authoritarian president."

Obama Actively Courted Federal Employees Before Election
The Washington Post reports that Barack Obama wrote a series of letters to federal employees in the run-up to the election, at the urging of American Federation of Government Employees John Gage. In the letters, Obama pledged to reverse many Bush Administration policies and to pursue better workforce relations, including better funding for programs and pay for workers.

GOPers Differ Over Whether Party's Prospects Are Bad Or Abysmal
The Politico reports that there is a division of opinion in the Republican Party over whether the GOP's recent defeat was an isolated event or rather the start of more serious long-term problems. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and current RNC chairman Mike Duncan argue that things could be a lot worse and that the party is in decent shape overall, while other prominent Republicans like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman see serious demographic problems that could render the GOP non-competitive.

Norquist Vows That Calls For Modernization Will Be "Cheerfully Ignored"
Top right-wing activist Grover Norquist is dead-set against calls for the Republican Party to change its message or modernize on issues like global warming. "They will be cheerfully ignored," Norquist told the New York Times.

Eric Cantor: Setting Aside Last Eight Years, GOP Must Become Relevant
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who is widely expected to become the next House Republican whip, said the party has ceased to be relevant to people's everyday lives -- but this appears to be a dodge to avoid the question of the mistakes of the Bush years. "Let's set aside the last eight years, and our falling down in living up to expectations of what we said we were going to do," Cantor told the Washington Times. "It's the relevancy question."