It's been pointed out dozens of times that it's pretty cool to have an adult coming in as president, and today's Obama press conference -- now underway -- is a case in point.

At the presser, Obama made his "green team" official: Steven Chu, a physics Nobel laureate, is his new energy secretary. Carol Browner, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is the head of a new policy council to coordinate climate, environment and energy issues. And Lisa Jackson, the chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, is head of the EPA.

"My administration will value science," Obama said, in what sounded like a pointed reference to his predecessor. "We will make decisions based on facts."

Obama went on to describe combating global warming as "a leading priority of my presidency and a defining test of our time."

The glowing praise from liberals of Chu would seem to constitute yet another blow to the "angry left" meme. More broadly, Obama's lines today will encapsulate for liberals as strongly as anything Obama has said just how big the potential of the moment feels right now, since the previous administration's disdain for "science" and "facts" contributed perhaps as much as anything else to the nightmarish quality the last eight years held for them.

A spokesperson for the Obama transition team is reaffirming the President-elect's commitment to rolling back the subsidies that oil companies enjoy, confirming that Obama's campaign promise on this score is still fully operative.

"Yes," replied Obama transition team spokesperson Nick Shapiro, when we asked him whether Obama remained committed to rolling back the oil company subsidies.

We posed the question to the Obama in the wake of yesterday's news that Obama wasn't imposing a windfall profits tax on the oil companies, something that got some progressives to worry whether Obama was preparing to soften his policies in the face of corporate opposition.

The Obama spokesperson's reaffirmation of his commitment to rolling back oil company subsidies could help mitigate such angst. It's unclear how or when the rollback will take place, since Obama hasn't even taken office yet.

The reason this is noteworthy is that the Obama campaign has largely refused public comment on its legislative priorities. Yesterday The Huffington Post was able to get an Obama spokesperson to offer the same one word answer -- "yes" -- to the question of whether Obama remained committed to the Employee Free Choice Act, the leading priority of the big unions.

On the subject of the windfall profits tax, Obama aides argue that there's no story there to begin with. They say that the policies were meant to be triggered by oil prices above $80 a barrel and that when the Obama campaign rolled out his middle class rescue plan in mid-October it didn't have the tax in it, because prices had dropped, meaning there's nothing new here.

"Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel," an Obama aide said. "They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that."

We've just learned that MoveOn is about to sink half a million dollars into a huge ad buy in North Carolina linking Elizabeth Dole, who's facing a tough re-election fight, to John McCain and Big Oil.

Here's a first look at MoveOn's spot, which will run statewide starting tomorrow night:

The ad, which highlights GOP support for tax breaks for oil companies, will be released sometime today in honor of McCain's high-profile trip to an oil rig.

It's likely that the spot foreshadows more ads from MoveOn linking GOP Senate incumbents to Big Oil and McCain. Though some polls show public preference for McCain's position on drilling, MoveOn and Dems believe that hammering away at the links between the GOP and the big oil companies can change the conversation in their favor.

While you were watching that Jew-baiting House candidate go down in flames, another potentially far more significant contest played out last night: A GOP primary challenger ousted GOPer David Davis from his seat in Tennessee's first district, prevailing by less than 500 votes.

Davis' loss was a big deal, for two reasons: First, he's the first incumbent knocked off in this state since 1956. More important, he went down largely because his foe, in an unusual move for a fellow Republican, aggressively yoked him to "Big Oil."

This could have broader national significance, because it shows that championing offshore drilling, as Davis did with extreme enthusiasm, can't always be counted on as the sure winner the GOP thinks it is -- after all, he lost on the issue even among GOP primary voters.

Read more »