Think Progress

ECONOMY -- OBAMA PLANS GREEN ECONOMY 'LISTENING TOUR' BEFORE INAUGURATION: Dan Kammen, the director of the Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley and a top adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, told E&E News that Obama may conduct a nationwide "listening tour" to allow his team to hit the ground running for a green recovery. According to Kammen, "the incoming Obama team is considering a listening tour "in an attempt to build momentum for its policies and legislative plans." Last month, Obama told Time's Joe Klein that an "Apollo project" for a "new energy economy" is would be a "No. 1 priority when I get into office." In the 75 days before Obama takes office, he will have to weigh in on other environmental issues, like an economic stimulus package that includes funding for infrastructure projects "in a way that reduces our dependence on foreign oil, [and] creates good green jobs in America." Also - in what may be his first major act as President-elect on the international stage -- Obama has pledged to send a team of representatives to the next round of international climate negotiations, which take place in Poznań, Poland, in December.

POLITICS -- PALIN 'DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT AFRICA WAS A CONTINENT': Fox News's Carl Cameron reported last night on the latest revelations in the strained relationship between Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) during their campaign for the White House. According to Cameron, Palin had "real problems with basic civics, government structures, municipal, state, and federal government responsibilities. She didn't know the nations involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement." More astonishingly, Palin "didn't understand...that Africa was a continent and not a country" and asked senior McCain aides "if South Africa wasn't just part of the country as opposed to a country in the continent." In addition, Newsweek reports that Palin spent far more on clothing than the $150,000 reported last month. According to a preview by Politico's Mike Allen, "McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy." The New York Times reports today that "one of the last straws for the McCain advisers" in their strained relationship with Palin came just days before the election when Palin took a call from whom she thought was French President Nicolas Sarkozy but was actually a prank by Canadian radio hosts.

GAY RIGHTS -- LAWSUITS AND UNCERTAINTY FOLLOW CALIFORNIA'S PASSAGE OF PROPOSITION 8: In California on Tuesday, 52 percent of the electorate voted in favor Proposition 8, enshrining into law that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Though the high-profile ballot measure does not bar civil unions in the state, its passage casts doubt on the status of "17,000 same-sex unions performed in the state" since same-sex marriages were declared legal by the State Supreme Court in May. Before the measure was passed, some legal commentators speculated that the law could "retroactively invalidate all same-sex marriages performed in the state."  Giving some solace to same-sex couples in the state, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said yesterday that while he will "defend the law as enacted by the people," he will also "oppose any effort to use Proposition 8 to nullify the thousands of same-sex marriages recorded since the Supreme Court ruling took effect in June." In the short time since Proposition 8 passed, gay rights supporters have already filed three lawsuits asking the state's Supreme Court to overturn the measure. All three lawsuits are arguing that "the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment, as backers maintained -- because it fundamentally altered the guarantee of equal protection."

The number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits reached a 25-year high, jumping by 122,000 to 3.84 million in late October. It is the "highest level since late February 1983," according to the Labor Department.

Yesterday, after a wrap-up meeting with his campaign advisers in the morning, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) talked about what he’ll do next. "He's thinking about the future and getting engaged with the Senate again," senior adviser Charlie Black said. McCain plans to focus on "Iraq, Afghanistan and the other foreign policy issues."

Cabinet rumors: Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) says he isn't interested in becoming Secretary of State. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who is reportedly being considered for health secretary, says he'd consider a potential position. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is a leading contender to return to that post.

Joe Biden is eyeing Walter Mondale -- not Dick Cheney -- as a vice presidential role model. "Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, was consulted on almost every appointment and had access to the same documents as the president." "Biden will be more interested in carrying out the Obama agenda as opposed to his own agenda," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Yesterday, talk show host and LGBT activist Ellen DeGeneres put out a statement saying she is "saddened beyond belief" that California voters approved a ban on marriage equality. Gay marriage backers have also filed three lawsuits asking the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8. More »

A group of conservative power brokers are meeting today in Virginia to "discuss the future of the movement and the GOP." Convened by Brent Bozell, head of the right-wing Media Research Center, the meeting will include "roughly twenty leaders" and "conservative political and media strategists."

71 million: Number of viewers who tuned into election night television coverage on Tuesday, according to Nielsen. In 2004, 59.2 million viewers tuned in as President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and 61.6 million watched the election-night coverage of Bush and Al Gore in 2000.

Fearing a terrorist attack during the presidential transition, "Homeland Security officials are working with Congress to ensure that the Senate moves quickly to confirm a key Cabinet nominee." The top senators on the Senate Homeland Security Committee are now arguing "that the DHS secretary must be bumped up to top priority, and the secretary should be confirmed on or close to Inauguration Day."

CentCom Commander Gen. David Petraeus "has decided to reduce the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 15 to 14 about six weeks earlier than planned, as a result of dramatically lower violence there." A brigade from the 10th Mountain Division "was scheduled to go to Iraq in its place [but] will instead deploy to Afghanistan."

Ryan Crocker hosted 250 Iraqi officials at the first event in the new American embassy in Baghdad, which cost half a billion dollars and has not yet officially opened. He reminded his guests, "Our president today is George Bush, and he will be our president for the next two and a half months," and said the size of the embassy reflects America's long-term "commitment to democracy in Iraq."