News about some potentially key players in the Obama administration continues to come out fast and furious. Hot on the heels of a big day Friday, when we found out that Hillary Clinton is all but certain to be secretary of state, that Tim Geithner will be Treasury secretary, that Bill Richardson will be Commerce secretary and that Larry Summers will get a senior White House role, we've got some new names today.
ABC News' Jake Tapper reports that Christina Romer, an economics professor at Berkeley, to chair the Council of Economic Advisors. The New York Times Jackie Calmes offers one possible reason that Romer got the nod over prominent Obama advisor Austan Goolsbee: "[W]hen the president-elect chose men for the three other senior economic posts," Calmes writes, "he and his advisers began looking for a woman for the C.E.A."
On the foreign policy side of things, Jim Steinberg is reportedly in line to be named deputy secretary of state. This certainly meshes with the expected nomination of Clinton to the top spot at State -- he was her campaign's national security advisor.
There are a few other appointments that have been announced or leaked today. One is Desirée Rogers, who will be a special assistant to the president and White House social secretary. Obviously, this job isn't as important as Romer's or Steinberg's, but there is a reason this appointment is noteworthy -- as Time's Mark Halperin points out, Rogers will be the first African American to hold the post.
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