Obama will name first cabinet members "within days" if he wins

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In times like these a new administration needs to start working on November 5th. Barack Obama's Campaign is moving ahead with transition plans. McCain's people are also planning on their transition... just not as vigorously.

Expect a turbocharged transition if Barack Obama wins, with a Treasury secretary and White House chief of staff named days after his election, Democratic sources told the Daily News Thursday.

"They would like to make Treasury the first appointment as a symbol and have the other big ones done in the first week," said one source close to the Obama transition team.

Confronting the economic crisis is the prime reason for the urgency.

"People will have a good idea where we're going with this very early," added an Obama adviser.

The list of candidates for Treasury secretary includes former Clinton administration Treasury chief Larry Summers; Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and ex-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, among others, said sources familiar with candidates who have been recommended to Obama.

Obama is also well along in deciding on his picks for State, Defense and Justice, sources said.

As another indicator of the importance Obama attaches to getting his economic brain trust in place, his transition team already has scores of prospective appointees undergoing FBI background checks for top administration slots. - NY Daily News

The story goes on to say this about McCain's transition plans

William Timmons, a Washington lobbyist who worked in the Ford and Reagan administrations, is heading McCain's transition team. Several sources said that effort is not as ambitious or as far along as Obama's.

Another interesting note in the article is this...

Of the nearly 8,000 administration jobs filled by presidential appointees, 1,177 of them require Senate confirmation.