Obama says: Transition can be Time of Risk

President-elect Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday evening that he is assembling his national security team as quickly as possible because there potentially can be "times of vulnerability" to terrorist attacks during White House transition periods.

In a wide-ranging interview with "60 Minutes," Obama also said that capturing or killing Osama bin Laden remains a "critical aspect" of the war on terrorism. "He is not just a symbol," Obama said. "He's also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets."

He and Michelle Obama also reveled in their ability to achieve some level of normalcy again after the election, even as the president-elect confessed feeling at least a little overwhelmed as he prepares for the enormous challenges ahead.

"There are times, during the course of a given a day, where you think, 'Where do I start?' " he said during a session recorded Friday in Chicago at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. He noted he has already felt, like other presidents before him, that "there is a certain loneliness to the job."

The broadcast aired before Obama and Sen. John McCain are to have their first post-election meeting, a session scheduled for midday Monday in the Loop. The two former rivals are expected to be joined by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, named as Obama's chief of staff.

The president-elect refused to be pinned down on when he will make his first Cabinet appointments, saying "soon" when asked whether he would make any this week. He also said there will be Republicans, but declined to say whether he planned to appoint more than one.

On Sunday, Obama also formally resigned his U.S. Senate seat, after sending a one-sentence letter to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who will approve a replacement to serve through the 2010 election.

The president-elect's transition team also announced several new appointments.

Pete Rouse, a Capitol Hill veteran who ran Obama's Senate office and helped craft the foundation for his White House bid, was named a senior adviser, while Mona Sutphen and Jim Messina were selected as deputy chiefs of staff.

The Associated Press reported that Obama is also expected to name Greg Craig, who was former President Bill Clinton's impeachment lawyer, as White House counsel. In Obama's debate practice sessions, Craig played the role of McCain.

Asked by CBS' Steve Kroft whether he planned to put political enemies in his Cabinet, as Abraham Lincoln did, Obama responded by saying the first president from Illinois was a "very wise man."

With the economy struggling, the president-elect said the nation has little choice but to boost government spending, something he said conservative and liberal economists agree on.

"We have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again," he said. "We're going to have to spend money now to stimulate the economy."

Both Obamas said the full realization of their new roles had yet to fully sink in. The president-elect, however, said he personally felt the historical significance on Election Night, when his mother-in-law squeezed his hand.

"You had this sense of, well, what's she thinking? For a black woman who grew up in the '50s, you know, in a segregated Chicago, to watch her daughter become first lady of the United States," he said. "There was that sense across the country."

The Obamas described a post-election personal life that seems more normal than during the campaign. The daily routines include the couple's daughters jumping into bed in the morning with their dad.

"There seem to be more people hovering around me," Obama said. "On the other hand, I'm sleeping in my own bed."

Michelle Obama said she is looking forward to her husband having a "big office at home."

"Now we get to be together under the one roof, having dinners together," she said. "I envision the kids ... being able to run across the way to the Oval Office and see their dad. And he'll be there to tuck them in at night."