Obama arrives in Hawaii for holiday

The Associated Press ,  Colombo   |  Sun, 12/21/2008 2:32 PM  |  World

President-elect Barack Obama and his family arrived in his native Hawaii for a holiday vacation set to be interrupted with the release of an internal investigation into whether his aides played any role in alleged attempts to sell his vacated Senate seat.

An Obama aide told reporters Saturday the review could be released early next week. Aides declined to discuss details, saying officials would honor U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's request to keep it private until the week of Dec. 22.

Obama has said he is eager to release their internal investigation about what contacts his aides and advisers had with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who faces federal allegations he tried to sell Obama's former U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Obama earlier told reporters an internal investigation showed his staff did nothing wrong.

On Friday, Blagojevich said he did nothing illegal and vowed to fight the allegations.

Apart from the report's release, Obama plans to keep a low profile during his 12-day trip to Oahu.

Aides said the Obama family would have no formal events during the trip but will continue to have business meetings and intelligence briefings.

Obama has spent recent weeks at a breakneck pace, barreling through appointments. During the last week, Obama met reporters every day to announce his picks for Cabinet posts, rounding out the bulk of his top economic, national security and domestic policy officials in his administration-in-waiting.

He boasted Friday that he had assembled his top economic team more quickly than any other of his predecessors - a sign that the nation's economic woes would define Obama's agenda as he takes office.

Still unfilled are his picks for CIA director and national intelligence director, along with other sub-Cabinet appointments. Aides say the president-elect would continue working on those during his vacation.

On Saturday, Obama said he would seek to create or save 3 million jobs in the next two years instead of the 2.5 million he proposed last month.

Obama set the more ambitious target earlier this week after meeting with top economic advisers who cautioned the nation's unemployment rate could exceed 9 percent given the current pace of job losses, transition officials said.

During the presidential campaign, Obama pledged to create or save 1 million jobs.

Advisers were using Obama's guidance as a roadmap for a draft stimulus package to have ready when he returns on Jan. 2, advisers said.

Obama is pushing for federal investments in health care, education and energy that could stimulate jobs and the economy while laying the ground work for long-term reform and a more sustainable economy.

Obama's team and congressional staff have been scrambling to flesh out a plan to pump up the ailing economy with $650 billion or more in government spending so it can be enacted shortly after he takes office on Jan. 20.

The plan, which some Obama aides think could swell to about $850 billion after negotiations with Congress, would be the largest investment in public infrastructure since the federal highway system was established in the 1950s. It also would provide tens of billions in dollars of aid to financially strapped states.

"The economy is in much worse shape than we thought it was in," Vice President-elect Joe Biden told ABC's "This Week," according to excerpts released Friday.

Also Saturday, Obama selected a Harvard physicist John Holdren and marine biologist Jane Lubchenco for key science posts.

The two are leading experts on climate change and advocates of forceful government action. Holdren will become Obama's science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lubchenco will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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