America's view of Barack Obama has undergone a metamorphosis since he was elected on November 4. The man who was pilloried by Democratic rivals in the primaries and then Republicans in the general election as too inexperienced to govern is winning strong bipartisan applause for the way he is handling the transition.

With just 46 days left before he is sworn in, Mr Obama has already announced most of the key jobs. The operative word is experience. Republicans have also praised Mr Obama for selecting centrists and even one of their own - Robert Gates, who will stay on as defence secretary.

Democrats like the fact that Mr Obama has moved quickly but methodically to assemble his team. This week a CNN poll showed that 75 per cent of Americans approve of his selections, including a majority of Republicans. Half of Republicans even approved of his choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

"I cannot recall the last time Republicans felt so positive towards a Democratic presidential figure," says David Frum, a former speechwriter to George W. Bush. "When you have won a decisive victory, like Obama did, gestures to the centre look magnanimous. When you've won a narrow victory they look like weakness."

Writing in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson, another former Bush speech writer, said: "Obama's appointments reveal not just moderation but maturity . . . Whatever the caveats, Obama is doing something marvellously right."

Frank Luntz, a leading Republican pollster, said: "Obama hasn't made one mistake...

President-elect Barack Obama's vast list of donors is being asked to donate to Hillary Rodham Clinton as she scrambles to reduce her massive campaign debt before she becomes secretary of state and federal ethics rules limit her fundraising, an Obama adviser said Thursday night. An appeal on Clinton's behalf signed by Vice President-elect Joe Biden is to be sent by e-mail to all of the more than three million donors to Obama's record-setting fundraising, according to this adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the e-mail had not yet been sent. Obama promised after Clinton endorsed him to help her pay off her debt and this is the second time the Obama list has been asked to help Clinton. It was used once during the campaign as well, but its second use underlines the urgency of Clinton's task now that she is Obama's choice to be secretary of state. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will headline a major debt retirement event in New York Dec. 15 with "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera as master of ceremonies. Tickets range from $50 to $1,000, with top donors earning a premium seat and a backstage photo with the former first lady. Clinton also plans to sell a children's book, titled "Dreams Taking Flight" by author Kathleen Krull, about her pioneering candidacy. Clinton's mother, Dorothy Rodham, planned to send an e-mail to supporters later this week asking them to purchase the book to help raise funds to pay down Clinton's...

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Airports in India went on high alert Thursday following fresh attack warnings as officials said India suspects two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group orchestrated the deadly Mumbai attacks.

The alert comes as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised the visiting U.S. secretary of state his country would take "strong action" against any elements in his country involved in the siege.

The new alert that warned of possible airborne attacks focused on three major airports — New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai — but security was stepped up across the country. No details about the threat were released.

"This is a warning which we have received. We are prepared as usual," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, told reporters Thursday.

Heavily armed guards from India's Rapid Deployment Force manned roadblocks outside airports, while others patrolled inside airport buildings among passengers.

Several extra layers of security were set up and some passengers had bags scanned with devices to check for explosives before entering terminals.

"Passengers have been asked to pass through six-stage security checks," said Brij Lal, a senior police official organizing security at the airport in the northern city of Lucknow.

Nirmala Sharma, a passenger who flew from New Delhi to Lucknow, said her bags were checked half a dozen times and she went through a metal detector three times. "Sometimes it seemed tedious, but it seems to be the need of the hour," she said.

Meanwhile, officials continued to probe the attacks.

Evidence...

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

“Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories,” California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

“These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages,” David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The administration’s blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of a philosophy that trusted market forces and discounted the need for government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s.

“We’re going to be feeling the effects of the regulators’ failure to address these mortgages for the next several years,” said Kevin Stein of the California Reinvestment Coalition, who warned regulators to tighten lending rules before it was too...

Bush makes me sick! Reflecting on his eight-year presidency, President Bush said above all he would like to be remembered as a commander-in-chief who remained faithful to his values and "did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process."

In an interview with his younger sister, Doro Bush Koch, the president said he was forced to make several difficult choices during his tenure in the White House, but added "I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice [my] values."

Excerpts of the interview, released by The White House [PDF]

"I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values," Bush told Koch in an interview taped earlier this month that aired on National Public Radio Thursday.

Bush also indicated he hopes his legacy is evaluated on success in the War in Iraq, America's efforts to combat AIDS, and the passage of Medicare legislation in 2003.

"I'd like to be a President (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace; that focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package; that came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do,"...