After all, Clinton once supported the Iraq war and Gates is the defense secretary in the Bush administration.
As head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Geithner works closely with Wall Street and the Republican administration.
Moreover, an economic turnaround and a "happy end" to the Iraq war is not something one can expect in a short while.
However, Obama appears to have a broader agenda than the economy and Iraq.
In health care, new energy, climate change and urban policy, he is expected to follow a much different path from George W. Bush.
By naming former Senate majority leader and long-time health-care reform advocate Tom Daschle as both Secretary of Health and Human Services and White House health-care czar, Obama signaled that he will actively push health-care reform.
With the choice of Steven Chu, who calls for aggressive policies to manage climate change, as Secretary of Energy, the president-elect is expected to lay out an ambitious environmental agenda.
Obama also created new White House offices to coordinate health care, energy and urban policies.
Although facing severe challenges at home and abroad, Obama enjoys wide support among Americans, which provides a sound political base for his agenda.
A new Washington-Post/ABC poll shows 76 percent of the voters approve his transition work and nearly 70 percent are optimistic for his overall policy.
(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2008)