In a sea of terrible economic news, Intel offered some great news by announcing a $7 billion investment.

On a day when all of Washington was grappling with the collapse of the American economy, President Barack Obama desperately needed some good news. And he got it from Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was in town to announce that his company, which makes microprocessors for personal and business computing, would spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico.

So grateful was the president for this bit of private-sector economic stimulus that he called Otellini at his hotel room to congratulate him. And he took advantage of the call to do a little lobbying, asking for Otellini’s support in the debate over the economic stimulus package.

It was Otellini’s first conversation with the president, and he was impressed. “He’s very quick,” Otellini said. “He’s a natural.”

Otellini supports the stimulus plan, and that’s also a plus for Obama.

Given the horrible news coming from tech giants like Cisco, this news from Intel is even more important. Many of the tech giants are sitting on piles of cash, so hopefully we’ll see more investments.

Barack Obama’s first news conference ranks up there as one of the best presidential news conferences I’ve ever seen. He was thorough and eloquent in all of his answers. He knew his facts, and he was very clear with his arguments. He continued his tone of bipartisanship, yet he made it clear he wouldn’t take political cheap shots from a party that just doubled our national debt over the past eight years.

He did not hold back when discussing the gravity of the crisis we are facing, and he made it clear that extraordinary efforts would be needed on many fronts. This situation will not be fixed by one policy proposal. We need to attack this on many fronts.

It’s a stark contrast to the past eight years, and we now have a president who is able to project competence and analytical skills. He was able to explain his positions with clarity, and he avoided sound bites in favor of long answers that actually answered the questions.

Some Republicans are giddy over the partisan fight that occured with respect to the stimulus package, but they are overmatched in this fight and will likely regret making this a partisan issue.

Many of the left and the right have long complained that the game was rigged in Washington. That will probably never end, but President Obama seems determined to change the climate in Washington by lessening the role of lobbyists and making the government more transparent.

New lobbying and records rules issued by President Obama yesterday appear to go beyond changes implemented by previous presidents, and could usher in an era of openness in federal government, according to ethics experts and open-government advocates.

In two executive orders and three presidential directives, Obama laid out stringent lobbying limits that will bar any appointees from seeking lobbying jobs while he is president and will ban gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the administration. He also ordered agencies to presume that records should be publicly released unless there are compelling reasons not to do so, and he loosened restrictions on the release of records related to former presidents and vice presidents.

Open-government advocates described the moves as a sharp departure from the policies of former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who sought to shield details about White House inner workings from public view and imposed public records restrictions.

These changes are very significant. We’ve just endured one of the most secretive administrations in history, rivaling the paranoia of the Nixon years. Obama wants to opposite. Energy policy will not be set in secret meetings with industry executives.

The changes regarding the records of former presidents are most interesting.

In a separate order, Obama mandated more openness for presidential records following a congressionally established five-year waiting period after any president leaves office. The order permits a review by the attorney general and the White House counsel of claims by former presidents that information should be withheld under the doctrine of “executive privilege.” It also leaves the final decision in the hands of the incumbent president — not the former president, as provided in a 2001 order from Bush.

This accelerates how quickly we will learn what really happened during the Bush years.

It was quite a spectacle, as it should have been, given the historic nature of the event. Millions of people descended on Washington D.C. to witness the swearing in of Barack Obama as our 44th President.

Obama and Chief Justice Roberts managed to flub the swearing in, but Obama rebounded nicely with a sober and forceful speech that called on Americans to put aside childish squabbles and get to the business of tackling the nation’s problems.

He made it clear that he’s ready to get to work.

George W. Bush’s farewell tour has been just as pathetic as his actual presidency. In several days, we’ll finally be able to turn the page on one of the worst presidencies in American history.

As I’ve said repeatedly for the past 6 years, Bush’s failures have little to do with ideology and instead can be traced to his utter lack of competence. He screwed up practically everything he touched.

The Republican Party helped him along. Most Republicans are so consumed with partisan bitterness that George W. Bush still gets an approval rating in the 70 percent range with Republicans. Republicans also went along with massive spending and deficits and an ill-conceived war that has crippled our nation.

I’m very optimistic about Barack Obama’s ability to chart a new path for our country that will return us to peace and prosperity. Many Americans share this optimism according to the polls. Obama’s leadership skills have been on display throughout the transition, and thus far he’s been impressive.

I expect Obama and his team to hit the ground running on Wednesday. They face huge challenges, and yet they will not shrink from doing big things like health care reform and transitioning to a green economy.

Barack Obama just introduced Tim Kaine as the new Chairman of the DNC. In introducing Kaine, Obama praised Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, and then Tim Kaine reiterated that praise in his own remarks. Howard Dean deserves this praise, and I’m encouraged that both Obama and Kaine emphasized this in their remarks.

Kaine also outlined an approach that would be very consistent with Obama’s bottom-up campaign style, with an emphasis on small donors and a rejection of slash-and-burn politics. This is in stark contrast to the mess over at the RNC.

I just heard this on MSNBC. Having Leon Panetta run the CIA is another brilliant appointment by Obama. The CIA has been a problem for years, as the United States has suffered through intelligence failures and corruption scandals in the military procurement process. More importantly, the last administration cherry-picked intelligence when selling the war.

Leon Panetta isn’t the first person that comes to mind when considering a CIA director, but Panetta is one of the most capable and respected public officials in the country. He’s not a spin doctor and he doesn’t sugar-coat problems. He’s a serious man, and we need people like him in government. He also knows his way around Washington.

I suspect that this also signals that Obama is serious about cutting unnecessary military spending. The procurement process os out of control, and Panetta is a serious budget hawk. Panetta can work with Bob Gates to take on the big spenders in congress.

Barack Obama is serious about getting the economy moving again, and the inclusion of tax cuts in the stimulous plan makes sense.

Aiming to foster bipartisan support for his record-setting economic stimulus, President-elect Obama plans to propose huge tax cuts for businesses and middle-class workers that will total about 40 percent of the package, or up to $310 billion, congressional officials said.

The revelation is part of an intricately orchestrated roll-out of the plan that includes an appearance by Obama on Capitol Hill on Monday and a major speech about the economy later in the week.

Obama plans to ask Congress for a stimulus package of $675 billion to $775 billion, so the planned tax cuts will total about $270 billion to $310 billion, the officials said.

Obama strategists say he wants to get 80 or more votes in the 100-member Senate, and the emphasis on tax cuts is a way to defuse conservative criticism and enlist Republican support.

But officials say the tax cuts will be based on historical and empirical evidence of what works, not ideology. Rather, the targeted tax cuts will be designed to stimulate job growth in the private sector and help middle class families, the officials said.

For families, the tax cuts include the $500 “Making Work Pay” payroll tax credit Obama proposed during the campaign.

For businesses, the tax cuts would include breaks for small employers and a “new jobs credit.”

If he can get this through quickly with bi-partisan support, we have a much better chance of avoiding a complete meltdown.

Huh?

News outlets are reporting that Hillary Clinton is under consideration for Secretary of State. I guess Obama wasn’t kidding when he said he was considering the Lincoln model of a team of rivals.

There’s increasing chatter in political circles that the Obama camp is not overly happy with the usual suspects for secretary of state these days and that the field might be expanding somewhat beyond Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and maybe former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

There’s talk, indeed, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) may now be under consideration for the post. Her office referred any questions to the Obama transition; Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment.

I’m a little puzzled by this one. I think she would be much better suited for a career in the Senate where she could work on issues like health care. She’s certainly up to the job, and she would have Bill Clinton as a resource, but it seems like there are many other options. On the other hand, it shows that he’s willing to bring in some of the best people in the party, and that he’s not afraid to have big personalities in his administration.