♦ Did you attempt to get your hands on some Comme des Garçons for H&M today? You're braver than us. [Racked]
♦ Cathy Horyn provides a clear-eyed assessment of Barack Obama's sartorial style, pointing out that "his jeans are the loose, jingle-the-change-in-your-pocket type. He belts them at the waist, and when he wears them with white sneakers and a windbreaker, one could almost say he had stolen the look from Jerry Seinfeld's character on the television series." [NYT]
♦ At Diane von Furstenberg's party for Financial Times editor Vanessa Friedman, André Leon Talley broadcast his delight over Obama's victory in the most appropriate way: The back of his coat was emblazoned with "The New American Dream" in crystals. [WWD]
♦ Also gushing about the Obamas? Donna Karan, who says: "I'm hoping to get to work with them—it would be my dream. They are so committed to ideals that are much in alignment with mine." [WWD]

I don't hate people. I love people. But people kind of suck. Take a look at the anonymously voted priorities for America's still-unnamed chief technologist at Obama CTO: "Ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral" beats "repeal the Patriot Act" by a much bigger margin than Obama pulled over McCain. Repealing the Patriot Act isn't something Obama's CTO could do, but everyone knows "net neutrality" is code for "stop Comcast from slowing my BitTorrent porn." Here's a better idea: Government jobs for Owen and me.

When it comes to satisfying their children's tween dreams, Barack and Michelle Obama have been fairly generous, arranging a Jonas Brothers meet-and-greet on the set of Ellen that found Joe practicing his phone breakup techniques on Malia and left Sasha, weirdly, with a purity ring on her left thumb. Still, there's one place that even the Obamas deem too frightening for their girls: the set of Hannah Montana! After Billy Ray Cyrus issued an invitation for the younger Obamas to make an appearance on the show that was greeted with a firm "Uh...," Miley's father attempted a retraction tinged with some unexpected advice:

Barack Obama, who you might remember is the first black president, once called himself a "blank screen" onto which other people would "project their own views." Today, Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn took a turn gazing at Obama and what does she see? The whitest man in America: Jerry Seinfeld. Known more for her Anna Wintour slams than for her astute political analysis, Horyn writes that casual Obama in a baseball cap and track suit is a fashion statement stolen from a clunky Upper West Side Jew. Citing the displeasure of a Barney's fashion director as hard evidence, she even called Seinfeld to ask if Barack was stealing his slovenly windbreaker and jeans look. Is Horyn crazy, or is a dressed-down Obama a reenactment of Seinfeld's '90s fashion missteps?"I don’t know that I can make a proprietary claim to that look,” Seinfeld told her when she called for comment. After a campaign chock full of gorgeous suits, you can't blame Horyn for having great expectations. Having viewed the post-election Obama wardrobe, we're forced us to agree — he looks more like a stand-up comedian than a president sometimes.

If you're gunning for a high-ranking job in the Obama administration, hope you've kept a record of everything you've done over the past decade or so. Potential cabinet members and other top officials in the administration have been asked to fill out this list of 63 questions. You'll be happy to hear, though, that traffic tickets under $50 need not be reported. [NYT]

Interested in serving in the president-elect's cabinet, or some other high-ranking capacity? Obama has 63 questions he'd like you to answer, quite possibly the most extensive vetting process in White House history. In addition to listing everything embarrassing or controversial that's ever happened to you, which must be pretty standard from administration to administration, or whether anyone in your family owns a gun, there are all sorts of exciting internet-related inquiries. Has anything been written about you, online, ever? You basically have to send all your Google results. Obama's team will also need anything you've ever written online, including fake names (see excerpt above). More exciting demands after the jump!

♦ Dick Parsons is the frontrunner to replace Sir Win Bischoff as chairman of Citigroup. [Reuters]
♦ Steve Rattner is shutting down the Quadrangle Group's hedge fund amid weak performance and investor redemptions. [WSJ]
♦ Phil Falcone, Ken Griffin, John Paulson, Jim Simons and George Soros will appear in front of a House panel today. [DB]
♦ Hank Paulson is taking a beating following the news that the Treasury will now focus on struggling consumers, instead of financial institutions. Paulson has become "a reduced figure, damaged by the financial-market meltdown that happened on his watch and by the government's struggles to respond to it." [WSJ, DB, Bloomberg]

Oh, good for Ryan Lizza. The campaign reporter was going to write a book about the 2008 election, but then David Remnick hired him and said "don't write a book, write for my fancy magazine instead," and so Lizza did. Now he's got a deal to write a book about the first year of Barack Obama's presidency, which ought to at least be a nice change of pace from all the books about the 2008 elections we're about to get, yowza. Of course, he's still not alone: also writing a book on Obama's first year is Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. Everyone else who's ever been published is, of course, finishing their 2008 election books. Let's take a look at the lineup: Newsweek's Richard Wolffe is writing Renegade: The Education of Barack Obama. He's got reporting from the trail, interviews with Obama and aides, and his sexy accent. Will Be Published: June 2009. Should Be Published: The day after inauguration, when Obama's terrible secrets can finally be revealed. Too late, America! Evan Thomas and the staff of Newsweek will release 250 pages on the campaign, based on the seven-part Secrets of the Campaign piece we all read on the internet. The title: Long Time Coming: The Historic, Combative, Expensive, and Inspiring 2008 Election and the Victory of Barack Obama. That is a terrible title. Will Be Published: Early January. Should Be Published: This week. Well, it basically was published last week, but whatever. Washington Post's Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson are working on their own untitled campaign book, "a narrative history of the entire campaign." Will Be Published: Fall of 2009. Should Be Published: Are you serious? Fall of 2009? We'll be reading books about the 2010 midterms by then guys! Get it done ASAP! New York's John Heilemann and Time's Mark Haperin are working on a book too, without a title or publication date. Should Be Published: Never, unless Heilemann dumps Halperin. Then publish it whenever you like. Historian Michael Takiff's book? We know nothing about it. He would like it to be called The Making of the President 2008. But no one has bought it yet, we don't think? Sad. Should Be Published: In July, like Theodore White's Making of the President 1960 book was, back when people read books. Not-Quite Campaign Books: Washington Post's Anne Kornblut is writing Rejection: Why America Isn't Ready for a Woman President PBS's Gwen Ifill is writing The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Jabari Asim is writing What Obama Means MediaMatters' Eric Boehlert is writing a book about bloggers. Did we leave anyone out? Yes, probably. Americans Clamoring For All Things Obama [LAT] Newsweek's Wolffe Inks Obama Book Deal [Calderone/Politico] Books Written and Inspired by Obama Get an Election Boose [USAToday] Washington Post's Anne Kornblut Writing Hillary Book for Crown in Mid-Six Figure Deal [NYO] A Race to Deliver Election Books [WSJ]

Hey, it's President-elect Barack Obama's head on a piece of toast! Why not? It's currently up to $202.50 on eBay, and damn, we had such high hopes for this recession. "Nothing has been added to the bread - no butter or oils." [Ebay]

The New York Observer pulled together a crib sheet of Facebook facts from the personal pages of chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and others likely to end up on Obama's team. It's a bit snoozy, since no one admits anything shocking. Current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who may be reappointed, lists his interests as "espionage, defense policy, national security and Soviet studies." The only surprise on the list is John Kerry, who claims Animal House as a favorite movie.

Barack Obama's historic presidential victory aroused so much emotion: Tears on an Oprah level, ecstasy on a spontaneous street party level and anger at a loudly-interrupt-an-old-war-hero level. So Newsweek can't help but ask... did it turn you on? And did you then have hot, hope-filled change sex, or maybe change-filled hope sex, possibly ending in someone yelling "Yes We Can?" Because, seriously, that would be perfect. Read the magazine's written inquiry after the jump.

One way to not have an intelligent discussion about race these day is to use the term "colored" to describe black people. It's antiquated and grampa-ish, like saying "Oriental" or "cripple." I think you're allowed to say "person of color" but not "colored." (Right?) So it's too bad to see that some big-time celebrities are using the term while trying to sound progressive and One Worldy. Both lesbians and the British alike. Perpetual blog fodder actress Lindsay Lohan used the term on Access Hollywood recently when talking about Barack Obama. She was well intentioned, saying "It’s an amazing feeling. It’s our first colored president," but... yikes. And then current James Bond actor Daniel Craig said that the world is ready for a "coloured" Bond now that Barry has taken the highest office in the land. We'd maybe expect this from old timers like Elaine Strich or the ghost of Charlton Heston, but coming from young Lindsay and Daniel? We expect more from a Sapphist and a limey, honestly.

Though Lindsay Lohan has recently revealed herself to be a stickler for semantics, we have a feeling there's a word or two in her recent interview with Access Hollywood that she might want to take back right around now.Maria Menounos quizzed the part-time actress on her reaction to Barack Obama's historic victory, and Lohan (clearly still reeling from the use of Homer Simpson's makeup gun) obliged with warm, hoarse words about "our nation's first colored president." That is maybe not how we would have put it, but neither would we have starred in the Chris Parnell vehicle Labor Pains. Someone's gotta be at the vanguard! Clip below:

@barackobama: Please update your Twitter. Since last Tuesday's historic election, Barack Obama's Twitter account hasn't sent any messages. Some Internet President-Elect! He didn't even use Twitter to announce his transition website, change.gov — and what is Twitter for, really, if not spamming your friends with your latest URL? There's no better sign that his 127,196 followers have been pumped and dumped — Twittered into contributing money and time, and then passed over for more presidential means of communication. Like, say, press conferences.

Hey, so, a little bit of news came out of the historic Bush/Obama handover transition secret White House surprise meeting. Details of what the president and the president-elect talked about were leaked to the press: apparently Obama tried to convince Bush to bail out the auto industry, and Bush said he might if Obama supports CAFTA. Hey, you know what the real news is, here? Someone in Obama's camp leaked this info to the New York Times, which led someone in the Bush camp to leak a "we're not very happy with that" story to Drudge! Whee! We think we know who's responsible, and he's a dreamboat. Let's closely examine these two paragraphs from the New York Times exclusive on the Oval Office meeting:

We're not sure what was going on in Lindsay Lohan's drug-addled mind when she described Barack Obama as our first "colored President" in an interview with Access Hollywood's Maria Menounos. But we're going to take this as a sign that she's gearing up for an appearance on the fourth season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

It turns out that Greenwich, the enclave that is home to some of the richest people in the New York metro area (like Steve Cohen, whose mansion is pictured to your left), went for Obama last week: "Perhaps most surprising was the result from Greenwich, Conn. The Versailles of the tri-state metro area, the most golden of the region's gilded suburbs, the childhood home of George H.W. Bush, went for Obama by a 54-46 margin—the first time Greenwich went Democratic since 1964. Who knew the back-country estates and shoreline mansions were populated with so many traitors to their class?" [The Big Money]

♦ With so many companies looking to tap into the $700 billion bailout, it's clear there won't be enough to go around, and a lot more work (and cash) is going to be needed to fix the problem. [WSJ]
♦ The latest company to convert itself into a bank to tap into government funds: American Express, which earned approval from the Fed to become a commercial bank yesterday as it seeks to cover rising credit card defaults. [Bloomberg]
♦ GM's possible bankruptcy was a major topic of conversation at the White House yesterday when Barack Obama met with George Bush. Meanwhile, shares of GM fell to $3.36 yesterday, its lowest level since 1949. [WSJ, Bloomberg]

New code names: "Renegade" (Barack), "Renaissance" (Michelle), "Radiance" (Malia) and "Rosebud" (Sasha). [Chicago Tribune]

Let's check in with Washington Post media guy Howard Kurtz. What's he up to today? He wonders how the press will deal with Obama, and vice versa, and instead of coming to any interesting conclusions about anything he quotes some people saying the press will turn on Obama and some people saying the press will cheerlead for Obama and none of it means anything, it's just free-floating cliche and partisan cant. Here are two paragraphs that basically sum it up: