Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
This is what Barack Obama meant by “hitting the ground running”: After completing the top level of his Cabinet over the weekend, the president-elect has set “transition records for speed,” reports The Wall Street Journal. By this point in their own transitions, George H.W. Bush had appointed 26 senior executives and White House staff, while Richard Nixon had appointed 25. Obama, by contrast, has appointed 69, and has begun lower appointments. "They are proceeding right now on a pace to break all records by the first 100 days," said a professor who studies transitions. Obama has enjoyed an advantage over his predecessors in the race: A 2004 intelligence reorganization law has allowed him to submit names to be pre-cleared for classified briefings.