Obama marks break from Bush on intel

From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and Ashley Codianni At today's news conference, President-elect Obama 's intention was to officially announce his choices to head the CIA and the Director for National Intelligence -- Leon Panetta , who had come under criticism by Congressional Democrats, and retired Admiral Dennis Blair . However, the economy and jobs report remained the news of the day. "This morning, we received a stark reminder about how urgently action is needed," Obama said in the beginning of his press conference. "Five hundred and twenty-four thousand jobs were lost in December across nearly all major American industries. That means that our economy lost jobs in all 12 months of 2008 and that nearly 2.6 million jobs lost last year amount to the single worst year of job loss since World War II." Although Obama is facing criticism from Democrats on the stimulus plan, the President-elect said he recognized it will not be easy to come to a compromise but has confidence they will reach ... (link)