Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman to Barack Obama: be ambitious (really ambitious)!

Beltway CW bellwether Fareed Zakaria to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Former Secretary of Labor and current Obama adviser Robert Reich to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Nobel-winning climate advocate Al Gore to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Jared Bernstein of EPI -- writing together! -- to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Political analyst E.J. Dionne to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Energy expert Michael Northrup to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Princeton history and public affairs professor Julian Zelizer to Barack Obama: be ambitious!

Barack Obama to anxious pundits: relax, I'm on it.

US President-elect Barack Obama intends to push a comprehensive programme of social and economic reform beyond an immediate emergency stimulus package, Rahm Emanuel, the next White House chief of staff, indicated on Sunday.

Mr Emanuel brushed aside concerns that an Obama administration would risk taking on too much when it takes office in January. He said Mr Obama saw the financial meltdown as an historic opportunity to deliver the large-scale investments that Democrats had promised for years.

Tackling the meltdown would not entail delays in plans for far-reaching energy, healthcare and education reforms when all three were also in crisis, he said. "These are crises you can no longer afford to postpone [addressing]."

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