Wednesday, November 12, 2008 2:53 PM

Progressive Groups Vie For Obama's Attention

By MARY GILBERT

This week has seen an explosion of wish lists and online forums dedicated to telling President-elect Barack Obama's transition team what the new administration's No. 1 priority should be.

Policyarchive.org recently launched Presidential Advisory '08, a broad repository of policy recommendations from think tanks of all political stripes that the group plans to update throughout the transition period. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is soliciting recommendations for a presidential "honey do" list from viewers. And even the Obama team itself is providing regular Americans with a chance to express their "vision" for the country at its new Web site, change.gov.

But perhaps the constituency with the most to say is progressive think tanks. Having waited eight years to get a Democrat back in the White House, these groups are clamoring to gain influence with the new administration on what they consider the most urgent needs of the country.

One of them was founded by John Podesta, co-chair of Obama's transition team and former Clinton White House chief of staff. The Center for American Progress -- along with the New Democracy Project -- just released Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, a 50-chapter book on how to "bring real change to America" that 67 scholars spent a year putting together. CAP, created in 2003 to offset the rise of conservative think tanks, is not hiding its aspirations of becoming "Washington's most influential think tank," as AP recently reported, and with one of its founders heading up the Obama transition team, it may be poised to do just that.

Other organizations are taking a less comprehensive approach, offering proposals one issue at a time. For example, the New America Foundation published an education wish list on its Higher Ed Watch blog last week. And the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino advocacy group in the country, is pushing for minority appointments to Obama's Cabinet, specifically backing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for secretary of state.