Gates will sit out festivities as safeguard

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the lone Cabinet holdover from the Bush to Obama administrations, will be the designated no-show at today's inauguration.

Gates will be at an undisclosed location while others in the immediate line of presidential succession - vice president, speaker of the House, president pro tempore of the Senate, secretary of state, and treasury secretary - are at the Capitol for Obama's swearing-in.

The safeguard was put in place by President Truman in 1947 to make sure the US government could continue if there is a nuclear attack or other event that killed most top elected officials.

BLOOMBERG

The US Airways pilot who landed his jet in the Hudson River last week with no loss of life will be a guest at Barack Obama's inauguration, along with his family and crew.

Obama told reporters yesterday that he spoke with Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, who told him, "Me and my crew, we were just doing our job."

"And it made me think, if everybody did their job - whatever that job was - as well as that pilot did his job, we'd be in pretty good shape," Obama said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts had a busy day on the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration.

He joined volunteers at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium for the day's biggest service project, to wrap about 85,000 care packages and write letters to troops overseas. "There's a tremendous spirit in Washington," Patrick said.

Last evening, Patrick served as master of ceremonies at a dinner honoring Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate.

GLOBE STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS

President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural committee took the blame yesterday for Bishop V. Gene Robinson's invocation at the Sunday welcoming concert not being televised nationally, Politico reported.

Thousands of attendees heard the opening prayer given by Robinson, the openly gay New Hampshire Episcopal bishop, but viewers on HBO's telecast missed it. The inaugural committee said the telecast, including Robinson's invocation, will be shown on the big TV screens along the National Mall today.

"We had always intended and planned for Right Rev. Robinson's invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday's program. We regret the error in executing this plan - but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event," inaugural committee spokesman Josh Earnest told Politico.

Robinson had been given the slot after he and other gay advocates protested Obama's selection of evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at today's inauguration. Warren pushed for Proposition 8, which overturned gay marriage in California.

GLOBE STAFF

CNN reported yesterday that Barack Obama could pick the 36th anniversary on Thursday of the Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion to reverse a Bush administration policy that bans the United States from funding international family planning groups that provide information, counseling, or referrals about abortion.

The "Mexico City policy," commonly referred to by critics as "the global gag rule," was devised by President Reagan in 1984 at a population conference in Mexico City, CNN says. President Clinton lifted the ban in January 1993 as one of his first acts as president, but President Bush reinstated it in his first executive order on the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

GLOBE STAFF

Professors from Harvard and MIT and a top aide to Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign will be joining the Obama budget office, his team announced yesterday.

Jeffrey Liebman, a professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, will be executive associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. Robert Gordon, policy director for Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004, will be associate director for education, income maintenance, and labor. And Xavier de Souza Briggs, associate professor of sociology and urban planning at MIT, will be associate director for general government programs.

GLOBE STAFF

WASHINGTON - President Clinton said yesterday that American politics over the next 30 years will be marked by a practical, inclusive approach rather than the partisan battles that defined the last 40 years.

The victory of Barack Obama closed the curtains on the post-1960s era during which politicians used divisive issues like gun control to motivate an ideological hard core, Clinton told a gathering of mayors.

Democrats and Republicans will try to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters concerned with effective government and other nuts-and-bolts issues, Clinton said.

REUTERS