Obama's Agenda Dwarfs His Staff

President Obama is filling government jobs more quickly than his predecessors, but there's so much going on that his team is still stretched thin, the Wall Street Journal reports. Obama is juggling the economic crisis, stimulus package, and two wars, all with just 43 confirmed aides. "No one since Roosevelt has had to deal with a similar level of crises the minute they walked in the door," a transition expert said.

The Commerce and Health and Human Services departments still don’t have secretaries. Tim Geithner remains the lone confirmed official at Treasury, and a gaggle of key diplomats are still awaiting confirmation. But the White House insists it’s comfortable and "moving ahead in quiet and aggressive fashion." President Bush, by comparison, didn’t pass his signature tax cuts until four months in. (More Obama administration stories.)