With less than three months until President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, the senator from Illinois will have little time for rest. He is responsible for picking his cabinet, filling thousands of positions within his administration and choosing a new secretary of the treasury.And as pre-election polls showed Obama the favorite for the presidency, Louisiana’s nine electoral votes went — as expected — to Sen. John McCain, who received 1,147,603 votes compared to Obama’s 780,981 votes. East Baton Rouge Parish bucked the Louisiana trend with Obama’s 99,431 votes topping McCain’s 95,297. Only nine other parishes favored Obama. East Baton Rouge Parish voted Republican in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.But for Obama, his Tuesday night victory comes with “an economy to fix and cities to rebuild,” as he told more than 125,000 supporters listening to his election-night speech in Chicago.Robert Hogan, political science professor, said the upcoming months are “one of the most critical parts” of any presidency when each elect, past and future, is expected to fine tune his agenda by deciding the priority of each item. Still, Hogan said Obama faces a challenge different than most past president-elects. He is facing more issues than any elect since the 1970s, Hogan said.  ”This transition is occurring during a critical time when we are in an economic downturn,” Hogan said. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Obama to appoint a cabinet secretary for the treasury.”Kirby Goidel, mass communication and political science professor, said not much sets this transition period apart from past ones.”There is an economic crisis, but I don’t think there’s really necessarily anything really unique about the transition of power from the Bush administration to the Obama administration,” Goidel said. Goidel said Obama will simply want to “move a lot more quickly” with regard to appointments to the treasury department. Bob Mann, mass communication professor, said Obama will likely spend the time between his election and his inauguration “putting his administration together” and writing his inaugural address.”Obama will be focusing on cabinet appointments and filling out his administration and his staff and his cabinet,” Mann said. “I’m pretty sure that Obama has been spending a lot of time thinking about this.”Mann also noted the Obama family, including his wife and two children, will likely spend the coming weeks assimilating to life in Washington, D.C.”He’s got the added task of finding out where his children are going to go to school,” he said. “It’s going to be some big adjustments for that family.”As for McCain, Mann said he will be living “much more of a normal life” than the one he lived on the campaign trail unless he is invited to join the Obama administration.”It would be a good move,” Mann said of the prospect of the former adversaries becoming coworkers. “At least [to] try to do something very early with McCain, [to] really do something profound that would speak to the bipartisanship that Obama talks about.”Otherwise, Mann said life will likely return to normal for the Arizona senator.”It’s going to be probably a pretty jarring transition back to the hum-drum life of being a United States senator,” Mann said. “He won’t have his secret service detail.”Goidel said the people Obama appoints to his cabinet will be indicative of the future.”I think the real question remains whether he will govern from the center, in which case we will probably see him appoint some Republicans to his cabinet,” Goidel said.College Democrats President Kevin Guillory, said he feels “a lot better” than he did after the results of the 2004 election were announced.”I’m optimistic that we’re going to be in a better place four years from now than we are today,” he said. “In general, it’s kind of the dawning of a new era.College Republicans President Chuck Fontenot said the election results were an opportunity for the Republican party to “re-energize.””We lost a lot of trust with the American people, and I think that showed on election night,” he said. Fontenot said outrage from each side of the political spectrum is unwelcome.”That has no place in the political process,” Fontenot said. “What should matter is policy and whether or not you trust the person.”In an election where young people were a key demographic, many University students are showing outrage throughout the campus and cyberspace.”It’s definitely a big difference here in the atmosphere at school,” said Laura Briggs, kinesiology freshman. “The racism thing is starting to come out. It’s not about race — It’s about America.”Emma Dozier, accounting sophomore, said she is surprised by the outrage of some of her fellow students.”Just tone it down,” Dozier said. “We’re all human. Respect that.”—-Contact Lindsey Meauxat [email protected]