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Reporting and analysis from ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent and "This Week" Host George Stephanopoulos

George Stephanopoulos reports on events in politics, Congress and the White House for ABCNews, on the air and online. He interviews top newsmakers, discusses the events of the week and looks to the week ahead each Sunday on 'This Week.'

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Obama's Nuclear 'Football' Briefing

January 20, 2009 7:30 AM

Right now the president-elect is in Blair House getting ready for the inauguration.

It's astonishing to see the energy of all the people on the National Mall who are going to share in the public rituals of the transfer of power today.

But some time in the next hour, Barack Obama  will have a private ritual that symbolizes that change of power.

He will have his national security briefing, as he has throughout the transition.

But at the end of that briefing, the military aide that carries the briefcase with the nuclear "football" -- the codes for launching any kind of a nuclear strike -- will instruct the president-elect on how to do that.

That will happen before he goes to the church service at 8:25am this morning.

He won't get the actual card to launch the strikes until after he is sworn in.

But this morning, in that final presidential briefing in the next hour or so, he will receive those codes.

The true transfer of power has begun.

--George Stephanopoulos

January 20, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (130)

User Comments

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Oh geez, a marxist on drugs with the football.......I'd described my feelings about today as really worried.

Posted by: chattyway | Jan 20, 2009 8:10:47 AM

Thank God! That could have been Palin getting the codes

Posted by: TG | Jan 20, 2009 8:21:07 AM

chattyway - Grow up

Posted by: Art In Chicago | Jan 20, 2009 8:27:08 AM

Can you imagine an end-timer like Palin with those codes?

Posted by: Joshua | Jan 20, 2009 8:29:13 AM

Now that's scary!

Posted by: LongT | Jan 20, 2009 8:30:41 AM

Can't you people just be happy? You got what you wanted. Leave Palin alone and the rest of them. Enough is enough.

Posted by: undersiege24 | Jan 20, 2009 8:31:15 AM

What kind of odds are the makers in Vegas offering that the first nuke will hit kenya? Oh wait, he won't nuke his homeland. The constitution is in shambles.

Posted by: jim | Jan 20, 2009 8:32:14 AM

Liberals....yep way to go ...Unite The Country by continuing to trash Palin over 2 months after the election.

Yep...there is no change with you libbies..NO CHANGE AT ALL

Posted by: Mike_C | Jan 20, 2009 8:38:37 AM

Where do all of you misinformed people get the information that Kenya is Obama's homeland? Just because his birth father was born there? Obama was born in Hawaii or Kansas of an American Kansas born mother. The last time I heard just because you have a parent born in a foreign country does not automatically make that country your homeland. Hell, my mother was born in Germany but Germany is not my homeland it is hers. Try to get your facts straight before you make uninformed comments.

Posted by: Donna | Jan 20, 2009 8:45:59 AM

Thank God for this transition. No place to go but up after this 8 year disaster.

But somehow you "conservatives" STILL think Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rummy and Dubya did SUCH a great job! You republicans have so much to be proud of... and yes, your next generation - Palin - She'll be just great too.

Sooner or later you conservative idiots need to face the fact that your antiquated, bigoted ideology is finished. Done. Goodbye.

Posted by: Tim | Jan 20, 2009 8:52:32 AM

Ironically with all the supposed "Change" coming our way, I have a VERY BAD feeling that Obama will be the one that starts something nuclear.

Posted by: Ford Fairlane | Jan 20, 2009 8:53:51 AM

People, get a grip... seriously.

Posted by: Rowan | Jan 20, 2009 8:57:32 AM

Did I miss something? Why would Palin be receiving the codes today? Maybe I wasn't paying much attention, but I believe McCain was running for President.

Posted by: Patrick | Jan 20, 2009 8:59:40 AM

I'm glad the drunk in charge won't have access to the nukes anymore!

Posted by: John Kovacs | Jan 20, 2009 9:04:31 AM

Thankfully we do not have a hotheaded cowboy as president, ready to shoot first and ask questions later.

Posted by: William J. LePetomane | Jan 20, 2009 9:05:13 AM

To all the closet racists still around: go crawl under your little rock indefinitely. You have done enough damage to this country. Society has no use for you.

Posted by: John Kovacs | Jan 20, 2009 9:06:22 AM

Funny, unlike Obama, Palin didn't have any criminal or terrorist ties. Who would a smart person perfer with the codes?

Posted by: chattyway | Jan 20, 2009 9:07:44 AM

Let's hope Obama stops playing dress-up and pretending to be other presidents. Where is his own substance?

He needs to get some serious work done.

As a lifelong Democrat, I wish I could be excited about this inauguration, but I am not.

Posted by: Michelle | Jan 20, 2009 9:08:05 AM

This president will be able to pronounce "nuclear" correctly.

Posted by: Hils | Jan 20, 2009 9:09:52 AM

Yeah yeah, it is true. Racists have really harmed the country...they voted for Obama simply because he was part black despite his marxism and all of his slimey terrorist/criminal friends along with his huge dangerous ego and his complete lack of any individual thought, but hey he can read a teleprompter can't he.

Posted by: chattyway | Jan 20, 2009 9:09:57 AM

And the market is selling off again today.........how far has it fallen since Obama stole the election?

Posted by: chattyway | Jan 20, 2009 9:12:18 AM

Chattyway: that would leave out McCain. He was a great pal of the domestic terrorist and convicted criminal G. Gordon Liddy, whom the Chicago Tribune, a Republican paper, called an "enemy of Democracy."

Posted by: William J. LePetomane | Jan 20, 2009 9:14:19 AM

LOL "stole the election." Chattyway you don't exactly have an iron grip on reality.

Posted by: William J. LePetomane | Jan 20, 2009 9:15:59 AM

Bush stole the election! Yeah right. Like the government attacked the towers.

Posted by: LongT | Jan 20, 2009 9:20:01 AM

Oh. My. God

Posted by: g_sh_08 | Jan 20, 2009 9:20:50 AM

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