Fwd: Note from Les Gelb

From:john.podesta@gmail.com To: Todd.Stern@wilmerhale.com Date: 2008-10-27 19:20 Subject: Fwd: Note from Les Gelb

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Dear John, As we agreed, please find attached the final draft of our group's overall strategy paper, topped by a letter of transmittal to the president-elect. I'm sending you the final draft so that you might flag for me any problems you would want us to consider removing from the final document itself. Please also find below my email to the group members discharging my responsibilities and theirs and the track ahead. You will note I ask for their final comments by Thursday, 11 a.m. I will send you the final document Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. As I stressed, we have kept our deliberations entirely private and we have no pride of authorship. Our only aim is, as we state, to help our nation's new leader design an overall strategy -- a thought process and discipline we all believe essential to his and our nation's success. You can reach me at either 212.472.7320 or 212.988.9313. Allbest, Les Gelb ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Attached find the final draft of our strategy paper topped by a cover note to the president-elect. We are told there is a window of reading opportunity this coming weekend and so -- with apologies -- I must have your comments no later than Thursday, 11 a.m. I have put in disclaimers that this is not a consensus document and that there are disagreements on many points. Nonetheless, if you feel exercised by any particular point or argument, you should send me a paragraph or two on that point which I will append to the document. Some of you may be more than exercised and feel disinclined to associate yourself with the paper, and you may want to remove your name from the list at the end of the cover letter to the president-elect. IF YOU WANT YOUR NAME REMOVED, YOU MUST EMAIL ME TO THAT EFFECT NO LATER THAN 11 A.M. ON THURSDAY. OTHERWISE, YOUR NAME WILL BE INCLUDED. You will also note that no authors are listed and no division of responsibilities in our group stated. Please also note that we invite the president-elect to put us back to work if he would like to hear more. If not, we should feel that we have discharged our agreed duty to help the president do what he should immediately -- develop an overall strategy for his administration. You should also know that I am sending a copy of this paper to John Podesta, Michael Froman, and Brian Mathis. They are aware of this enterprise in detail, have seen earlier drafts, and will be responsible for transmitting the document to higher authorities. Lastly, I want to thank certain people in particular. I leaned on Bo Cutter heavily throughout the process and he was of enormous help. I want to thank colleagues on the staff -- Will Wechsler, Liz Colagiuri, and Jeanne Zelmati -- for their intelligent and hard labors. Not least, deep appreciation goes to Erica Payne for her constant counsel and Rob McKay for his enduring support for an enterprise that really had to be tried for the good of our country. Allbest, Les Gelb