But some members of Congress said Sunday that even that might not be soon enough  Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said that President Bush and Mr. Obama should work together now to put a stimulus package in place by early next year. Otherwise, he said, the Obama approach would probably take until the second quarter of next year, “and that’s too long.”

Advisers to Mr. Obama say they want to use the economic crisis as an opportunity to act on many of the issues he emphasized in his campaign, including cutting taxes for lower- and middle-class workers, addressing neglected public infrastructure projects like roads and schools, and creating “green jobs” through business incentives for energy alternatives and environmentally friendly technologies.

In light of the downturn, Mr. Obama is also said to be reconsidering a key campaign pledge: his proposal to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. According to several people familiar with the discussions, he might instead let those tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011, effectively delaying any tax increase while he gives his stimulus plan a chance to work.

That approach, Mr. Daley said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “looks more likely than not.”

On Monday morning in Chicago, Mr. Obama plans to hold his second news conference since the election to introduce his economic team, led by his Treasury secretary, expected to be Timothy F. Geithner. News that Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, would get the job helped send the stock market up by nearly 500 points on Friday after days of sharp losses.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers is to be the director of the National Economic Council in the White House, the president’s principal economic adviser and policy coordinator, according to an Obama aide.

Mr. Axelrod appeared to tacitly confirm those two nominations, though he said that another widely reported nomination, that of Governor Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, might be premature.

Referring to the stimulus plan being prepared, Mr. Axelrod said, “We need the best people we can find, the best minds in our country to help us accomplish that plan, and people like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are among those people.”