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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

On Inauguration Day, Barack Obama gets the "football." It's not what you think. This football is the small leather-bound metal briefcase that contains the U.S. nuclear launch codes. It will be handed off to Obama at his swearing in, and from that moment on will go everywhere with him. Think of it as Armageddon in a box.

The world is awash in potential nuclear weapons problems right now. North Korea already has them. Iran is racing toward acquiring them. The main nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia expires next year. And tensions between India and Pakistan are on the rise in the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai last week. Pakistan is a nuclear power. It's a daunting array of problems for any president to face.

Watch: Cafferty: Nuclear priorities?

So what's inside the football? A secure phone that can connect President Obama to the nuclear command centers at the Pentagon, Colorado Springs and "Site R," a bunkered emergency command center just over the Maryland border in Pennsylvania. Through these centers, the president can reach the 1,300 U.S. strategic nuclear weapons which are always on alert. There is also a list of various attack options, everything from a single shot to an all-out war.

Here’s my question to you: When it comes to nuclear weapons, what should Barack Obama's first priority be as president?

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Obama has held two news conferences in two days and unveiled his dream team of economic advisers.

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Barack Obama is looking downright presidential these days. He's held two news conferences in two days and unveiled his dream team of economic advisers. He's acting presidential too.

As our Gloria Borger writes on CNN.com, "Not only is there a team, but there's also a plan." She says that Barack Obama is taking ownership of the financial crisis. He is ready to tackle it even though he has about two more months to wait until he becomes president. Obama is placing high priority on passing a second stimulus package, which will probably be much larger than the first one, to jump start the economy.

It's interesting to recall that during the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton derided Barack Obama as not being ready for the job of president. She claimed that while she had years of experience that qualified her to be ready "on day one," Obama had only "a speech" to bring to the office of the president. After Obama whipped her and won the nomination, his Republican opponent, John McCain, picked up Clinton's mantra, saying Obama had no experience and couldn't possibly be ready to assume the highest office in the land.

With about 8 weeks to go, Barack Obama is making both of them look rather silly.

Here’s my question to you: Is it a mistake for Barack Obama to take "ownership" of the financial crisis more than two months before he becomes president?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

There are stimulus packages and there are stimulus packages. Remember the one President Bush, House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid collaborated on a while back? It was $168 billion and resulted in a few hundred dollars in most people's pockets. It did it's job, gave a short term jolt to the economy, but it's effects are long since gone. And the economy is a whole lot worse now than it was then.

Watch: Cafferty: Obama wait on taxes?

Stand by for "Stimulus Two!" Congressional Democrats say they will have a stimulus package ready for Barack Obama to sign the day he is inaugurated. New York Senator Chuck Schumer told ABC's "This Week," this time the stimulus package could total $700 billion. Gee, another $700 billion. And that's a pretty round number in Washington these days. After all, $700 billion you may remember is what Congress committed last month to bailout troubled financial institutions. It's also an amount slightly higher than what the nation has spent on the war in Iraq over the last 6 years. But it doesn't matter, does it? It's money we don't have anyway, just add it to the national debt.

David Axelrod, Obama's chief political adviser, said Sunday that the cost of Obama's economic rescue plan would be pricey. He also hinted that the president-elect may hold off on raising taxes for the wealthy and instead just allow the Bush tax cuts to expire in 2010. Despite Obama's campaign promise to immediately roll back the Bush tax cuts for people making more than $250,000, conventional wisdom says it's never a good idea to raise taxes during an economic slowdown.

Here’s my question to you: Should President-Elect Obama hold off raising taxes on the wealthy for two years?

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Are expectations too high for Obama?

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

There are high hopes for big change when Barack Obama becomes President of the United States in about two months. The expectations for this man are approaching euphoria and that could be setting the stage for a big disappointment. We've got big problems in this country and no one is going to wave a magic wand and fix them in a matter of weeks or months. It's likely going to take several years.

Some of the president-elect's advisers want to make sure Americans realize this and they're speaking out. One of Obama's top economic advisers Robert Reich, who was Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, says Obama isn't going to solve the country's economic problems in his first 100 days in office. He told Chicago's CBS2: "This might be a long haul...2009 is going to be a very hard year."

Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod is also cautioning the overly-optimistic. He says: "We are inheriting an array of problems unlike any [a] president has faced, maybe since Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. It's not going to be easy, not going to be quick."

In other words, great hopes and expectations are going to have to be accompanied by patience.

Here’s my question to you: Are expectations too high for Barack Obama’s presidency?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

President-elect Barack Obama is inheriting a lot of problems from the Bush Administration including an economic crisis, two wars, and a whole list of international challenges, the most urgent of which is Iran.

According to a new International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran is continuing to increase its stockpile of uranium and now has enough nuclear fuel to make a single atom bomb.

Watch: Cafferty: Obama deal with Iran?

Iran insists it only wants nuclear energy to fuel power plants, but the United Nations Security Council isn't so sure. It has passed three sanctions resolutions demanding Iran suspend its nuclear program. The Tehran government has ignored them all.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the United Nations in September, "As far as we are concerned, the nuclear issue is resolved."

The Bush Administration joined European-led negotiations late in the game and actually sent some representatives to Tehran to meet with the Iranians, but to no avail.

Two months from today, it will be Barack Obama's turn. He has indicated a willingness to negotiate with Tehran, but this IAEA report could complicate matters considerably.

Here’s my question to you: How should Barack Obama deal with Iran when he takes office?

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Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

President-elect Barack Obama won the White House on a message of change. Fifty-three percent of Americans said they wanted something new and different in Washington. Well, Obama is certainly new and different, but the same cannot be said for some of his early appointments. It's like that song title, "Everything Old Is New Again."

As Obama prepares to take over, he's asking a bunch of former Clinton Administration members to come on board. John Podesta, who is overseeing the Obama transition team, is a former Clinton White House Chief of Staff. Rahm Emmanuel, who will serve as Obama's Chief of Staff, is a former Clinton aide. The president-elect's choice for Attorney General, Eric Holder, served in the Clinton administration as deputy attorney general under Janet Reno. And Peter Orszag, who has been picked to head Obama's Office of Management and Budget, worked at the Clinton White House as a special assistant to the president at the National Economic Council.

Watch: Cafferty: Former Clinton Admin?

And then, of course, there's Hillary. The former first lady and current junior senator from New York has been asked about the Secretary of State position. And if she gets the job, we get Bill back by association.

More than half of those named to Obama's transition or staff posts so far have ties to the Clinton administration

Here’s my question to you: What message is Barack Obama sending by surrounding himself with so many former members of the Clinton Administration?

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Should the Obama children attend public or private school?

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

The nation's president-elect will be confronting arguably the toughest set of problems this country has been faced with in a very long time. The economy is in crisis, the treasury is broke, Americans are losing their jobs and we're fighting two wars. It's heady stuff but at the end of the day, one of the biggest decisions Barack and Michelle Obama are going to have to make is where to send those two delightful little girls to school.

It's a decision many parents wrestle with all the time: Public or private? Public schools tend to more closely resemble the real world, while private schools provide a more insulated and, in most cases, intellectually-challenging environment. But Sasha and Malia aren't just any two kids moving to Washington from Chicago and trying to find a new school. When they head off for their first day of class, the world will be watching and the Secret Service will go with them. Michelle Obama says she wants to be the nation's "first mom." Where to send these two kids to school will be one of the biggest decisions she has to make. And no matter what the Obamas decide, the nation will be watching and clucking like a bunch of hens no matter where they go to school.

Here’s my question to you: Should the Obama children attend public or private school?

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How should Obama make the best use of Biden?

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Today we're going to spend a couple of minutes talking about the vice presidential candidate who actually won the election, Joe Biden. Remember him?

After 9-11, one of the first things President Bush did was find a secure, undisclosed location in which to store his Vice President, Dick Cheney. Once hidden away, Cheney could begin pulling the strings for the new administration. Secret energy meetings with that fun bunch from Enron, drawing up plans to invade Iraq as well as the lies they would need to cover it, figuring out how to operate the most secretive administration in history without being accountable to anyone. He had his assignment clearly defined right from the start.

It's always been a bit of a problem figuring out what to do with the vice president. As long as the president's alive, his official job description is limited. Break the ties in the Senate, sit behind the congressional leaders during the State of the Union address, and try to look interested when out in public.

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University says Biden could best be put to use soothing a Democratic Congress that's had a tense relationship with the Executive Branch in recent years. He believes Biden should be "a point man on Capitol Hill to help twist arms, make arguments and build voting coalitions."

Here’s my question to you: How should Barack Obama make the best use of Vice President-elect Joe Biden?

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(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

President-elect Obama has said he wants to establish a civilian security force to assist our already-taxed military. He described it as a national security corps that's as powerful and well-funded as the U.S. military, and it would take on the national security burden.

Obama made mention of this in a speech in Colorado in July. That speech has since circulated on the Internet. For some reason, the concept scares people. Republican Congressman Paul Broun from Georgia told the Associated Press, that such a move could lead to Marxism.

He said, "That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did... When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

Broun also said he thinks Obama will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.

Here’s my question to you: Is President-elect Obama's idea for a civilian security force a good idea?

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At a gas station in Ohio, the price of a gallon of regular gas dropped to $1.89 yesterday.

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

The majority of Americans want change, which explains the recent election results. But there is change and there is change.

When it comes to our cars, we have a hard time with the whole concept.

We like to drive and have a long history of having relatively cheap gasoline. But when gas prices hit all-time highs this summer–$4 a gallon and even higher—many Americans had to cut back.

A lot has changed since then.

Oil prices are hovering around 19-month lows and gas prices have dropped for 55 days straight. Forty-six states and District of Columbia now report gasoline selling below $2.50 a gallon. That's the good news. The bad news is there’s evidence we're getting back behind the wheel and returning to our old ways.

What to do? President-elect Obama wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions when he gets to the White House in January. One way to do that is to put a hefty tax on gasoline, big enough that it would force down consumption.

Here’s my question to you: Should the government impose a gas tax aimed at holding down consumption?

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