Rice: Obama election 'extraordinary step'

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the election of Barack Obama made her proud as an African American woman.

"As an African American, I'm especially proud, because this is a country that's been through a long journey in terms of overcoming wounds and making race not the factor in our lives," Rice said before the department's daily media briefing.

While acknowledging that more work needed to be done, "yesterday was obviously an extraordinary step forward," she said.

She called the election "an exercise in American democracy of which Americans across the political spectrum are justifiably proud."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the transition team checked out the 3,500-square-foot office space designated for the Obama transition team.

"So whenever the transition team is ready to take up occupancy over here, the State Department will be ready," McCormack said.

Twenty-four department employees will work full time on the transition, he said.

"These folks will assist with everything from security clearances to legal and human resources paperwork, information management, helping to make sure that the paper flow is good throughout the department," he said.