300,000 seek Obama administration jobs

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Nearly 300,000 people have applied for about 7,000 available positions in U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration, a source said.

The New York Daily News reported Saturday that a Web site where people can apply for positions in the White House and in executive agencies has been flooded with resumes.

"They want experience and expertise," a veteran Democratic policy expert who is hoping to join the Obama administration told the newspaper.

The hiring process set up by Obama's transition chief John Podesta is said to be so rigorous that even senior Obama campaign aides are sweating out the hiring process.

He has so far tapped several former supporters of Obama's one-time rival for the Democratic presidential nomination Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for top jobs.

Podesta is "looking at who is the best, not necessarily the most loyal," the newspaper quotes its source as saying. "It's the Reagan administration model: Campaign people are not the same as policy people."