Diary Prequel Package — page 188

Nov. 22, 2008 - Was invited by former President George H.W. Bush to attend the christening of the new aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush at Norfolk , VA on Jan. 10, 2009. Nov.24, 2008 - Breakfast and panel discussion at the National Press Club in association with my (and others) receiving the recognition of America's Best Leaders 2008 (24 Leaders Who are Making a Difference) by U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. David Gergon MC'd the affair and C-SPAN-2 covered it. We also all appeared in the Dec. 1-8, 2008 issue of U.S. News & World Report. Other winners who were present were: David Baltimore, Regina Benjamin, Benjamin Carson, Manuel Diaz (Mayor of Miami), Marian Wright Edelman, Fiona Anne Harrison, Freeman A. Hrabowski (Pres. U of MD, Baltimore County, Dave Levin (Founder of KIPP Foundation, Linda Rottenberg (CEO, Endeavor), Mike Feinberg (C0-founder of KIPP), Maria Zuber (MIT). Awardees who were not there: Lance Armstrong, Jeffrey Bezos (CEO, Amazon.com), Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock (Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz), Robert Gates (Secretary of DoD), Amory Lovins, Anne Mulcahy (CEO Xerox), Indra Nooyi (CEO, PepsiCo.) Junior Officers DoD, Jeffrey Sachs, Steven Spielberg, Michael Tilson Thomas Music Director, SF Symphony. David Gergon asked each of us what we would recommend to President-Elect Obama as an area that he should pay attention to. I stressed the need for support of biomedical research and also the importance and moral obligation that we have towards promoting Global Health and its potential for "Health Diplomacy". Nov. 25, 2008 - Received a call from Aaron Pickrell who is running the Obama transition team for HHS and sub-agencies. He said that my name is actively being discussed for NIH director and he wanted to know if I was interested. I was frank and honest with him saying that I wanted to remain as NIAID Director, but I want to be part of the Obama team and perhaps we could work out something informal (without title) or more formal (?Special Assistant or Special Advisor to the POTUS) for issues on Global AIDS, Emerging infections, and Biodefense. He said that he would run this up the ladder and see how people react. My real desire is to stay where I am but to be called upon as I have been for 20+ years on issues mentioned above. I do not want to give up my solid base of scientific credibility. I hear that Francis Collins is aggressively campaigning for the job of NIH Director - not surprising. Nov. 29, 2008 - Had brunch with small group of people at Richard and Donna BenVeniste's house. He is a great guy with whom Chris and I have developed a nice friendship. He asked about the NIH Director job and suggested without my implying that I should tell the Obama people that I want to do both NIAID Director and NIH Director. This is what I agreed upon with Tommy Thompson 6 years ago, but the WH (Clay Johnson) blocked it and said that I could take one or the other. I picked NIAID Director. I actually do not think that doing both jobs would work, mainly because people would jump on the "appearance" of conflict every time that I made a decision that they did not like or if their grant did not get funded, and on and on. Also at the brunch was Carl