President-elect Barack Obama's [Images] chief of staff has said that politics is going to be on a bi-partisan basis as the challenges facing the US are such that it requires all parties to be involved in the process.
 
"President Obama is very clear... we have to govern in a bipartisan fashion. And if you look at the way his campaign is run and also the ideas, he has always said that we have to be bipartisan," Rahm Emnauel said on ABC's Sunday programme.
 
"The challenges are big enough that there's going to be an ability for people of both parties, as well as independents, to contribute ideas to help meet the challenges on health care, energy, tax reform, education," Rahm said.
 
"So, that is the tone. That is the policy. And that is exactly how we're going to go forward. And he has said it for us," he said.
 
"Because the challenges... whether on the national security front or on the economic, are looming large, and they're going to require both parties and leaders of both parties, as well as independents, to offer up ideas to how to meet those challenges," Emanuel, a known tough no-nonsense person, remarked.