President-elect Barack Obama’s got a lot on his plate. There’s Iraq and Afghanistan, of course, but then there are pressing domestic issues — first and foremost, the economy.

The president-elect appeared on ABC’s "This Week" yesterday and insisted to host George Stephanopoulos that fixing our finances is his No. 1 priority. Saying he’ll create a "green economy" and look into how to deal with the Bush-era tax cuts, Obama urged the American people to be patient. "I think we can fix it. But it’s gonna take some time. It’s not gonna happen overnight," the president-elect said. "All the indicators show we are in the worst recession since the Great Depression."

Obama is trying to convince Congress to pass his $775 billion stimulus package, but it seems he’s willing to bend on some issues to get it done. Obama surrogates met with Senate Democrats Sunday to talk about various tax credits that could be included. Both Obama and the Bush administration on Sunday also teamed up to push reluctant senators from both parties to provide the remaining $350 billion in Wall Street bailout funds originally approved last year.

So what if Congress doesn’t get the stimulus package done by its February President’s Day recess?

"Then Congress is gonna hear from me," Obama said. "We can’t afford, three, four, five, six months where we’re losing half a million jobs a month."

While the economy will be a tough job for Mr. Obama, he also has some other dilemmas that hit close to home — like picking a puppy for the incoming first family. That, he joked, is tougher than finding himself a new commerce secretary. "We’re closing in on it. This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary," Obama said. Never fear, however — things seem to be progressing nicely and his two daughters have narrowed down their options.

"They seem to have narrowed it down to a labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound … medium-sized dog, and so, we’re now going to start looking at shelters to see when one of those dogs might come up," Obama told Stephanopoulos. The girls, noted Stephanopoulos, had personally requested he inquire about their potential pet. 

Obama had nothing but praise for his two girls’ handling of their own transition: "I’m trying to figure out why they don’t seem to be fazed by anything." Obviously those girls know how to go with the flow — an important trait for a 21st-century woman, no?

Click below to watch the dog portion of the interview, where Obama also talks about closing Guantanamo Bay and other topics. Click here to watch more excerpts of the interview.