Is it me or does Obama look rather uncertain that he made the right decision, in this picture?
William Daley, Obama's new chief of staff, was Commerce Secretary under Clinton, and Gene Sperling, the president's new senior economic adviser, served Clinton for the full two terms. Now, if only Bill could somehow get his wife into the cabinet...oh wait.
Matt Bai of the New York Times is right to suggest that these appointments don't signal a change of ideological course. Emanuel and Summers were hardly lions of liberalism. Obama likes having smart, centrist pragmatists around him. That doesn't necessarily mean he sees himself the same way, however. What Bai misses is that Obama seems to like the tension between his own more conventional liberal instincts (shared by some of his closest advisers, like Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod) and centrists with their eyes on the electoral ball. Daley has sharp political instincts, and last year wrote a column gently criticising Obama for being too single-mindedly focused on healthcare and tacking - or seeming to tack - too far to the left. Daley's other strength from the president's point of view is that he's very respected by the business community. With the election hoving into view, and small donors less likely to dig into their pockets this time, Obama needs to make nice with rich people, and quick.
Marc Ambinder has good account of Daley and the significance of this appointment here.
We need more of Clinton's technique and less of his blue dog policies that helped create the financial crisis of 2008.
Posted by: White House Address | April 19, 2011 at 04:12 AM