William Daley to step down as Obama’s chief of staff
William Daley is stepping down as White House chief of staff and budget director Jack Lew is taking over the President Obama’s team as it heads into a tough election year, senior administration officials say.
[…]
The choice of Lew puts a veteran staffer of the White House, Capitol Hill and State Department in a critical position at a difficult time for the president. Obama hopes he can work through tough budget and economic issues with Congress this year despite fierce opposition from Republicans in the GOP-led House. Having a strong team captain who can deal with lawmakers, staffers and business leaders is considered crucial to their strategy.
But aides say Obama had faith in Daley to lead that effort, and that he had not been discussing making any changes prior to last week. Daley’s letter took the president by surprise, said three officials familiar with the personnel discussions that followed. They requested anonymity to speak about the internal talks in advance of the public announcement.
In October, Daley told Chicago reporters that he was looking forward to returning to his hometown but that he would serve the president through the duration of the reelection campaign. It had been a grueling year for Obama that included a summer of fighting with Republicans over the debt ceiling and related budget issues.
In November, Obama directed a change in the flow chart at the White House, keeping Daley in charge but shifting many of the day-to-day operational duties to Pete Rouse, a trusted aide who had served as interim chief of staff. Friends said Daley would focus on high-level managerial duties and be advisor and surrogate for the president.
After winning an end-of-year victory in the extension of the payroll tax cut, Daley went to Mexico and to Chicago to celebrate Christmas and spend time with his wife and grandchildren. When he came back, he told Obama right away that he had decided to leave.
This isn’t a total shock, I pretty much figured it was coming when Daley was semi-demoted a couple months ago.
The problem with the Obama administration isn’t management, it’s leadership.
Appointing a new COS at this point is like choosing a new captain after the Titanic hit the iceberg.
They just keep rearranging the deck chairs.
Agree. And what’s extra sad is the Republican party is pushing a bad copy of the Titanic to run against them.
one by one they are leaving. It looks like it will Jarrett and backtrack making decisions.
God Help the Country
It might accelerate the administration circling down the drain. It seems Michelle and Valerie were the movents behind the catastrophic health care bill, and Valerie was also the contact point in the WH for the DOE loans for bundlers. Everything they do has a Chicago “you can pay me later” edge to it. Wonder what corporate boards they think they are going to serve on after the WH gig is up? I bet neither of them get any but some rinky-dinky stuff.
And apparently Barak Obama wasn’t man enough to stand up against either one of them trashing his own staff members.
He let the staff handle them without backing, and one by one—Rahm, Gibbs, Daley—they’ve all left.
Some kinda man, eh?
OT, but what the heck is going on here? http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/203039-media-mob-forces-paul-to-leave-nh-campaign-event-early
Media people wearing wizard costumes? I think not. Sounds like a Dem/Occupy operative operation if you ask me.
OWS for sure.
Wouldn’t be surprised that they’d protest the person most aligned with their alleged goals. Of course their real goal is to get Obama re-elected, and part of that is to ensure Romney is nominated.
I think Valerie Jarrett really runs the show, and I heard reports that she was stepping all over Daley from the start.
Maybe Bill left because he didn’t want the good name of Daley to be tarnished by such a failed presidency. LOL
Uh oh, Michelle was concerned about those pesky “white Irish Catholic” Daleys’ and friends’ lock on Chicago politics…….
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2012/01/michelle_obama_distressed_abou.html
Well no wonder, they’re all racists you know.
I was not aware that Blagojevich and Rezko were Irish names. Who knew?
More incidences of OWS protests of Republican candidate events, so by what they’re doing, by definition pro-Obama disruptions of Republican events. And best of all of course are when they protest the most anti-wall street of them all, Paul. They’re so transparent.
this is off topic, but important
http://rt.com/usa/news/homeland-security-journalists-monitoring-321/
since they will now be monitored by the government, will any journalist say anything negative about backtrack?
so who runs the white house?????
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/01/09/bill-daley-out-time-for-a-look-back-at-what-insider-told-us-way-back-when/
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Obama-Daley-Lew-Chief/2012/01/09/id/423572?s=al&promo_code=DE4C-1
quite a parade of people leaving