Many on the left are concerned that Bill Daley, a more centrist Democrat may be the wrong choice for the President’s chief of staff. I disagree with his opposition to the consumer protection agency as well as disagree with other progressive policies he opposed. After-all, Vice-President Biden disagreed with the President on Afghanistan and the timing of healthcare reform and the President listened to his better angels.
Progressives must realize an important fact. While Americans by their polled desires are center left the centroid of the country based on financial and political power is much more Right than center. This of course is due to Americans accepting much of the misinformation from the Right Wing echo chamber that includes Right Wing Radio and TV as well as a very timid mainstream media.
No President operates in the vacuum of his ideology. He must bring the country along to legitimize his policies. He cannot bring the country along by himself. It is then incumbent on us to educate the masses constantly so that we can inoculate them from those that misinform.
If we keep our eyes on the ball 2012 should be a good year as Republicans make a mess of the little policy they will be able to pass. We must ensure that Republicans are not allowed to blame their failed policies on Progressives by systematically challenging their fallacies and misinformation.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
Bill Daley, Obama’s New Chief Of Staff
HuffPost’s Howard Fineman reports that President Barack Obama is choosing Bill Daley to replace interim chief of staff Pete Rouse. Daley confirmed to the Huffington Post that he will fill the position.
Daley will step into one of the most important and influential jobs in American government as an adviser and gatekeeper to Obama. He will replace Pete Rouse, the interim chief of the last three months, a behind-the-scenes Obama adviser who did not want the position permanently and recommended Daley for it.
Rouse will remain as a counselor to the president, an elevated position from his former job as senior adviser. Daley is expected to start within the next couple of weeks.
Although Daley carries the name of a dynastic family of politics in Chicago, which is Obama’s hometown, he and the president haven’t been personally close. He offers criteria Obama wants: an outsider’s perspective, credibility with the business community, familiarity with the ways of the Cabinet and experience in navigating divided government.
Daley also wants the job. At 62, the move will thrust him into the heart of national politics just as Obama adapts to a new reality in Washington, with Republicans controlling the House, working to gut his signature health care law and pushing for major cuts in spending.
The White House shake up offered eye-catching symmetry to Washington’s first busy week of the new year, change at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue a day after a reconstituted Congress was convened with Republicans in charge in the House and in a position of greater empowerment in the Senate, albeit still in the minority there.
Obama informed his senior advisers of the change in a meeting on Thursday morning.
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He made clear that no one is more valuable to him than Rouse, according to one of the officials in the room. The set-up means Obama gets both officials: Daley to run the grueling operation, Rouse to offer a range of advice and his years of experience with the Senate.
Daley, currently the Midwest chairman of JPMorgan Chase and brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, raised some eyebrows this week when prior comments were uncovered suggesting he didn’t support two landmark Obama administration initiatives — health care reform and consumer protection.
"[Democrats] miscalculated on health care," Daley once told The New York Times in an interview. "The election of ’08 sent a message that after 30 years of center-right governing, we had moved to center left — not left."
As for Obama’s creation of a consumer protection agency, Daley appeared equally resistant. The Wall Street Journal reported last year:
But when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called a top J.P. Morgan executive to ask for the bank’s support in creating a new consumer-protection agency, the executive–former Commerce Secretary William Daley–said no, according to people familiar with the conversation. His boss believed that sufficient consumer safeguards were already on the books.
While such views are likely to put him in the bad graces of some on the left, former DNC chairman Howard Dean recently painted the potential shakeup as a positive development. HuffPost’s Sam Stein reported Wednesday:
Dean said that his ascendancy to the chief of staff role would be a positive development, in the process giving Daley the type of progressive validater that he has so far lacked.
"I don’t agree with [him] on a lot of stuff politically, but I do think — A, he is a grownup and B, he gets that you don’t treat people like you know everything and they don’t," said Dean. "If Bill Daley becomes the chief of staff, that is going to be a huge plus because he is outside of Washington, he sees things the way people outside Washington do. It is not a left or right issue."
Stein also noted earlier this week that Daley’s Chicago standing and knowledge of the administration and election politics could be useful as Obama looks forward to reelection.
