If Obama really does appoint Bill Daley as his next Chief of Staff, some blogs are going to explode:
“They miscalculated on health care,” Mr. Daley said in an interview last year with The New York Times. “The election of ’08 sent a message that after 30 years of center-right governing, we had moved to center left — not left.” […]
Mr. Daley is also the Midwest chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co., who also serves as the bank’s head of corporate responsibility.
Putting aside his ideology, which I assume would take a back seat to Obama’s goals, I wonder about the wisdom of appointing a CoS who has slight acquaintance with Congress, since wrestling with Congress is going to be the main job of most of the White House apparatus.
cleek
out of touch with main Street, deeply involved with Wall St., hostile to Obama. sounds perfect.
Chris
Well, with a health care plan that’s basically a clone of the GOP’s proposals in the 1990s, I’d say we’re still center-right. Yes, by all means, let’s move to the center-left; I’d be thrilled.
Steeplejack
Headline typo: I think you want “Pharaoh” there.
mistermix
@Steeplejack: Thanks.
cat48
I just don’t care anymore when blogs explode about Obama. After DADT passed, they were pouting within 5 minutes because “why did it take so long??” Thus, proving to me that they’re all about poutrage only. That’s fine, just won’t be taken seriously by me anymore.
I’m from IL originally…….the name Daley doesn’t *scare* me and anyone he hires will have said something in their past or worked at a company someone objects to or will have given a speech for money somewhere that gives someone poutrage b/c it violates some principle they hold dear……….
It has all become very predictable.
MikeJ
@Chris: We could have waited another 20 years and passed a “poor people must give their livers to the rich” plan.
Skepticat
Makes me nostalgic for Rahm, whom I considered a terrible choice.
dr. bloor
Gergen’s not available?
Alwhite
@cat48:
Yes, it has all become very predictable . . . oh wait, you meant the outrage didn’t you? I thought you might have meant Obama going for a Republican friendly, Masters-of-the-Universe affirming choice.
Villago Delenda Est
“Head of corporate responsibility”?
For Chase?
Talk about your sinecures…
Comrade Jake
I’m surprised he didn’t pick Karl Rove, since by this point we all know Obama is just like Bush.
JPL
During the Bush/Gore recount, Daley was co-chair of Gore’s recount committee. How’d that work out?
Observer
@cat48:
from the article:
Are there any other establishment Dems, who by their own admission have been losing for 30 years, that you’d like Obama to hire as well?
Maybe Shrum or Penn? or how about Susan Estrich?
sheesh.
fnook
I wonder about the wisdom of appointing a CoS who has slight acquaintance with Congress, since wrestling with Congress is going to be the main job of most of the White House apparatus.
Interesting point, but I bet a chairman of JPMC has more than a slight acquaintance with Congress, or at least the financial regulatory pieces of Congress, which big Wall Street firms basically own already.
Chyron HR
@Observer:
Hi, Rush.
paradox
As for DADT, it wasn’t whining about length of incompetent bungling, just the moronic political timing of waiting until after the election. That hurt us among liberals and gays, we seriously could have used the good news when it mattered.
I don’t know anything about this new hoser chief of staff, but Obama and his people are so lost in space to put a corporate banker there. If y’all can’t see the awful optics of this after the last 3 years, well, must be nice to be oblivious.
No disrespect, Obama wants to be so obviously bought and paid for, okay. It’s not liberal or Democratic Party leadership, just so we all understand.
david mizner
“I am pleased to announce that my good friend, Bill Daley of Chicago, has agreed to be the Chair of the administration’s Task Force on the North American Free Trade Agreement. This agreement means more trade, more exports, and more jobs for the United States. I think it is very much in our national interest.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=46994
That’s Bill Clinton, in 1993. Hooray! Another Clinonite neo-liberal. But don’t worry, appointments don’t matter.
gene108
@Chris: We’re a flaming left liberal society on social issues. What were liberal pipe dreams in the 1980’s – a black President, women as governors, and potential Presidential candidates, for example – are a reality.
The economic front is more muddied, because liberals lack a clear economic agenda.
Any liberal who thinks says we’re a center-right nation, when center-right meant segregation, women not being considered for “man’s” jobs, no acceptance of gays, etc. they are into some serious self-flagellation. The only reason the myth of that we’re a center-right nation persists is a lack of focus on reality by liberals, the liberals feeling of constantly being failed, even though the country is more liberal on many fronts than a generation or two ago, and a lack of a coherent liberal response to supply side economics.
Suck It Up!
I don’t know if his “slight” acquaintance will matter. I recently read that the WH will be using Joe a lot more when it comes to congress.
Whatever the choice, I look forward to both the left and the right crying about Obama’s Chicago thugs.
Observer
@Chyron HR:
Gore wasn’t the only loser referenced.
Shrum even has the distinction of advising the loser in the last UK election overseas.
You are obviously too stupid to figure this out so I won’t argue with you.
Suck It Up!
@paradox:
the FIRST vote for DADT took place PRIOR to the mid terms.
gene108
@Observer:
Maybe he should hire Jane Hamsher, because she’s the dose of liberal reality this Administration needs…sigh…
I really don’t know who Obama could hire, who wasn’t part of the Clinton Administration. Parties recycle retreads from prior Administrations, because those are the people, with experience for the jobs that need to be done.
Bush & Co. tapped former Bush, Sr., Reagan and Nixon appointees.
Obama’s appointing former Clinton officials. That’s just the way our government works.
The only out of the box thinking I could think of that would be liberal, would try to get someone like Russ Feingold to be CoS, but I don’t know if a former Senator would look at a CoS position as a good option.
P.S. Despite political defeats, liberalism marches on in America as evidenced by the passage of HCR, arguably the capstone of liberal social policy.
gene108
@cat48: I personally think appointing someone, with experience in Wall Street will be good for America.
It will give throw those guys a bone and maybe have the quit pouting about how they are being treated unfairly by Obama.
It might even assuage whatever animosity the business community has towards this Administration and get them to start spending the $2 trillion in cash they are sitting on.
Chris
@gene108:
Fair enough. I tend to use “left” and “right” as economic terms. You’re correct that we’re a more liberal nation when it comes to social issues. On economics, though, I think it’s fair to say we’re still lagging behind and to the right of most of our fellow industrialized democracies, and it’s been that way for a while.
Ash Can
@JPL: It might have worked out fine if the SC had allowed that recount to actually take place.
JAHILL10
I don’t understand this whole obsession with who the CoS is. Whoever it is, he takes orders from the president, not the other way around. Or don’t the whiners of the professional left believe that?
PurpleGirl
@gene108: I should think that appointing Geithner was a large enough bone for Wall Street. How about re-appointing Bernanke?
shortstop
Am I wrong in thinking that wrestling with Congress is a fairly recent addition to the WHCOS’s priorities? Didn’t legislative liaisons — who had tons of Congressional experience and relationships — used to do most of the heavy lifting in this area?
cleek
@JAHILL10:
my only interest in the CoS is that the selection reflects the mind of the President. if Obama wanted to pursue a raging lefty agenda, he’d pick a raging lefty CoS. picking someone like Daley shows that “raging lefty” is not where Obama’s mind’s at.
John S.
@cleek
Why don’t you save the mind-reading for the conservative bloviators? Or perhaps you’ve gone so full circle as a True Progressive that your critique is indistinguishable from theirs.
Ash Can
@cleek:
Bingo.
catclub
@PurpleGirl: “I should think that appointing Geithner was a large enough bone for Wall Street. How about re-appointing Bernanke?”
It is not often that a team scores a hat trick of own goals.
Do you have to keep looping the film of it?
General Stuck
Obama is in reelection mode and will be for the next two years, and will make all sorts of noises toward moving to the center to appeal to indie swing voters, who have recently been deciding presnit elections in this country. The only thing that really matters during this time is what Obama actually does, mostly on the legislative front. As there will be likely no new progressive liberal laws getting past the House, the entire game will be with the ideological struggle with the House, and brinkmanship they have promised on economic matters. Thusly, I will only be evaluating what Obama is willing to offer to the wingnuts in order for them not to shut down, or cause econ default, or using the House’s power of thus purse to make mischief, especially on HCR. Same with the dem senate. The rest of it is, and will be , pol theater to look centrist, and to signal to the business community that he doesn’t hate them and want to screw them, and I suspect a business dude as chief of staff would help to serve that purpose. Obama needs job creation in the private sector to stay a step ahead of the wingnut efforts to destroy him and his presidency, as well as to lend some psychological comfort to the people who create jobs in this country. If and when Obama gives too much to the House wingers, then I will holler, until then, big YAWN.
Though it would be nice if we had a large enough true liberal citizen voters in this country, to primarily go the “pleasing the base route” of politicking and governing. Unfortunately, we do not have these type voters in large enough numbers to win with alone, a POTUS election.
edit – Currently, Obama has a 50 percent approval from Gallup’s daily presnit polling. He is doing just fine.
Observer
@gene108:
The issue isn’t about hiring former administration officials and I don’t know if you are being intentionally obtuse but last time I checked Jane Hamasher never ran anyone’s presidential campaign and lost.
The list given, (Shrum, Penn, Estrich) were are political campaign managers for bad losing sides. Shrum has lost something like 7 presidential elections. Penn idiotically couldn’t count how many primary votes the western states had and so didn’t think to contest them.
The list of people in this role (“I was the idiot campaign manager or otherwise in charge of a losing major campaign”) is rather small. Daley should be on that list.
This isn’t difficult: Don’t hire them.
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
In corporate-speak, it means he was in charge of charitable contributions made by the company. Nothing to do with making sure the corporation was acting responsibly in its business relationships.
Ash Can
@Observer: Except that Daley didn’t actually lose that campaign, he won it. He just didn’t win it by enough to keep the Republicans on the Supreme Court from staging a coup.
Ash Can
@General Stuck: Over the next two years, Obama’s going to be saying things that will have three quarters of the people who frequent this site jumping off bridges. He’s going to be saying all manner of maddening conciliatory, respectful, Republicans-are-wonderful things, and Balloon Juice, sadly, will become the next DKos. I’m already bracing myself.
Now, as you say, what he actually does, on the other hand…
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: Yup, that’s right. If he dealt with legislative matters it was tax law for contributions and stuff like that.
agrippa
General Stuck got it correcter. Obama is doing fine in his quest to be reelected.
We can do the old ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda maneuver’ and talk about what was not done in the old 111th Congress. We are now in damage control mode. The inmates are in charge of the insane asylum. There is a need to prevent them from blowing it up.
Now, there is the small matter of the 113th Congress. Unless and until there is a progressive majority in Congress, we will not get progressive legislation passed. We will get more half measures and quarter measures.
What is to be done? Who are the progressives who will stand up to be candidates, get nominated , then elected? Being an elected official is a tough trade, who will do it?
The, there is the campaign. Progressives are nominated. How do they get elected?
No progressive majority equals no progressive laws passed.
Observer
@Ash Can:
Losing is winning. Got that. *sigh*.
Of course, it shouldn’t have come down to Florida in the first place. Could have won his own state, for instance. Didn’t have to pick Lieberman as VP. Better press management against the whole “gore invented the internet” or “gore is a liar” dishonest press memes.
There were lots of data points and I’m not here to re-litigate the 2000 election but please. The Gore campaign was bad, he had a huge lead in the polls before he lost and his campaign managers (Donna Brazille, Daley, Shrum and others) share the blame.
Shouldn’t have needed Florida then.
gene108
@PurpleGirl: I do wish someone in academia, who has the time studies how people perceive politics these days.
Talking the people I know, they feel Geithner isn’t strong enough and isn’t particularly pro-Wall Street; he isn’t doing much to curb the Obama Administrations hostility towards Wall Street.
The Wall Streeters gave big bucks to Obama in 2008 and big bucks to fund opposition to Democrats in 2010.
The rapid change of Wall Streets opinion of Democrats and Republicans and how people on Wall Street and liberals have such polar opposite views of the same person, would be an interesting topic to study.
It really seems truth is a matter of your point of view, these days.
P.S. Just to throw this in their, folks on Wall Street, think Barney Frank’s a stuck up prick, who needs to be taken down a notch because of his hostility towards Wall Street.
P.P.S. Barney Frank’s related to The Three Stooges (the Howards, not Larry Fine), because of one his relatives married on of their relatives.
PWL
I don’t think anyone should really be surprised: all appearances to the contrary, Obama is a creature of Wall Street. They paid a lot of money into his campaign. And, of course, his Administration has been filled with the minions of Wall Street and Goldman Sachs.
And I suppose bringing in this J.P. Morgan guy is another one of his clever moves (after the tax-cut giveaway) to move to the supposed “center.”
Mnemosyne
@Observer:
Getting 543,895 more votes than your opponent does generally result in a win — unless a right-wing Supreme Court decides to bypass the procedure laid out in the Constitution and arbitrarily decide the winner themselves.
But, hey, if you want to argue that the Republicans were right to stack the deck, send fake protesters to Florida, and bypass the Constitution because winning is the only thing that matters, be my guest.
Mnemosyne
@PWL:
Universities — including the University of California, Harvard, and Stanford — paid a lot more than financial companies did. Does that automatically mean he’s in thrall to Big Education?
Actually, given who Bill Daley is, I think it’s more of a nod to the Democratic machine in Chicago that got him elected. You do know who Bill Daley is, right? He ain’t just a JP Morgan guy.
Ash Can
@Observer: That’s why I said he didn’t win by enough.
I agree that the Gore campaign could have done better. No doubt about it. But he did not lose that election, and to single out this part of his resume as evidence that he shouldn’t be CoS is a stretch.
Daley’s a Clinton retread, but that might be exactly the kind of person Obama needs heading into two years of trying to cope with an intransigent House.
Keith G
His mind was clear by Oct, 2008 if not considerably before that.
It’s over.
I would have thought by now that the cottage industry of progressives losing their shit over what Obama has yet to do, is planning to do, has lost the chance to do, or seems not to care about trying to do would be at least a bit more self reflective and chastened.
But, no.
lacp
Who cares who his Chief of Staff is? Did anybody care who Bush’s CoS’s were?
rikyrah
I’m from Chicago and hate anything named Daley. I wouldn’t give a shit if he had just done a stint in the Peace Corps, his name is Daley and would be SUSPECT TO ME.
ricky
Last time I checked Jane Hamsher never ran anyone’s campaign for anything. We do salute her for role in bringing us Senator Lamont, however.
ricky
@Keith G:
Obama needs to pick someone from the cottage industry
sector. Preferably from the “non-profit” cottages which are less “industrial” (although therefore not as robustly unionized.) Perhaps someone familiar with the micro lending needs of said cottage makers.
JAHILL10
@cleek: If you think Obama is or ever is going to be a raging lefty you are setting yourself up for constant disappointment. He never sold himself as that and he has never acted as that. He is center left, and yet he has passed more liberal legislation than any other Democratic president in my lifetime. That’s a deal I can live with.
Chris
@gene108:
I suppose Wall Street prefers Republicans (that’s who they usually back), but after the massive debacle of the Bush years, it was pretty much inevitable that Democrats would win in 2008. So they backed the winning horse in the hopes that it would be enough to prevent the Dems from coming down too hard on them. Simple self-interest.
Joseph Nobles
Daley is clearly unfamiliar with the calculation behind health care. If I can figure it out, he should be able to.
They went for and pressed on for health care to give adequate time to have it implemented and defended by the Obama administration. Getting the legislation passed was only the first step. Now comes the defense all the way to 2014, plus two years of actual running of the system. And if he really thinks the plan passed is left, not center-left, (or actually center-right, IMHO), then he’s a bit mad.
Observer
@Mnemosyne:
@Ash Can:
In the real world “winning the election” means winning the electoral college not winning the popular vote. I didn’t make up the rules. just like Mark Penn, both you two seem to have a problem with basic election rules.
well see, this is the important part, he lost because they ran a terrible campaign. It’s not just that he lost (or “won” in your parlance). Whatever vote totals he got, he should have got more. That he lost so many votes that it eventually put Florida in play is entirely besides the point.
The question is quality of campaign management. I listed some of the screwups earlier, but you two just want to redefine reality and change the subject.
More things they screwed up on: running away from the Clinton record, stupid photo ops of Gore canoeing, the whole dressing Gore thing, not focussing on the economy, not going after Cheney for effing up military procurement, allowing the weasel Bush off the hook when it came to drugs and his military service, not contesting the fact that the constitution disallows two people from the same state to be Pres and Veep, not going after cheney for making $100M at Haliburton after sole sourcing Haliburton while SecDef.
The campaign team sucked eggs. Bad decisions everywhere. Turned gold into goose shit. They should have gotten a lot more votes. A lot lot more. But they sucked. Don’t hire them ever again. It’s that simple.
Alwhite
@gene108:
Triassic Sands
Given the current Congress, familiarity with Congress seems less important than familiarity with professional wrestling (a preposterous farce involving ego-maniacal idiots who aren’t afraid to look ridiculous in public — the Senate or WWE? You decide.)…in which case Linda McMahon would be the ideal CoS. Now, that would shake things up!
gene108
@Alwhite:
Matter of perspective. People on Wall Street don’t share the view. The only Wall Street company that needed a bail out was Citigroup and they were mess going back many years.
JP Morgan-Chase, Goldman Sachs, and the other survivors of the post-Lehman Brothers meltdown did not want and did not really need government assistance. They were pushed into taking TARP money, so the public wouldn’t feel that a company taking TARP money was emblematic of failure.
What campaign promises has he abandoned?
Some haven’t been executed, through Democratic and Republican opposition in Congress, such as closing GITMO, but he’s still trying.
I really wonder, if a certain group of liberals in this country suffer from some sort of politically based clinical depression, because they always seem so sad about every damn thing that happens politically.
Even when they basically win.
ricky
@Observer:
So tell us who you would be for.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
First off, could you please refer to him as William Daley? Because when you say Bill Daley it makes me think of the guy from I Dream of Jeannie and Bob Newhart (yes, I know it’s spelled differently).
It made no difference last time, did it? Pelosi passed all of Obama’s agenda easily through the House (some of it before Obama even took office) and then the Senate either ignored it or watered it down. Emanuel was supposed to be a pugnacious asshole and the President still came out of the last two years looking like a grand compromiser, so I’m not sure it much matters who is COS.
Mike Kay (Team America)
why would blogs oppose Al Gore’s campaign manager?
and to his comments that the country hasn’t moved to the “lef”t, well, every time I bring up the phrase “far left” dozens of blogger rush in to argue that there is no “left”, much less a “far left”, in the united states, that presently, there is only a “center-left”. surely, they won’t contradict themselves, and yes, I’m calling them shirley.
Mike Kay (Team America)
Besides, why would blog opinion matter?
Blogs already hate Obama, stating an irreconcilable divide has been reached and they have already pledged to unseat him in 2012 and install a “true progressive”.
fasteddie9318
FYWP!
So obviously adopting Bob Dole’s health reform plan with Mitt Romney’s individual mandates was out of the fucking question, those two being such radical lefty soshulists.
This country is ruled by some combination of sociopaths and sheer fucking morons. Someday I hope to work out the exact ratio.
AxelFoley
@cat48:
This.
A Humble Lurker
What? Isn’t Pete Rouse replacing Rahm Emanuel? I remember the President announcing it in an official press conference thingy. What the hell is this talking about?
AxelFoley
@JAHILL10:
Y’know their not-so-subtle racist attitudes that the black President can’t think for himself, so he needs someone to do the thinking for him, preferably someone of their choice.
AxelFoley
@cleek:
Thank God for that. Raging lefties can’t get shit done.
AxelFoley
@PWL:
Although they wrote this song for a different reason, I do believe this Doobie Brothers song is an apt description for folks like you bringing up this bullshit again:
“What a Fool Believes”
NeuroSci
@Mike Kay (Team America): Jesus, man, if you think there’s a contradiction there, then there’s just no helping you.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@NeuroSci: 1971 just called, meathead wants his dialogue back.
Mike Kay (Team America)
there’s something odd about casting Richard J. Daley’s son as an enemy.
I’m sure some think Chelsea Clinton is the devil because her husband works for …. gulp.. goldman.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, given that particular NY Times blogger’s penchant for making shit up and pulling quotes out of context to make it look like Obama is moving to the right, I’d be a little wary of that quote of Daley’s. Especially since the blogger didn’t link to the story where Daley supposedly said that and I can’t find it when I search the NY Times website.
Just sayin’.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
See, at least you know who the Daleys are and don’t go, “Oh no, Obama’s picking a bankster!” No, you frickin’ idiots, that’s probably about 10th or 11th down the list of why Obama would pick someone from the Daley family to work for him.
alwhite
@gene108:
single payer for one
And you were not arguing that liberals should be happy – you were arguing that Wall Street will just loves them some Obama if he just gives them everything thet want.
Mike Kay (Team America)
@alwhite: you are aware that 91% of self identified liberal-Democrats approve of the president or don’t they mention last week’s Gallup poll at FDL/GOS?
you dead-enders are gonna have to come with grips with your marginalization.
Bob Last
Once again all the Obama supporters here want to pretend their man really gives a damn about liberals, progressives, or anyone else to the left of Joe Lieberman, and instead viscously attack anyone who disagrees.
Again and again this president supports corporations over people and the rich and powerful over middle America. Do you really, actually think that the cat food commission or Rahm Emanuel or potentially Bill Daley were/are accidents? Even when Obama did something good like the healthcare law, he was busy doing backroom deals with the pharmaceutical and insurance companies to ensure they got their billions. And yet, you refuse to see it, you refuse to even acknowledge it. Talk about being blind.
So the next time you wonder why you’re paying so much for insurance, housing, food, gas, and college for your kids (assuming you can even pay for it); you wonder why the food, air, and water are so polluted; why your taxes are out of control but not for the Richie Richs of the world; you can’t figure out why Social Security and Medicare are gone despite having paid a fortune into these programs; why corporations and the rich are allowed to break any and every law with impunity, and why criminals are running the government, the financial markets and the media, and nobody gives a hoot about it or you, remember that this president could have made a real difference, but didn’t.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@Bob Last: once again all the Obama opponents here want to pretend they’re not out of touch with the 91% of self described liberal democrats who approve of the president.
dude, you’re a dead-ender.
Bob Last
Dear Mike Kay,
Thank you for showing exactly how truthful my post is. You call me names, despite your complete inability to acknowledge the truth. Exactly how different are you than the Republicans who are all about shooting the messenger? Clearly not much.
And, by the way, your hero, Bill Daley, is visiting the White House today. He’ll make a wonderful Republican chief of staff, don’t you think?