"Obama plans 2011 staff makeover"

[Clio the Leo]

Obama plans 2011 staff makeover
By CAROL E. LEE & GLENN THRUSH | 12/15/10 4:38 AM EST Updated: 12/15/10 6:02 AM EST

President Barack Obama has delayed the most significant staff shuffle of his presidency until after New Year’s — but the changes may be more sweeping than anticipated and could include the hiring of high-profile Democrats defeated in the midterms.

David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, who will become a senior adviser to the president as early as the first week of January, is perhaps the most significant addition to Obama’s staff. He is expected to take an expansive new role including running the embattled White House press and messaging operations, people with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO.

White House staffers hope the organization-minded Plouffe — combined with the steadying hand of interim chief of staff Pete Rouse — will professionalize an improvisational and, at times, chaotic organizational chart centered on former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a domineering figure during the administration’s first two years.

Obama’s thinking on other specifics of his reconfigured West Wing — as well as a new campaign operation and Democratic National Committee structure — is largely unknown. But changes are expected across the administration, with familiar faces moving into new roles, both inside and outside the White House, and some unfamiliar ones joining the ranks.

“The president has talked to a bunch of different people throughout this process on how to do the reorganization,” one official said. “You’ll definitely see faces that are new.”

But the lame-duck legislative session has consumed almost all the time and energy of senior staffers, especially Rouse, who is now more likely to use the president’s Hawaiian vacation to put the finishing touches on a broader reorganization plan.

But several things are already clear. David Axelrod will depart as a senior White House adviser on Feb. 1, after Obama’s State of the Union address, to take a few weeks off before beginning to set up the president’s reelection campaign.

Jim Messina, one of Obama’s deputy chiefs of staff, will head for the exit shortly after Axelrod to help with the campaign, and Valerie Jarrett will stay as a senior White House adviser for as long as the president wants.

Beyond that, the restructuring of the Obama administration remains a mystery even to some of the president’s closest aides, which is making some in the West Wing nervous.

“It’s ‘Waiting for David,’” one aide joked about Plouffe, referring to Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46406.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Alan Simpson should run Health and Human Services

This would be an olive branch to our friends across the aisle. They'll realize that we are no longer the hyperpartisans we were, and the healing can begin.

[Clio the Leo]

4. Nope, I want Alan Simpson for press sec...

.... I'd quit work just so I could watch that.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. +1000

Yes, he is an articulate man. And very credible.

[whosinpower]

2. He should just hire Karl Rove

And get it over with.

:nuke:

[Larkspur]

3. How many more corporate criminals will Obama add to his WH staff?

That's his view of extending the olive branch to corrupt CEO's and business leaders who whine because Obama isn't kissing their a@@s enough.

[Nite Owl]

13. Maybe a business laison?

Someone with a hotline to bend over to their every need. (Geez, I hope I'm only kidding about that one, really wouldn't be that surprised).

[T Wolf]

5. Wanna bet that those "high-profile Democrats defeated in the midterms" will all be Mad Dogs and

other corporate sell-outs?

And want to double down on the side-bet that Alan Grayson will not be among those brought on board?

There will probably be more rethugs added than true liberals.

How sad to be expecting disappointment from every god damned thing that comes from this administration.

[Clio the Leo]

8. You could call Tom Perriello and Jennifer Granholm that....

.... I wouldn't.

Reading is fundamental.

[vaberella]

9. Basically the left assumes all Obama does is evil. As seen by DUers.

So yes, Clio, their corporatists.

[Clio the Leo]

10. Just SOME of the left...

.... and, as it turns out, a teeny, tiny portion.

Obama's tax compromise with Republicans on Capitol Hill sparked vocal protests from liberal elected officials and leaders of some progressive groups. But the poll shows no notable erosion in his support among liberal Democrats in the population at large. His approval rating among liberal Democrats stands at a lofty 87 percent, almost identical to where it was in an early October poll and down marginally from a survey later that month.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121405575_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010121405634

;)

[vaberella]

20. Admittedly true. And that minority lives on DU. n/t

[Lilyeye]

17. Yup. The responses in this thread are so damn predictable.

[leveymg]

7. Making the same mistake over and over again, and expecting a different outcome.

It's the very definition of insanity. That's what this is - it's not 10th Dimensional Chess, and I don't quite believe the top Party leaders enjoy getting their asses handed to them over and over, and want to the minority party for the next 15 years - but, it sure isn't rational to elevate the DLCers back into (what remains) of power in this Administration.

It makes a great deal of sense for the multinational corporations, however, to have a lobotomized White House and a paralyzed verging on reactionary Congress

[COLGATE4]

11. It's known as 'rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" nt

[harun]

12. He didn't have any progressives before, won't have any after.

[Supersedeas]

14. if he didn't have any before, then change is good, no?

we'll see.

[Arkana]

15. With the help of Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, I assume.

[Donnachaidh]

16. So the CEO summit is to collect resumes?

After all, the *historic* stuff he's passed were written by elites. Why not hire some more? :sarcasm:

[northernlights]

18. hiring his loser DLCers? great. just great. nt

[Carolina]

19. too little, too late

He showed his true colors with many of his original selections as well as his decisions. I don't trust him any more so any shake up is likely a political stunt meant to sweeten the image for 2012.

:puke: :thumbsdown: