Yesterday it became clear that President Obama has picked JP Morgan banker anf Fannie Mae board member Bill Daley as his chief of staff. Daley will replace fellow Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel.
The pick says quite a bit about the state of the Obama White House. Fiscal conservative Larry Kudlow immediately praised Daley, saying he would ease the White House's anti-business image. Ben Smith concurred, dubbing Daley "right of center on policy." He is certainly right of the Obama administration, having opposed both ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank FinReg bill.
But is he too pro-business? Lefty groups bemoaned the pick, along with that of Goldman Sachs banker Gene Sperling for chief economic advisor, saying they brought Obama even closer to Wall Street. Conservatives such as Michelle Malkin echoed that point. And indeed, Smith thinks the populist, anti-Wall Street line will become central to the GOP's 2012 strategy. That sort of rhetoric is already starting to appear among potential Republican presidential candidates.
What are your thoughts on the pick? Is it a sign that the Obama White House is tacking to the center, as the New York Times's Matt Bai posits? Or will Daley be a pragmatist among ideologues, as the Wall Street Journal predicts? How should the pick affect Republican strategy as the next election cycle approaches?
