Forget Congress!

As Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, maintained relations with Wall Street and members of Congress. Approaching election time, those tasks are no longer that important.

William Daley had actually wanted to remain White House chief of staff until the November elections. Now he is leaving his post at the end of January after just one year on the job. “Bill told me that he wanted to spend more time with his family,” Obama said as he bade goodbye to Daley and introduced current White House Budget Director Jacob Lew as the 63-year-old Daley’s replacement. Obama noted that Daley had already expressed his desire to resign last year, at which time Obama had asked him to rethink his decision.

But after discussions with his wife over the holiday period, Daley mind hadn’t changed; he would return to Chicago, the city he left in January 2011 to join the Obama White House. He replaced Rahm Emanuel, who had decided to run for mayor of Chicago, a post being vacated by Daley’s older brother, who had decided not to seek re-election. Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago in February. When Daley leaves the White House, it will mark the end of an era in government for this Irish immigrant family.

Richard J. Daley, father of Richard M. and William Daley, ruled as monarch of Chicago for more than two decades. Chicago’s nickname, the “Windy City,” was due not only to the storms blowing off Lake Michigan. Richard J. Daley died in office in 1976, an office that had made him one of the Democratic Party’s mightiest power brokers.

Obama noted that William Daley’s departure wasn’t just business as usual for him, and he praised his departing chief of staff, saying, “No one in my administration has had to make more important decisions more quickly than Bill,” noting that he did so during the busiest and most critical years of his administration. Daley served to maintain good relations between the White House and Wall Street and its all-important campaign donors, as well as with Congress.

The Chicago attorney proved to be well prepared for both challenges. He served as an economic adviser in the Clinton administration in 1993 and as secretary of commerce from 1997 to 2001, working closely with Congress on such projects as the NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. He eventually returned to the financial world, to JP Morgan Chase, thereby becoming part of Wall Street himself.

Election year priorities

But in election year 2012, an election that will likely be a competition between the Republican and Democratic world views, other rules are in force. It had been common knowledge in Washington that Daley didn’t get along with the younger staff and Obama’s senior adviser, David Plouffe. At the same time, the necessity of maintaining good relations with Congress and Wall Street during a campaign is no longer as important. Obama’s strategy is to paint Congress, and particularly the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, as a do-nothing body bent only on obstruction. He will argue that the economy would have recovered by now had there been no lockstep Republican opposition to his programs.

On Dec. 31, Obama announced that he would be making increased use of executive orders to implement important operational and personnel issues because of Congress’s inability to act on legislation. The motto “We Can’t Wait” now functions as a campaign slogan on numerous posters as well. Then Obama took on the role of advocate for the middle class, those that suffer the greatest hardships in the persistent economic downturn. Daley, who has spent his long career moving between the financial and political sectors, was seen as being potentially in conflict with Obama’s desired image as an advocate for the common man.

Obama is also taking advantage of a protracted primary season among his potential opponents, a primary that is taking its toll on Republicans. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is being accused by his rivals — mainly Newt Gingrich — of buying and restructuring many firms and firing many employees during his tenure as CEO of Bain Capital Management while pocketing millions of dollars in profits for himself. The fact that those in his own party accuse Romney of practicing “vulture capitalism” will be a generous gift to Obama should Romney actually be the Republican nominee. It was difficult to tell, until their closing credits ran, who was responsible for many of the anti-Romney television ads during the run-up to the New Hampshire primary: Democrats or Romney’s Republican challengers?