At the White House, The “Inner Circle” Comes Apart

One after another, the president’s advisors announce their resignation.

Experts on the White House’s internal workings never fail to emphasize the importance to Barack Obama of his “inner circle.” In a way reminiscent of John F. Kennedy, the president gathers in advice from all directions, but in the final analysis, turns to his loyalists in the intimacy of the Oval Office to refine his opinions prior to making the most sensitive decisions.

In the most inner realm of this circle there are no more than five or six aides: Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s principal political advisor David Axelrod, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, his special advisor and friend Valerie Jarrett and Vice President Joe Biden. In the highly structured world of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, these are undoubtedly the only colleagues who can walk into the presidential offices without an appointment. But while a general reorganization is foreseen in the wake of the midterm elections, the small team is in the process of coming apart, as much due to political strategy as to personnel considerations.

The first to depart, Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff and key player in the Executive Office, carried with him numerous contacts in Congress and his past experience in the same job under Bill Clinton. The unexpected announcement by Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago not to seek re-election in February 2011 has suddenly opened a path for Emanuel, a Chicago politician, who dreams of occupying that office. “Rahm would be an excellent mayor,” Obama affirmed recently. (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/obama-says-emanuel-would-be-excellent-mayor/) Certain observers think that Emanuel has not been as effective as he should have been in the White House — his strategy of engaging the Republicans has generally failed. However, Wednesday the president’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, noted about Rahm: “I’m not aware that he’s made any decisions.” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/press-gaggle-press-secretary-robert-gibbs-aboard-air-force-one-en-route-) The Washington Post has already put forth the name of some potential successors: Deputy National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon, Special Advisor to the President Peter Rouse or White House Counsel Bob Bauer. Or even the Congressional liaison Phil Schiliro or the former Senate Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a frequent visitor to the Oval Office.

In Need of “New Blood”

The loyal David Axelrod, the brains behind the 2008 campaign and talented narrator of the “Obama message,” is also on his way out. The president hopes this will allow him to spend time with his family in Chicago and take a breather before the 2010 presidential campaign. Robert Gibbs or Valerie Jarrett might replace him. Another probable departure: that of National Security Advisor General James Jones, who announced his desire to leave his post at the end of December. Once again the name of his deputy, Thomas Donilon, is being floated for that job.

The economic team will also see a change of face with the announced exit of Obama’s chief economic advisor, Larry Summers, who will return to Harvard at the end of the year. The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christine Rohmer, already left her post this summer, as did Budget Director Peter Orszag.

According to The Washington Post, President Obama is not a big fan of changes, preferring to work with the folks he knows. This preference explains why some of the names circulating are those of colleagues already at his side. But some Democratic observers believe that the president needs “new blood” for the second “chapter” of his first term, especially if the Republicans take control of Congress. He will have to adjust economic policy to respond to widespread anxiety in the face of an unemployment rate over 9 percent. He will also have to change tactics to deal with a turbulent Congress grappling with pressure from the anti-establishment tea party movement.

Matt Bai, in his Sept. 22 editorial in The New York Times, warns of a White House in which all the occupants share the same “insular” view of the situation. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/us/politics/23bai.html?ref=matt_bai) Maybe the president should look outside his circle to replace Rahm Emanuel, suggests Bai, while invoking the names of the former Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine or the current Governor of Pennsylvania Edward Rendell — two experienced politicians who can handle the vagaries of rapidly shifting public opinion.