Obama’s inner circle

The soft-spoken longtime friend of the incoming president has already played a critical role in helping Barack Obama move a massive economic stimulus package in the first days of his administration. Axelrod, along with economic adviser Lawrence Summers, met with leaders on Capitol Hill earlier this month to begin hammering out an agreement on a proposal. The inclusion of Axelrod “was not done by accident,” said Richard Goodstein, a former political adviser to President Clinton. The message, said Goodstein,  is expect to see Axelrod play an important role on Capitol Hill helping Obama move key legislation.

Axelrod comes into the administration as perhaps Obama’s most senior and trusted adviser, and with good reason. Axelrod has known Obama for 17 years and managed his successful Senate campaign in 2004 before becoming the mastermind behind his presidential bid, helping him become the first black president without making race a central focus.

For the past 24 years, Axelrod has operated his own political consulting firm in Chicago and has a successful track record with the campaigns of many big-city politicians, including former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and former Philadelphia Mayor John Street. Axelrod is closing up shop, however, so he can focus solely on Obama. He will be instrumental in protecting the image of Obama’s administration by helping to keep him true to the promises he made on the campaign trail, many of which Axelrod himself helped devise.

Valerie Jarrett

Jarrett, 52, was tapped by Obama to serve as White House senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison, but many expect her role to be much wider. Jarrett is one of Obama’s oldest friends and most loyal advisers.

Her roots run deep in Chicago, where she got her start in politics in 1987 as an aide to Mayor Harold Washington. Jarrett, who is chief executive officer of a Chicago real estate development company, is also the former chairwoman of the Chicago Stock Exchange and serves on the boards of several prominent universities, hospitals and corporations. Jarrett’s expertise will no doubt be valued by Obama, but perhaps not as much as her institutional memory of the president, which will enable her to, as one former presidential counselor said, “know what works for him and what doesn’t and where he has made statements and can’t go back on them.”

Pete Rouse

On Capitol Hill, staffer Rouse is sometimes referred to as the 101st senator because of his long history in Congress and his ability to get things done. Now Rouse, 62, is moving to the White House, where he will serve as senior adviser to Obama. Rouse is already close to Obama, having served as chief of staff for his Senate office.

Rouse, along with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, will play a key role in helping Obama’s agenda move smoothly through Congress. Rouse is the former chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who Obama tapped as health and human services secretary. Rouse is widely respected by the key players in Congress and has an intimate understanding of the Senate, where there are bound to be tough battles because Democrats lack a filibuster-proof majority. “Very few members know the Hill better than him,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Rahm Emanuel

Emanuel will have a unique and extremely critical role in the Obama administration as White House chief of staff and, thanks to his resume, he could evolve into the most important aide in the West Wing. Emanuel has been a bit tangled in the spreading web of the investigation into Illinois’ governor, but he is uniquely experienced in both the White House and, perhaps more critically, Congress.

Emanuel, 49, served as a top adviser during President Clinton’s presidency but then went on to forge his own successful political career, winning a House seat from Chicago in 2002 and quickly rising through the ranks to become the House Democratic Caucus chairman, the No. 4 leadership position.

Emanuel also oversaw arguably the most successful House election cycle in decades in 2006. As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emanuel that year helped Democrats pick up 30 seats, putting his party back into the majority for the first time in a dozen years.

Now Emanuel is poised to help sell Obama’s legislative agenda to House Democrats, many of whom he helped get elected.

“A lot of the newer members were elected from moderate or even moderately conservative districts, and that is where it is going to be a delicate balance between Congress and the administration,” said University of South Carolina political science professor Allison Clark. “Rahm Emanuel will definitely play a role in trying to find that.”

Robert Gibbs

Trusted by Obama and apparently able to channel the president-elect’s thoughts, Gibbs will serve a crucial function in the West Wing not only as White House press secretary, but as a close adviser who will be able to speak honestly to the president.

Gibbs, 37, has been a part of Team Obama since the president-elect’s 2004 run for the Senate, serving as Obama’s communications director on Capitol Hill before jumping on the campaign bus and, alongside David Axelrod, helping devise and deliver his popular message of hope and change.

Gibbs has also shown he will not shy away from tough confrontations with the media, despite his mild-mannered personality. On an Oct. 7, 2008, segment of “Hannity & Colmes” on the Fox News Channel, Gibbs successfully turned the tables on Sean Hannity, who was questioning Obama’s association with former-terrorist-turned-univeristy-professor William Ayers. “Are you anti-Semitic?” Gibbs queried Hannity, in reference to Hannity’s decision to allow Andy Martin to appear on the show to push his theory that Obama is a Muslim.

David Plouffe

Plouffe’s role in the administration remains unofficial, but that does not mean it won’t be critically important. The 41-year-old campaign consultant was instrumental in helping Obama win the Democratic primary and the general election by building an unprecedented army of volunteers and donors, many of them via the Internet.

Plouffe, who served as Obama’s campaign manager, also fundamentally and successfully changed Democratic general election strategy by going after voters in traditionally red states. Now in a private consulting role, Plouffe is still using the massive database to e-mail supporters about issues important to Obama, and he will likely use that list to help the president get things done. “He is the keeper of the Obama Coalition,” said Richard Goodstein, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton.