If President-elect Barack Obama taps hard-boiled corporate and political heavy hitter William Daley to run his inaugural committee as expected, it will indicate less concern with extravagant galas and more focus on averting a logistical meltdown.
Daley has served as an economic adviser to Obama throughout the campaign and has tight Chicago ties to senior adviser David Axelrod and incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He led the Department of Commerce under President Clinton, and managed Al Gore’s narrow loss for the White House in 2000.
“He is a no-nonsense, get-it-done kind of a person,” said Robert Mallett, senior vice president at Pfizer Inc. who served as Daley’s deputy secretary of commerce.
Obama fundraiser Penny Pritzker and friend John Rogers are reported to be working closely with Daley on the inauguration, according to the Washington Post’s Sleuth blog.
With crowd estimates running from the 1 million or more expected by federal officials to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s eye-popping prediction of 5 million, record-breaking attendance is expected and security forces have been reported to be on unprecedented alert. An official working estimate of January’s crowd will come after the official announcement of the inaugural committee, expected by next week.
Once announced, the committee will take the lead on coordinating federal and city services, as well as raising money for festivities. A spokesman for the Obama transition team would not comment on Daley’s potential appointment.
The Secret Service has acknowledged a surge in hate groups and threats against Obama higher than any other president-elect in history.
Attendees lucky enough to obtain one of the about 240,000 tickets for Obama’s swearing-in ceremony will likely shuffle through airport-type security while trained snipers will have nearly pin-point accuracy even from 10 football fields away. Escape routes, air patrols and forces trained to identify cyber-security risks will be used.
The National Park Service is considering opening extra viewing space along the Mall closed off in past inaugurations, according to a spokesman.
The Daley family has a fraught history with crowd control.
In August 1968, Daley’s strongarm father, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, orchestrated the violent crackdown on protesters at the Democratic National Convention. Famed photographs of the event show snipers atop the roofs along Chicago’s waterfront. Richard M. Daley has filled his father’s mayoral footsteps since 1989.
William Daley “is thoughtful, thorough, fair and politically astute,” Mallett said. “He would deliver an event appropriate to the moment.”
