Barack Obama moves into the White House next week with Michelle, the kids and his mother-in-law, but the West Wing will be home to a second family of sorts, made up of Obama’s closest political advisers whose number-one job will be to ensure the success of the new president and his administration.
» Obama’s inner circle
Traditionally, only a handful of men and women are among the president’s inner circle, but Obama has already demonstrated a desire to cast a wide net for ideas and advice. So he may end up with an unusually big group of key advisers.
Obama has also signaled he will not fall prey to the mistakes made by previous presidents, including Jimmy Carter, who relied solely on advisers from back home, which left him unable to navigate the halls of Congress, let alone its politics.
So while Obama brings to Washington some of his hometown support network and longtime senior aides — including David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs and Valerie Jarrett — he will also rely on Washington insiders including former Clinton aide and recent House leader Rahm Emanuel and top Senate aide Pete Rouse.
These five people — Axelrod, Gibbs, Jarrett, Emanuel and Rouse — will likely comprise the “inner” part of Obama’s big circle of advisers that will include people such as Greg Craig, his choice for White House counsel, Tom Daschle, who will have a dual title of senior White House adviser in addition to his job as health and human services secretary, and many others.
Obama’s White House will stand in stark contrast to the ways of President Bush, who populated his inner circle mostly with longtime loyalists such as Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett and Karen Hughes.
“Obama has a real feel for true talent and is ready to reach out to folks,” said Democratic consultant Peter Fenn. “I think Bush was more comfortable with a much smaller circle.”
Obama has also created several new “czar” positions to oversee government performance, energy and technology. He appointed management consultant Nancy Killefer to make government agencies work better and former Environmental Protection Agency boss Carol Browner to be assistant to the president on energy and climate change. He has yet to select his technology czar.
The new czars, while elevated in importance in Obama’s mind, are less likely to crack the inner circle, according to Richard Goodstein, a former adviser to President Clinton.
“They obviously have the portfolios, but I don’t see them as being the confidants because they come in with certain agendas,” Goodstein said. “People like Axelrod and Jarrett have only one agenda, which is having Barack Obama be a successful president.”
