Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Now, one of the names in the air, David, is Bill Daley, former commerce secretary -- not only name in the air. He was seeing -- he was at the White House today for a meeting.
What would he bring, if he were to come in as chief of staff?
DAVID CHALIAN (NewsHour political editor): Well, right. He may be the Rahm Emanuel replacement.
And what -- in talking to White House aides, what the president is looking for is -- and the decision is not yet clear. You have Bill Daley or Pete Rouse, who is interim chief of staff right now, who may also be asked by the president to stay on if Bill Daley doesn't get the job offer.
But, as you mentioned, he was at the White House today -- all signs pointing to a Bill Daley coming in as chief of staff. And this is Obama basically saying, as president, these next two years are different than the first two years. The first two years were about getting legislation through the Hill.
Now it's about the implementation of those policies and a better selling and communicating of them to the American people. That's the one area where the president has said he's fallen down a bit on the job.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, are these people who are seen as better communicators, or -- or how is that seen?
DAVID CHALIAN: Well, Bill Daley, as a former commerce secretary in the second term of the Clinton administration -- he was Al Gore's campaign chairman in 2000, and he does have the ability to communicate the message on television.
He also sends a very strong signal to the business community, Judy. As you know, the Obama presidency, the Obama White House has had a tough time, rocky relationship at times with the business community. This is a signal, with his work at J.P. Morgan Chase, that Bill Daley is coming in, and perhaps a new -- a newfound relationship with the business community from the Obama White House.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, all in all, the term Robert Gibbs used today, major retooling.
DAVID CHALIAN: There is no denying that that is exactly what's going on in the White House. And Robert admitted that straight up.
You are going to see a new chief of staff, new senior advisers. We're going to hear on Friday from the president about a new economic chief at the national of -- economic advisers for the president.
So, we're seeing major positions in the White House get all changed around, new blood coming in. This is going to be a big pivot point for the president. And we will hear more about that, I think, in the upcoming State of the Union address.
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