US President Barack Obama on Wednesday worked on a “major retooling” of his administration, seeking fresh recruits to challenge resurgent Republicans as he set the stage for his reelection bid next year.
On the day Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, Obama met Chicago powerbroker William Daley to discuss the post of White House chief of staff, and his confidant and spokesman Robert Gibbs said he would step down.
Obama meanwhile prepared a series of staff announcements, focusing on a rejigged economic team, for today, turning the page from his crisis-strewn first two years in power and looking ahead to the second half of his mandate.
An administration official said Daley, a Clinton-era commerce secretary and member of a famed political dynasty, met Obama and other senior staff members, to discuss the key job of running White House operations.
Daley, currently working for finance giants JP Morgan Chase & Co, would help Obama reach out to the business community, with which he has a strained relationship, as he seeks to ignite hiring to tackle high unemployment.
Obama’s first chief-of-staff, hard-charging Rahm Emanuel stepped down last year to run for mayor of Chicago, and was replaced on an interim basis by Pete Rouse, a renowned Washington backroom player.
Gibbs, a key member of the president’s inner circle, said he would step away from his job as press secretary to concentrate on defending Obama and his record outside the White House.
“I think the last two years have been extraordinary to watch, extraordinary to be a part of. I work with a president that I love and respect,” said Gibbs, who has been at Obama’s side since his 2004 Senate run.
Gibbs, an astute political tactician with a combative briefing style, will give speeches and continue to play a key role in Obama’s political strategy.
“I have a pretty unique relationship with him ... you spend... almost two years on the road with somebody you get to know them pretty well, and you get to know how they think,” he said.
Obama’s political guru David Axelrod is also set to leave the White House shortly, to set up Obama’s reelection campaign machinery in Chicago, and Gibbs, with a background in campaign politics, is also eying 2012.
“I think the best service that I can provide this president is for the next couple years outside of this building,” he said, suggesting he could play a useful role in gauging public opinion outside the White House “bubble.”
In a statement, Obama described Gibbs as a close friend, one of his closest advisers and an effective advocate for the administration.
“I think it’s natural for him to want to step back, reflect and retool. That brings up some challenges and opportunities for the White House — but it doesn’t change the important role that Robert will continue to play on our team,” Obama said.
So far, no replacement has been named for Gibbs. Most mentioned possible replacements include his deputies Bill Burton and Joshua Earnest and Vice President Joe Biden’s spokesman Jay Carney.
Another new, but familiar face, will clock in at the White House next week. David Plouffe, the political adviser credited with masterminding Obama’s 2008 insurgent election triumph will become a senior adviser.
“It does an administration good, and I think it will do this administration good, to have people like David Plouffe and others come into an administration who haven’t been here,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs, who described the staff changes as a “pretty major retooling” said that the president would make several announcements about his economic team when he visits a manufacturing plant in Maryland today.
Another ex-Clinton administration aide, Gene Sperling, is expected to be named to head Obama’s National Economic Council, to replace Lawrence Summers, who left last year.
The brutal hours and high pressures of working in the White House exact a heavy toll on staffers, and it is not unusual for press secretaries and other senior advisers to have a limited shelf life.
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