Matthew Yglesias says the idea that warmer sentiments from CEOs will lead to businessmen praising Barack Obama is ill-conceived.
I find it difficult to get worked up about debates over whom the president should pick to succeed Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff or Lawrence Summers as head of the National Economic Council (NEC). These are important jobs, but they’re fundamentally staff jobs whose occupants work for the president and have little to no autonomous decision-making authority. Under the circumstances, Barack Obama should pick people he likes, and the only real mystery is what’s taking so long.
But recent news accounts about the consideration being given to former Commerce Secretary William Daley for the post of chief of staff and former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman for the NEC reveal some disturbing things about the White House thought process. In particular, someone or other in the White House keeps telling reporters that these men are appealing options in part because they’re former business executives, the sort of thing that “would almost certainly improve icy relations between the Obama administration and business leaders.”
