“Secretary Daley would be an outstanding choice for any of the top three or four jobs in President Obama’s administration because not only does he have a distinguished public service career, he also has had a very successful career in the business world,” said Don Evans, a commerce secretary under President George W. Bush. “This is somebody that is well respected across the political spectrum….I think it would send a very positive message to the business community and the Chamber [of Commerce.]”
Evans, who was Daley’s counterpart in the Bush campaign during the disputed 2000 election, said Daley is above reproach and would be an immediate heavyweight in Washington. “He’s a great friend and a guy of total integrity,” Evans said.
One longtime friend of Daley said the main asset he’d bring to the job isn’t his business background, but the “gravitas” the 62-year-old political veteran could deliver for a White House some see as too reliant on youth and inexperience.
“The heads of the Fortune 50 and the Fortune 10 will be able to call Bill with a great deal of comfort, but similarly [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin will be able to call Bill with a great deal of comfort,” said Chicago lawyer and Democratic operative Wayne Whalen, a longtime Daley friend. “This effort to pigeonhole him, if that’s going on, as a sop to business is lacking in understanding of what he would bring to the role.”
Whalen also expressed confidence that Daley could help Obama deal with Republicans in Congress, including the new House leadership. “I think they would be comfortable dealing with Bill,” Whalen said. “Unlike a lot of people, he doesn’t bring a lot of ideological baggage to the position.”
Others say the most important asset Daley would bring to the job is being a known quantity to a president who rarely embraces outsiders for top White House posts. Daley has also been close for years to David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser who is preparing to leave the White House and return to their mutual home town of Chicago.
“I don’t think you choose a chief of staff based on appearances or one job on his resume. It helps to have someone who understands business, the economy, commerce, public and private sectors but, ultimately, this is someone who the president has to be comfortable with, who will be at his side and help guide big decisions, who will help be the architect of the second half of the president’s first term,” said one Democrat who has worked closely with Daley and spoke on condition of anonymity. “That’s not an optics decision.”
In his most recent private sector jobs, Daley was viewed more as a negotiator with regulators and strategic adviser to managers than a hands-on manager himself. However, Daley’s former coworkers said his experience in the Clinton years left him well acquainted with what a White House chief of staff needs to do.
“He’s a guy knows what it’s supposed to look and feel like,” the former Daley colleague said . “He’d be making sure people who serve the president are firing on all cylinders.”
But there’s definitely a downside. Selecting Daley could produce some awkward moments for the White House as Obama and other officials are asked to square his hiring with some of their rhetoric about bank executives.
“I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” Obama said in a December 2009 interview on “60 Minutes.”
