Obama Reshapes White House for Domestic Focus; "shift away from Bush priorities"

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

President-elect Barack Obama finished building a cabinet of prominent and strong-willed players on Friday, but he is putting together a governing structure that will concentrate more decision making over his top domestic priorities in the White House.

With new offices in the White House to coordinate health care, urban policy and energy initiatives, Mr. Obama has signaled that he intends to keep real power over domestic issues close at hand. The collective moves shift the political center of gravity farther away from the cabinet, a trend that has accelerated under presidents of both parties in recent years.

At the same time, Mr. Obama’s reorganization suggests a willingness to tolerate, and even encourage, competing power centers within his administration, but it is unclear how that will work in practice. Not only is he creating new positions with authority over key areas, he is filling his West Wing with people of stature equal to or even greater than the members of his cabinet, including two former cabinet officers and a former Senate majority leader....

The revamped arrangement indicates a shift in priorities away from those of President Bush, who spent much of his tenure fashioning a new national security apparatus in a time of war and terrorist threats. Mr. Obama’s transition team is even considering undoing some of what Mr. Bush built in terms of security structures in the White House.

Transition officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said they were thinking about folding the White House Homeland Security Council, which Mr. Bush established, into the National Security Council, seeing that as potentially more efficient. And they may reassign responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan back to the national security adviser instead of keeping the separate “war czar” position created 19 months ago....

Transition officials said Mr. Obama would still make national security a central priority regardless of how he reshapes the White House. But they said the incoming president could not afford to keep the same organization as his predecessor with the economy in crisis and climate change on the rise....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/us/politics/20cabinet.html?ref=todayspaper

[DCKit]

1. Add the fact that the P.E. seems to be appointing and hiring qualified individuals....

and BushCo looks like a bunch of hacks (which they are, of course).

When I see the revolving door at the FDA closed to industry insiders, I'll know that our "long dark night" is truly over.