Hey, Mr. President-Elect, Got a Minute ... or 10?
Barack Obama likes to listen. But as President, there will be a limit to how much time he can devote to it. Who has his ear? A survey of Obama's inner circles (that's plural): The Chicago Crew Washington will be the Windy City on the Potomac; the locals will bring a pragmatic style that sees any problem as a municipal one writ large (there is, as they say, no ideology in snow removal). Mayor Richard Daley and his banker brother William are mentors. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Richard Daley ally from downstate, will be the go-to guy in the Senate. The billionaire Pritzker and Crown families supplied early fundraising contacts (as did investment banker John Rogers), and Penny Pritzker, Obama's finance chair, is likely to get the commerce-secretary job. Valerie Jarrett, a former Daley staffer who once hired Michelle Obama for a city job, is the Obamas' closest personal and political friend; she is likely to be a presence in the White House. So is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a Daley protégé, who may well be in line to become chief of staff.
Council of Elders Obama is the kind of serious, ambitious young man who attracts veterans to his side. And party labels seem to matter little to him. Sen. Richard Lugar, the Republicans' leading light on foreign policy, was an early Obama ally, and remains one. Put Paul Volcker, Warren Buffett and Gen. Colin Powell in this category, too. In Obama, Powell sees a man who could inspire the young and increasingly multicultural officer corps, and Powell has said that Obama is one of the most receptive and perceptive "briefs" he has conducted.
Clintonistas For the Clintons, losing to Obama was bad enough. Now they have to endure the spectacle of Obama's surrounding himself with the best and the brightest of the Clinton administration. It's not surprising: these are the Democrats with the most experience and, if Obama chooses carefully, the best performance record. Through his son Jamie, former Treasury secretary (and current Citibank chairman) Bob Rubin is in this new circle. So is another former Clinton Treasury secretary, Larry Summers, who could be asked to go another round. John Podesta, a former Clinton chief of staff, runs a think tank that may supply a host of midlevel officials. Laura Tyson, who was Clinton's economic adviser, is now performing a similar function. Since he was running against Senator Clinton, Obama was reluctant to credit her husband's economic track record; now Obama is seeking the advice of the people responsible for it.
Old Stomping Grounds Although he has been in the Senate only four years, Obama has forged key friendships. Sen. John Kerry endorsed Obama early; Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican who has been critical of GOP policy in Iraq, may join the administration. Former senator Tom Daschle furnished Obama with an entire Senate staff—his—and has served as the campaign wise man. Obama staffers from the Senate, such as Karen Kornbluh (domestic policy) and Susan Rice (foreign policy), will remain key players, even as the think tank Kornbluh was with—the centrist, market-oriented New America Foundation—gets layered by Podesta's more traditional Democratic types.
Ivy Tech Educated at Columbia and Harvard Law, Obama has drawn to his side an impressive cadre of similarly credentialed types, most of them entrepreneurs who are smart about rising sectors of the new economy, especially communications and digital technology. It helps explain why Obama's campaign was a cutting-edge exercise in phone, texting and Web-based salesmanship: it's the business that many of those around him know well, and they will be pushing the use of these techniques (and the prerogatives of these industries) in and around the White House. The lead player in the group is Julius Genachowski, who went to Columbia and Harvard with Obama and worked on digital startups with Barry Diller. Others include two former chairs of the Federal Communications Commission, Reed Hundt and Bill Kennard, who were major fundraisers, too.
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Howard Fineman is Newsweek's Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief. He is the author of "Living Politics," a column that began on MSNBC.COM and Newsweek.com and that now also appears in the print magazine. An award-winning reporter and writer, Fineman also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, appearing regularly on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "TODAY." The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has appeared as well in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic. His 2008 national best-selling book, "The Thirteen American Arguments," was released in paperback by Random House in the spring of 2009.
One of the nation's leading political reporters, Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from (then-vice president) George H.W. Bush in 1985 to (then senator) Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle. His current work focuses on the Obama Administration and its top officials, as well as on Congress and politics throughout the country. Although based in Washington, Fineman travels widely in the U.S. and has covered politics and other events in 49 of the 50 states.
Fineman's work has produced many milestones and awards. A cover story in November 2001 featured President George W. Bush's first extensive interview after 9/11. Another cover, "Bush and God," was part of a series of articles that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. His reporting has helped Newsweek win many honors from the Magazine Publishers Association and the American Journalism Review. Other awards include a "Page One" from the Headliners Club of New York, a "Silver Gavel" from the American Bar Association and a "Deadline Club" from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). In 2006 he received the Alumni Award from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As a reporter and writer, Fineman ranges widely. Besides campaign-year covers, other projects have included: race and politics, the impact of digital technology on society, the influence of Hollywood on politics, the rise of the religious right and of conservative talk radio. He has interviewed business leaders such as George Soros, Bill Gates, Steve Case and Robert Rubin and entertainment figures such as Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda and Jay Leno.
Although now under exclusive television contract to NBC, Fineman over the years has appeared on major public affairs shows, such as Nightline, Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose and the NewsHour. He was a regular panelist on Washington Week in Review on PBS (1983-95) and on CNN's Capital Gang Sunday (1995-98). He worked with Ted Koppel on Nightline specials, and has been a guest on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report."
A native of Pittsburgh, Fineman began his career at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, covering the environment, the coal industry and state politics before joining the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1978. He moved to Newsweek in 1980, was named chief political correspondent in 1984, deputy Washington bureau chief in 1993, senior editor in 1995 and senior Washington correspondent and columnist in 2008.
Fineman holds an A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia and a J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His legal education included a year as a visiting student at the Georgetown University Law Center. He received Watson and Pultizer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, and has traveled to more than 40 countries, among them China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey and the West Bank Palestinian Territories.
Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. They live in Washington with their two children, Meredith and Nicholas.
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