Bringing Out the Dead

Obama announced yesterday that he is naming William Daley as his new Chief of Staff and will announce today that Gene Sperling will become the head of the National Economic Council. Daley previously served as Commerce Secretary under bill Clinton and was key in orchestrating NAFTA. Sperling worked at NEC in the past and was instrumental in passage of the Financial Modernization Act of 1999 -- that many blame as a key factor in the 2007 financial crisis (as it repealed large portions of the Glass-Steagal Act that helped stabilize banking during the Great Depression). Both of these Clinton-era figures are thus heavily implicated in policies that many would agree augured the troubles to come in the financial sector and broader economy.

Both also appear to be big friends of business. Daley has spent the past seven years working for J. P. Morgan, after several other stints with other large corporations. In a December 2009 op-ed for the Washington Post, Daley wrote that top Democrats need to "acknowledge that the agenda of the party's most liberal supporters has not won the support of a majority of Americans—and, based on that recognition, to steer a more moderate course on the key issues of the day, from health care to the economy to the environment to Afghanistan." And the Chamber of Commerce, which gave 93% of its campaign contributions to Republicans, heralded the choice.

So what happened to the Obama of two years ago, who turned his back on the DLC and defeated their candidate (Clinton) in stunning fashion? He appears to have gone the way of so many other democrats -- suffering a setback and quickly disavowing all that he proclaimed to believe in. What worries me the most is what happened the last time we brought political veterans out of retirement to run the country ...