After the Democratic debacle in 2010, President Obama decided he needed someone in the West Wing who had the smarts, the toughness, and the experience in Washington to turn the fortunes of his administration around and prepare the ground for his re-election campaign. He tapped Democratic insider and brother of Chicago's mayor Bill Daley. Daley had extensive experience in politics and government, serving on the DNC as well as in the Clinton administration. He was also considered something of a Wall Street insider and it was thought he could improve Obama's relationship with the business community. Alas, as Jonathan Chait points out, it was a spectacular blunder because Daley completely misread the smoke signals coming from Capitol Hill and the American people: Hiring Bill Daley as chief of staff may not have been the biggest mistake of President Obama's first term, but it was surely the most obvious one. Now he appears to be reversing it. The official line is that Daley is not being...(Read Full Post)