• Équipe Obama : Rahm Emmanuel remplacé par William Daley. Pour The Economist, c’est un bon signal envoyé aux « conseils d’administration » ; oui, des fois qu’Obama auraient encore besoin de prouver aux « marchés » qu’il n’est pas un méchant gauchiste.

    William Daley : There’s a new chief in town | The Economist
    http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/01/william_daley

    Mr Daley, after all, is a former secretary of commerce and telecoms executive who currently works for JPMorgan—one of several stints as a banker. He even once made payroll, when he set up an insurance brokerage in Chicago with one of his brothers. True, he has landed his grander private-sector jobs more as a political fixer rather than as a business brain—but his appointment still sends a welcome signal to America’s boardrooms.

    A variant on this interpretation depicts Mr Daley’s elevation as a sign that Mr Obama is determined to try to get on with Republicans and eschew polarising positions over the next two years. The best evidence for this is a much rehearsed comment of Mr Daley’s that Mr Obama’s health-care reforms, which the newly ascendant Republicans despise, went too far. In the administration of Bill Clinton, Mr Daley was instrumental in persuading Congress to pass NAFTA, perhaps the left’s most hated free-trade agreement. The fact that he worked for Mr Clinton at all, for that matter, suggests a reassuring, middle-of-the-road pragmatism, as well as experience dealing with a hostile Republican Congress.