"The fact that Daley’s appointment did not work out shouldn’t, perhaps, come as a surprise."

"As a millionaire boardroom Democrat, he was out of step with an increasingly populist political climate. And as someone without much personal connection with Obama, his margin of error was likely slim from the very start. In the end, the most interesting question about Daley’s rise and fall probably pertains to President Obama’s management style—namely, why he decided to hire Daley into such a precarious position to begin with."

Paul Starobin, writing in TNR, actually blames Obama a little bit for something. That's surprising! Now, that's the last paragraph of the article, stating "the most interesting question." Who really cares about Daley? Let's get some sharp analysis of "President Obama’s management style." Or is that supposed to be an eternal enigma?

"Someday William Daley may tell the world what went wrong during his short, unhappy tenure as White House chief of staff..."

"... but even now it's safe to say it was a lost year for him—and the country."

A quote from Bill Daley, the White House Chief of Staff. Guess what he's talking about?

"That was a freakin’ drag out, knockout, every day sort of bing-bang-bong. There isn’t that now. There isn’t a sort of 'woe is us,' kind of dragging around, tail between the legs. Maybe there ought to be, but there sure isn’t."

What is he comparing to what?



He's comparing the Clinton impeachment days to the present situation in the White House.

Daley was Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton years. The entire linked article is worth reading. Excerpt:

So do you think, I ask, that President Obama would be satisfied saying, “We did a good job, we did good stuff,” and if he’s a one-term president, “That’s the verdict of history”?

“Nope, no, absolutely not!” Daley begins, shaking his head and then growing more outraged at the thought of a single term entering the president’s mind. “I think he’d be angry! Pissed! Unhappy! Frustrated! No, if somebody said yes to that, that would be crazy.

But the polls stink.

“Considering the debacle that he came in with, the tough choices he’s made and how there have been few, if any breaks, he says it himself all the time,” Daley says. “He doesn’t know why he’s as high as 44 percent.”