adviser news stories on Newser

Obama Needs a B-Team

Matt Cantor — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:40:05 CST

President Obama’s top advisers have had their chance, and Tuesday proves they blew it, writes American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner. The trouble is that “an in-group of experts often becomes an echo chamber, reinforcing their own prejudices and excluding people with different views,” he notes in the Huffington Post . The...

Karl Rove: I Wasn't Bush's Brain

John Johnson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:48:00 CST

Karl Rove dismisses the notion that he was George W. Bush's "brain" as the oldest political trick in the book. “If you really want to diminish a candidate, depict him as the foil of his handler," he tells Matt Lauer of Today . “I’ve known him for almost four decades," says...

Obama's Best Pal Keeps Him in Line

Matt Cantor — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:08:12 CDT

When the president has made up his mind, there’s one person who can change it: Valerie Jarrett, who acts as his “intermediary to the outside world,” Robert Draper writes in a hefty New York Times Magazine profile. “There are two people he’s not going to say no to: Valerie Jarrett...

In Jarrett, Wall St. Finds Direct Line to Obama

Matt Cantor — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:55:18 CDT

Valerie Jarrett wears many hats in the White House: “If there’s a consigliere, it’s Valerie,” says the head of President Obama’s transition team. Lately, however, the longtime family friend has chiefly been Obama’s ambassador to big business, Bloomberg reports. She “picks the brains” of executives from Wall Street to Disney—...

Obama Campaign Advisers Left Out in the Cold

Nick McMaster — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:06:06 CST

Prominent advisers to presidential candidates can usually count on having their pick of administration jobs after the campaign. Not so with candidate Obama's foreign policy team, most of whom shaded to the left, the LA Times reports. It stems from the president's decision to give the three top national security...

Obama's Crew Abounds With Expats

Wesley Oliver — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:44:46 CST

If you’re seeking a job in the Obama administration, you may want to get out more—way out, Newsweek reports. Like the president-elect, many of his advisers have lived in other countries. Top aide Valerie Jarrett was born in Iran and has traveled widely, mixing with Europeans, Arabs, and Latin...

Gibbs Will Meet the Press

Wesley Oliver — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:56:00 CST

Barack Obama today named Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary, the Washington Times reports. Gibbs, 37, worked for 2 years as an Obama spokesman on the campaign trail and was widely expected to take the job. Well-liked by reporters, Gibbs flared up at times on the campaign and is...

Obama: Powell Would Advise Me

Matt Cantor — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:30:00 CDT

Officially or otherwise, Colin Powell would have a place in a Barack Obama White House, the presidential frontrunner said yesterday. The former secretary of state “will be one of my advisers,” Obama told Today. “Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is...

Obama Adviser Quits Over Hamas Talk

Rob Quinn — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:10:23 CDT

An informal Mideast policy adviser to the Barack Obama campaign has severed ties after critics made an issue of meetings the adviser had with Hamas, the Times of London reports. The Obama campaign stressed that Robert Malley never had a formal role with them; Malley made it clear that his...