Gibbs Has the Ear of Obama

Nope, says spokesman: event reports, pics are online

(NEWSER) - At the nadir of the economic crisis, the Obama White House held a lavish Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween costume party, organized by Johnny Depp and Tim Burton and full of Star Wars character. But with unemployment at 10%, the Tea Party at its apex, and the economic downturn still rocking the country, officials feared the 2009 party would look terribly decadent, so kept it a secret, reports the New York Post . “White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans—or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care—that the event was not discussed publicly, and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” alleges Jodi Kantor in her new book, The Obamas . More»

Bill Daley says Congress won't let Obama be a chief executive

(NEWSER) - Roger Simon of Politico has an entertaining interview with White House chief of staff Bill Daley. Some highlights:

• How it's going: “It’s been a brutal three years. It’s been a very, very difficult three years, an incredible three years. And we are doing all this under the overhang of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. F--k! It wasn’t like all this was happening in good times."
• On 'we can't wait': "Both Democrats and Republicans have really made it very difficult for the president to be anything like a chief executive. This has led to a kind of frustration," and to the president's push for the executive branch to do as much as it can without Congress.

President needs trash-talking surrogates ahead of election 2012: Michael Scherer

(NEWSER) - Amid press conferences and big speeches, President Obama spent his first two years in office as “his own messenger.” But expect that to change in the run-up to the next election, writes Michael Scherer in Time . In those first two years, Obama lacked a solid team of spokespeople; aides like Larry Summers and Rahm Emanuel weren’t up to the job. Now, “as the Obama team enters the most trying 14 months of a remarkably trying five-year blitz, they are getting their ducks in a row.” More»

Gibbs: Ambassador Huntsman's future wide open

(NEWSER) - The White House confirmed today that it's looking for a new envoy to China, as Ambassador Jon Huntsman leaves to prepare a 2012 bid against his current boss, Politico reports. Huntsman has the support of several prominent GOP operatives, who've formed a PAC in order to begin the financial and organizational work necessary for a 2012 presidential bid. Robert Gibbs says that President Obama still believes Huntsman to be the right man for the job. More»

Profiles: He's a 'bare-knuckles' whip-cracker—and a disappointment to liberals

(NEWSER) - William Daley has terms like "longtime Democratic operative," "former Clinton secretary of commerce" and "Chicago political scion" thrown about him, but the New York Times takes a closer look at President Obama's new right-hand guy. He's “a bare-knuckles administrator ... someone who not only makes the trains run on time, he makes them run ahead of time,” says a veteran of the foundering Gore campaign Daley was called in to resuscitate. “He quickly brought order to the house. He held people accountable.” More»