Obama to Name New Economic Adviser Friday

Obama Expected to Name New Economic Adviser

Perhaps President Obama is taking advantage of his higher approval rating to make changes, showing the American public that this time he really means business -- in terms of making the economic environment of the U.S. his top priority. The rallying cry of many of Obama's main critics has been "jobs, jobs, jobs!" Some think that the president's lack of focus on jobs cost the Democrats control of the House, and that he wasted a lot of his political capital focusing on health care when creating jobs is our number one issue. Well, as one of his first major moves in 2011, President Obama is showing that he has re-focused in alignment with the wishes of the people by naming a new economic adviser, set to be announced on Friday. The Associated Press reports:

The White House says President Barack Obama will likely announce his new chief economic adviser on Friday, the same day the government issues its monthly unemployment report.

Gene Sperling, a Treasury official and deficit hawk with ties to Wall Street and the Clinton administration, is considered most likely to take over as director of the National Economic Council. He would replace Lawrence Summers, who has returned to his teaching position at Harvard University.

Other White House staff changes are expected in the next few days.

The government will issue the December unemployment report on Friday. The unemployment rate continues near 10 percent. Obama has said creating jobs and getting people back to work will be his highest priority for the remaining two years of his term.

Former Economic Adviser Lawrence Summers was critiqued by our BV blogger Dr. Boyce Watkins in 2010 as an unfortunate choice for the Obama administration, because he was too out of touch of the real needs of the average American: Jobs. Hopefully Sperling, who has real-world experience working with the federal government is a better choice and will make economic leadership decisions that will both stimulate jobs creation and be feasible to implement within the current political atmosphere. Some think that hiring Washington insiders is a bad thing, but sometimes it's good to have people around who know how to get things done in a complicated and extremely political city.