Americas

Americas

Top Obama aide Daley stepping down

10 January 2012 02:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley is stepping down after only one year in office and will be replaced by budget director Jack Lew, officials said on Monday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Obama plans to make the announcement at 3:00 p.m. EST, the officials said.

The departure of Obama’s top aide in an election year suggests a White House that is eager to eliminate distractions as it works to keep the president in office after 2013.

Though popular with staff, Daley alienated parts of Obama’s liberal-leaning base, particularly Democrats in Congress, who bristled at presidential criticism that grouped them together with the Republican opposition.

Lew, who was budget director under President Bill Clinton and was a deputy to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before taking the budget job back under Obama, has strong relationships with lawmakers. He was instrumental in negotiating the debt ceiling talks with Republicans last summer.

In November Daley handed over day-to-day White House management duties to another Obama aide, Pete Rouse, setting the stage for his resignation two months later. He was in the job for roughly a year.

A former businessman and U.S. commerce secretary, Daley took over as Obama’s top aide last year with a mandate to improve relations with the corporate community and streamline White House operations. Relations with business remained rocky, however, and lawmakers complained that his outreach to Capitol Hill was minimal.