Obama’s New Wall Street White House

Obama’s New Wall Street White House

Obama’s New Wall Street White House

Ari Berman explains the message Obama is sending by appointing William Daley and Gene Sperling to his White House team.

Democracy Now!
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

With Rahm Emanuel back in Chicago running for Mayor, President Obama this week appointed financial executive and former Clinton administration official William Daley as his new White House chief of staff. Daley, the Midwest chair of JPMorgan Chase, a board member of Merck and former head of SBC, also served as Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, and will likely lead Obama’s 2012 re-election drive. 

The problem with Daley? As The Nation‘s Ari Berman writes, "He shares the corporate centrism of Emanuel and, when it comes to economic issues, may be worse." In another move sure to please Wall Street, Obama plans today to name former Goldman Sachs consultant Gene Sperling to lead the White House National Economic Council, the post recently vacated by Lawrence Summers. Berman joined Democracy Now! this morning to explain what these appointments mean for Obama’s presidency and the future of our economy. 

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Democracy Now!


Ad Policy
x

Latest from the nation

Today 5:00 am

Bosses Are Retaliating Against Workers for Showing Solidarity With Palestinians

Sarah Lazare
Today 5:00 am
Armed Conflicts

The Women Who Remain in Gaza Will Never Leave Me

Asmaa Yassin
Yesterday 3:45 pm

BREAKING: Matt Gaetz Quits, and Journalism Still Matters—a Lot

John Nichols
Yesterday 11:38 am

The Red Wave Didn’t Hit Statehouses in This Election

Heather Williams
Yesterday 11:08 am

How Nominally Pro-Choice RFK Jr. Can Get Anti-Abortion Groups to Back His HHS Nomination

Joan Walsh

editor's picks

VIDEO: People in Denmark Are a Lot Happier Than People in the United States. Here’s Why.

The Nation

Historical Amnesia About Slavery Is a Tool of White Supremacy

Mychal Denzel Smith