William Daley: “This team will not let you down, nor the nation”. Obama says, “Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job.” Bill Daley’s to-do-list?

The Chief of Staff is often considered the most powerful person in the President’s cabinet. When it comes to experience for the Chief of Staff job, traditionally someone with executive experience in politics is often chosen. In recent years, however, the job has gone to Wall Street executives. William Daley is the new appointment to Chief of Staff. Regarding the new staff member, President Obama said, “Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job”. But what exactly is that experience?

Running one of the bailed out banking corporations. William (Bill) Daley was the MidWest Chairman for J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank One Corp. Despite now being the most powerful cabinet member in the Obama administration, William Daley remains on the “Operating and Executive Committees” of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and so can effectively steer policy to grant his bank more bailout money or other benefits in the future.

He is also from Chicago, Obama’s hometown, and is a pick that angers many on both the right and the left. Leftist groups are upset that Obama picked a banker who opposed Obama’s health care reform and who also opposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Political pundits on both sides are taking his appointment as an opportunity to attack Obama policy. However, the Chamber of Commerce and other banking and business groups have welcomed the pick.

William Daley joins the nation’s cabinet team, one that has never been full of more bankers and Wall Street executives. Many consider first on Bill Daley’s to-do-list to be winning over his fellow cabinet team mates. However that shouldn’t be too difficult. For example, Timothy Geithner is the Treasury Secretary, Timothy was a former Goldman Sachs executive, a fellow banking executive like Daley. Bill Daley had also been called an engineer of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the famous one which Ross Perot predicted would cause a great “sucking sound” of American jobs going overseas.

William Daley replaces Pete Rouse who one insider had said to Rolling Stone that “Rouse’s the one who brought ‘no drama’ to Obama”. Rouse was a fairly uncontroversial pick. Rouse was not a former Wall Street executive or banker and was the grandson of former Japanese interment camp victims. With opposition to the William Daley pick from both political parties, there is a lot more “drama” brought to Obama. William Daley promised Obama, “This team will not let you down, nor the nation”, but will have an uphill battle to prove his interests are the same as the American people’s. So the biggest part of Bill Daley’s to-do-list may be convincing the American people, not cabinet members, that he is on their team.