You know, I woke up this morning and said to myself, "Self, you know what we need? We need another banker in White House inner circles! You know, someone who understands Wall Street and really "gets" their point of view? Who better than someone
January 4, 2011

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You know, I woke up this morning and said to myself, "Self, you know what we need? We need another banker in White House inner circles! You know, someone who understands Wall Street and really "gets" their point of view? Who better than someone from JPMorgan, a firm that's truly above reproach?

We've been so hard on them. Isn't it time to forgive and forget?

President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level White House post, possibly as his chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said.

Such a move, which is still under discussion and which White House officials wouldn’t confirm, would bring a Washington veteran -- and someone with strong business ties -- into the administration as Obama enters the second half of his term. The president is faced with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives and is trying to accelerate the U.S. economic recovery while addressing the budget deficit.

Daley, 62, who typically responds to questions, didn’t return two messages seeking comment left on his cell phone yesterday or a phone call to his office and an e-mail sent to him today. White House officials declined to discuss the matter.

“I’m not going to comment on personnel speculation,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in an e-mail.

As he remakes his staff at the midway point of his presidency, Obama also is seeking to address complaints from some executives that the Democratic administration is anti-business. Daley is JPMorgan’s Midwest chairman and the bank’s head of corporate responsibility.

Even better, he's the lobbyist brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who served as an economic adviser to Obama during the campaign (so we know exactly what we're getting) and worked for Bill Clinton on passing NAFTA (Al Gore gave him "virtually 100 percent of the credit") -- so you know he's on that same all-important corporate page.

Why, it'll be as if Rahm never left.

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