Obama seeks business boost with Daley pick
Bill Daley is a banker, a lawyer, a Washington insider and a member of one of the Democrats' most powerful dynasties.
He is the seventh child of Chicago's former mayor Richard Daley, who ran the city in the 1960s and 1970s, and the brother of the current mayor, also Richard Daley.
Bill Daley is one of the political mentors of the man he'll be replacing, Rahm Emanuel, who is running to become Chicago's next mayor just to keep things neat and tidy.
President Barack Obama's critics will focus on this point, claiming that, when in trouble, Mr Daley runs back to the old Chicago machine. But apparently he and the president don't know each other that well.
One of the hold-ups in the announcement seems to have been the need to hold face-to-face sessions to make sure the two are capable of getting along.
The real importance of the appointment is that Bill Daley, an executive of JP Morgan Chase, is well-liked by financiers and those in big business - and Mr Obama needs to mend fences with them.
Mr Daley was also Bill Clinton's commerce secretary and an architect of Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement) and is still disliked by many unions here. His friends contend he's an operator, and perhaps he's got the job for that reason alone. But it looks like a signal that Mr Obama is tacking to the centre - not worried about what his left wing might say.
I’m Mark Mardell, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
Comments
or to comment.