Robert Gibbs: Larry Summers Replacement Could Come Mid-January

WASHINGTON — Don't look for any big changes in President Barack Obama's Cabinet as the new year gets under way.

The president's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, tells CNN's "State of the Union" that he doesn't expect any major shuffling to take place in the Cabinet.

Gibbs says that there's much work yet to be done at the Treasury Department to implement financial reform and at the Health and Human Services Department to implement health care reform. He calls the president's team "very talented."

Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, had been expected to depart the administration last fall. Gibbs says he thinks Obama will name Summers' replacement a week or two after the new Congress convenes.

CNN's interview with Gibbs aired Sunday.

Comments

[nothingchanges]

03:13 PM on 12/27/2010

"He calls the president's team "very talented."

Note that he doesn't specify what they are talented at.

When listening to any politician, I have found, what they don't say is probably as important as what they do say.

Being talented at getting into, or retaining office, doesn't do most of us a whole lot of good if it doesn't result in changes to a system that has become so corrupt that only 2% of the electorate is represented by Congress.

I doubt very much our current situation is the type of representative government the framers of the constitution envisioned.

[guveqzero]

02:04 PM on 12/27/2010

Obama's advisers are not competent, that's how Obama deflects the blame. He picks people that look good to the business community, and then lets them fall into oblivion. A few more years of that, and I see the end of global market driven capitalism. We need a nobel prize winner running our economic policy, not an ex band leader. We can be exceptional, but not as we exist today.

[Jennifer Mead]

02:55 PM on 12/27/2010

You bring up a good point, one that rubs me raw every time I think about it. America doesn't lead in anything anymore except aggression. The biggest win of all time has been to let the rich get obscenely rich. We don't dominate in: technology; medicine; research; education etc. The average American can make it these days by being unscrupulous at business practices but otherwise they are screwed (unless they entertain us, then we pay them big). Bring America back!

[H Rhoid Sorwhole]

01:56 PM on 12/27/2010

How can you replace a man of this immense wisdom??

"I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted"

Gotta luv Summers...

from his Memo:

DATE: December 12, 1991
TO: Distribution
FR: Lawrence H. Summers
Subject: GEP

'Dirty' Industries: Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Least Developed Countries]?

[rodealer]

12:35 PM on 12/27/2010

Summers can not be replaced. No one has been as wrong as he has or is as big a wind bag as he is. At least in this post we know were is and we can keep an eye on him.

[sfsoma]

12:22 PM on 12/27/2010

Self serving sycophants will not be enough to rescue the Obama Presidency. Axelrod & Co. have already blown their load, nothing left to offer, nothing left to spin with cept maybe the Obama tax cuts for the top 2%, Obama war, Obama economy, Obama continuation of violations of civil liberties from previous admin., Obama sanctioning of assassination of American citizens outside the Homeland, the dubious Health insurance reform. Will these accomplishments be enough to capture the independents again? Of course, the R's could still self-destruct with the Palin, reality TV star as presidential candidate option.

[Jennifer Mead]

02:38 PM on 12/27/2010

The Repubs will have to self explode in order for him to get elected again. Unfortunately.

[KeysDan]

11:09 AM on 12/27/2010

No need to rush, the economy is in good shape. Besides, Summers could be replaced with a fireplug and we would be all the better for it.

[rodealer]

12:36 PM on 12/27/2010

A dry fireplug!!

[Jennifer Mead]

02:39 PM on 12/27/2010

The economy is in good shape? You are not an American citizen? Where is the economy in good shape? You mean the rich that just got a tax cut extension? They were never in bad shape.

[Hounds]

10:53 AM on 12/27/2010

Hope & change, still forthcoming, until then, same old same old.

[changling]

08:29 AM on 12/27/2010

President Obama needs to realize that he desperately needs to change his entourage. He is surrounded by the wrong people at the wrong time. Remember, Mr. President, for the people and by the people.

[Super Sarcastic]

06:56 AM on 12/27/2010

We can always hope Obama doesn't replace Summers with another wolf in sheep's clothing.

[Mugzi]

09:27 AM on 12/27/2010

We can hope, but my guess it will be an equally despicable R...

[AlexNYC]

12:13 PM on 12/27/2010

But isn't Obama one as well?

[Whitemellon]

05:40 AM on 12/27/2010

How much talent does it take just to print worthless paper money. That's exactly what that trillion dollar bailout was and why China and other countries are going to began to use other currencies. A piece of paper with nothing to back is worth what?

[SitandStay]

04:22 AM on 12/27/2010

Christmas in January.

[scipio2009]

03:15 AM on 12/27/2010

I still don't get why folks on this site would honestly expect some massive Obama shakeup, with President Obama abandoning his whole team to then just staff the folks that the blogosphere are always crying about. The blogs were never the man's base, and that won't change now either, especially considering the way the "progressives" tucked tail and ran, when things actually got tough.

Turnover in the White House is utterly natural. People will leave, and new people will come in. Throughout the whole process, however, President Obama will continue to stick with the folks that he can trust and people he respects, regardless of what the blogs want.

The inner circle, in the West Wing, will likely now compose of Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe, and Robert Gibbs, with Obama allies David Axelrod and Jim Messina running the campaign from Chicago. Pete Rouse is going to hang on as the Chief of Staff, likely through the State of The Union, and will likely be replaced with a permanent choice who has decent ties with the Republicans on the committee with subpoena power.

Roger Altman will likely be the choice to fill the seat on NEC, and Bill Burton will likely be the new public face of the Obama Administration as Press Secretary.

Folks will decide that they want to leave the Administration, and Democrats on the outside will likely relish the opportunity to come in. Not too complicated.

[changling]

08:30 AM on 12/27/2010

One can only hope that he will come to his senses and make big changes. That's what is needed to get his mojo back.

[Jennifer Mead]

02:41 PM on 12/27/2010

Please explain "progressives" tucked in tail and ran. I am not aware of that. I am curious.

[scipio2009]

03:46 PM on 12/28/2010

1) Stimulus fight-
When the topic of discussion on the stimulus turned away from the "progressive's dream" of the new-New Deal $3 trillion package of spending, and turned to the Obama plan for a $1 trillion, with a clean and neat messaging strategy, the "progressives" refused to fight for that plan, throwing their lot in with the foolish House proposal, which tried to equate things like increased funding for condoms in public schools as stimulus, and sitting silent when the other noisemakers came forward, carving near all of the real economic stimulus out of the Obama proposal anyway.

2) Financial reform-

When the Obama Administration put forward as the core tenants of the reform effort as being focused on the consumer financial protection agency and the Volker Rules, which focused almost exclusively on reining in the activities of financial firms rather than the abstraction of "size", "progressives" ignored those ideas, focused on nonsense ideas that had absolutely nothing to do with trying to prevent another collapse, and the lobbyists were allowed were allowed to sidetrack the bulk of the reform's focus.

3) Healthcare-

I could write 10 pages on this point, but the fact that the "Tea Party" was allowed to undermine the entire healthcare debate with nonsense about "death panels" and "government takeover of healthcare", and yet, "progressives" were unable to present a single rally for why reform was actually needed, is proof enough.

Need I go on?

[blueskybigstar]

03:01 AM on 12/27/2010

Didn't they say he was gone before the last election?

[marknez21]

02:26 AM on 12/27/2010

Mr. Gibbs outsource his job to India or China, we can save more than $100,000 per year.

[marknez21]

02:21 AM on 12/27/2010

Larry you have an open position with Citi Bank, JP Morgan and B of A. Move to NY and join Orzag in Citi Bank

[leftLibertarian]

07:47 AM on 12/27/2010

I think he goes back to Harvard where he has on office to take naps. From time to time those banks you mention asks him to deliver a lecture which pays him $100,000,000.00.