Obama Reshapes White House for Domestic Focus

By PETER BAKER
NYT

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama finished building a cabinet of prominent and strong-willed players on Friday, but he is putting together a governing structure that will concentrate more decision making over his top domestic priorities in the White House.

With new offices in the White House to coordinate health care, urban policy and energy initiatives, Mr. Obama has signaled that he intends to keep real power over domestic issues close at hand. The collective moves shift the political center of gravity farther away from the cabinet, a trend that has accelerated under presidents of both parties in recent years.

At the same time, Mr. Obama’s reorganization suggests a willingness to tolerate, and even encourage, competing power centers within his administration, but it is unclear how that will work in practice. Not only is he creating new positions with authority over key areas, he is filling his West Wing with people of stature equal to or even greater than the members of his cabinet, including two former cabinet officers and a former Senate majority leader.

David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, said issues like health care and energy “are so fundamental to our ability to right the economy in the long term that he knows he’s going to have to drive a lot of that. And he wants a high-powered staff in the White House to help him do that.”

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