Spotlight Fixed on Geithner, a Man Obama Fought to Keep

By JACKIE CALMES
NYT

WASHINGTON — As friends, donors, cabinet members and celebrities like Tom Hanks, Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder partied at the White House one evening last August to celebrate President Obama’s 50th birthday, the president tapped a lesser-known guest on the shoulder.

“Take a walk with me,” he said to Carole Sonnenfeld Geithner, within earshot of others.

Their stroll on the South Lawn was Mr. Obama’s last step in a lengthy effort to keep her husband, Timothy F. Geithner, as secretary of the Treasury for the rest of the president’s term. Having worn down Mr. Geithner, Mr. Obama wanted to explain why it was important that her husband delay his return to New York.

That Mr. Obama went to such lengths to keep Mr. Geithner, after not having done the same with others on his economic team who had left at midterm, underscored how much he had come to rely on Mr. Geithner.

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