How Obama and National Security-Deloitte LLP Advisor Jim Jones Worked For `Change' In 2009

“General James Jones, USMC (Ret), former National Security Advisor... has joined Deloitte LLP as Senior Advisor. In his new role, General Jones will work in an advisory capacity with Deloitte’s federal and commercial clients and Department of Defense practice.
“Appointed National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, General Jones also served as president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber Institute for 21st Century Energy.

“`General James Jones is a game-changing hire who will provide valuable and unique insights for our Federal Practice,” said Robin Lineberger, CEO, Federal Government Services, Deloitte LLP. `…He...will have a particular focus on Deloitte’s Department of Defense practice.’…

“Led by General Charles F. Wald (USAF, Retired), Deloitte’s Department of Defense (DoD) practice works with DoD clients… Deloitte has been working with the DoD since 1912, and today approximately 1,400 Deloitte practitioners work with all branches of the Department of Defense in Greater Washington and beyond. Serving more than 80 percent of the world’s largest companies across 20 industry sectors, Deloitte has reach back to leading practices of the private sector… “

--from a January 17, 2012 Deloitte LLP press release

How Obama and National Security-Deloitte LLP Advisor Jim Jones Worked For “Change” In 2009

One reason the Democratic Obama administration--whose White House National Security Advisor Jim Jones was hired to advise the clients of Deloitte LLP’s Pentagon practice in 2012-- failed to produce much radical democratic change in the United States between 2009 and 2012 might be because President Obama’s typical workday at the White House in 2009 apparently didn’t include much day-to-day contact with many U.S. grassroots anti-war, anti-racist or anti-corporate political activists, although “Obama…was on TV more than any of his predecessors,” according to Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter’s 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One. As the same book also observed:

“A normal day in the [Obama] White House began around 7:30 a.m., when a dozen senior staff gathered in Rahm Emanuel’s office…At 8:45 Rahm would usually hold a legislative strategy meeting…Obama began his day by joining Michelle [Obama] in the fitness room, where she often got going before 6 a.m…The president read…the Wall Street Journal and USA Today over breakfast…He walked downstairs to the Oval Office around 9:15, sometimes later…He and Rahm would go over a quick-to-do list…

“At about 9:30 Obama received the Presidential Daily Briefing on national security (led by NSC advisor Jim Jones or his deputy, Tom Donilon). Later the name was changed to the National Security Session to reflect that the thirty-to-forty-minute briefing had been broadened…At around 10:30 came the Economics Daily Briefing, led by Larry Summers…

“…The president didn’t like sitting at his desk all day…The Obama workday was brisk, with an occasional brief break for some…sports talk or a careful toss with one of the footballs or basketballs that came around Reggie Love’s desk…Obama liked to hear some of the milder staff gossip…The afternoon was usually devoted to more meetings and four or five telephone calls, often with foreign leaders, capped by a casual review of the day’s events with a few senior staff. He went upstairs for dinner…around 6 p.m., frequently followed by a drop-by at an evening reception…By 8 p.m. it was usually time to go back to his study in the residence…

“…This was a man who in 1993 retreated to Indonesia for a few weeks shortly after getting married to labor on his first book…Obama…had repeatedly expressed his objection to `relitigating’ the Vietnam War and the 1960s…He infuriated some liberals by saying in a May [2009] speech at the National Archives that he didn’t want long investigations of Bush and Cheney that would `relitigate the last 8 years’…Obama responded by traveling far more widely in his first year than had any previous president. In 2009 he made 10 foreign trips to 21 foreign nations (4 of them twice)…Obama…immersed himself in the details of…counterterrorism…

“Bob Gates…was almost certainly the most influential member of the Cabinet…His pedigree as a Republican and former CIA director gave Obama political cover…From the start Obama was inclined to back Gates against liberal critics. When photographs surfaced documenting the torture of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq, the White House…at first declined to block their publication. But…Obama…reversed his position…”