John Podesta is a big proponent of Barack Obama's executive action strategy. | AP Photo How Podesta is changing the W.H.

John Podesta doesn’t have a standing appointment with President Barack Obama. He doesn’t join chief of staff Denis McDonough for the nightly “wrap” meeting with the president. He doesn’t have a defined portfolio of assignments.

But his impact is being felt throughout the West Wing, where he’s helping the Obama White House, five years in, grow up.


Podesta’s restrained role is a surprise to many, who just assumed that Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff was coming in as a shadow chief of staff for Obama, making waves and getting involved in everything. This was, after all, the man whom Clinton staffers used to joke had an evil twin named Skippy to explain his flashes of imperious anger, slamming doors, slamming phones and berating staffers. He even kept a jar of Skippy peanut butter on his desk.

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“A month in, Skippy has yet to appear,” said White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri, who worked with Podesta in the Clinton years, then for him at the Center for American Progress he founded, and now again works down the hall from him.

In the month since he returned as a senior counselor, Podesta has quickly picked up the kind of long-term, big-picture strategic thinking that this White House has always talked about priding itself on but struggled to do in its 2013 year of hell. Still frantically trying to turn things around, Podesta brings what it needed: fresh but experienced perspective, and the clout that comes from having the confidence of the president, despite coming from outside an Obama inner circle that’s resistant to newcomers.

Podesta’s a big proponent of the executive action strategy that the president announced in his State of the Union would define his 2014, and he has become the nexus of thinking through everything from the legal questions to involving Cabinet secretaries in their development and implementation. He’s become the point man on data and privacy as part of the NSA reforms and implementing the president’s environmental regulations.

He identified the need to give early West Wing attention to the California drought, which is already among the worst the state has seen and is expected to intensify in the coming months. He consolidated the response among several federal departments and agencies, including the Council on Environmental Quality, Agriculture, Interior, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Podesta has talked with Gov. Jerry Brown, who received a call last week from Obama, and members of the California congressional delegation.

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These are things the White House had needed to be working on anyway but almost certainly wouldn’t have been dealing with as well, aides say. Podesta has been able to augment the strategic planning McDonough’s been doing, which for the chief of staff also includes focusing on the larger day-to-day direction of the White House, and a restructuring that includes a new political office and revamped legislative affairs operation.

Two weeks ago, McDonough took a suggestion from Podesta to move the senior staff meeting to 7:45 a.m., from 8 a.m., to allow more time to work through issues. Aides aren’t wild about the earlier start, but the longer meetings — 45 minutes, rather than 30 — give them a chance to have a more thoughtful discussion and take care of more business, a White House official said.

And though White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer led a State of the Union process that was far along by the time Podesta officially started Jan. 6, Washington veterans picked up Podesta echoes throughout Obama’s speech.

They heard Podesta in the focus on executive action, the spotlight on income equality and the pledge to conserve federal lands. When Podesta served as White House chief of staff from 1998 to 2000, Clinton used his executive authority — over the objections of many western lawmakers — to protect more land in the lower 48 states than any president since Teddy Roosevelt.

“He oversaw a particularly active period of executive action,” said Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter for Clinton from 1997 to 2000. “The same shift [to executive powers] was occurring in the Clinton administration. John knows what he is doing here, and has thought a lot about the extent of presidential power in this field.”

There were even similarities in language. In a 2010 Center for American Progress report on the need for Obama to exert his executive power like Clinton did, Podesta wrote: “The upshot: Congressional gridlock does not mean the federal government stands still. This administration has a similar opportunity to use available executive authorities while also working with Congress where possible.”

During his State of the Union address, Obama said of his proposals: “Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Podesta is not an academic. He’s not quoting Rutherford B. Hayes, or citing obscure government reports he’s been up through the night reading. He gets the politics. He’s been known to chime in on the communications strategy.

Take the data and privacy concerns prompted by the NSA reforms. Since Obama announced he was putting Podesta in charge of the effort in his NSA speech, Podesta’s begun an effort that White House aides say perfectly meshes his experience in government and mantra-like insistence on engaging the private sector. As the administration tries to find a new solution to how electronic data is stored and explores Obama’s idea of having companies hold it, Podesta’s the one leading the outreach to lawmakers, advocates and executives.

To the players involved, Podesta taking over demonstrates just how much of both a personal and political concern this is for the president, even if they’re still waiting to see where things will land.

“When the president says to him, ‘This is something I want you to work on,’ it signals a commitment,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, whose relationship with Podesta goes back 30 years, to when they were working together updating the Federal Wiretap Act. “But it doesn’t guarantee an outcome.”

As he was speaking, Rotenberg received an email inviting him to a small meeting Podesta set at the White House next week. More good news, he said, and an important reassurance that the president’s big speech wasn’t the last word on the topic.

But the amount of stock people put in Podesta also means that he’s raised expectations on what the administration will deliver.

“It’s different than naming some obscure undersecretary to the task,” said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. “It does say this is somebody who is expected to produce results, not to be simply a placeholder.”

There’s a similar optimism among environmentalists.

“John is someone who is deeply committed to helping us solve the climate crisis, and he knows as well as anyone in this town how to work the executive branch levers to get the work done,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.

Environmentalists took note when he showed up at a rather obscure White House event during his second week on the job, his arm wrapped in a giant white cast from a hand surgery he had just undergone and his new staff ID dangling from his neck.

“I wanted to be here this morning to demonstrate one of two possibilities. Either working on climate and energy in the White House is a very dangerous occupation,” Podesta joked to the Women Leaders in Climate Change Finance and Investment group, referring to his arm. “Or, more importantly, to say how important I think this dialogue and discussion is.

“The president asked me to return to the White House,” Podesta continued, “to ensure implementation of the climate action plan that you heard about and to push forward with great vigor to transform our economy — one that is inefficient, high-carbon-based to one that is low-carbon-based and is building a sustainability, and to do it with a resolve that we have to build more resilience into the economy overall. So I was happy to come back amongst other things really to take a leadership role on that.”

Even though they are happy to have him back as well, environmental groups saw a glimpse of Skippy last month.

Eighteen environmental organizations had sent a letter to Obama criticizing his “all of the above” energy strategy. In a response first reported by The Washington Post, Podesta offered a detailed defense of Obama’s climate change efforts before he snipped: “Given this context, I was surprised that you chose to send your January 16 letter to President Obama.”

One environmentalist interpreted it as a demand to be supportive, “rather than throw bricks at us.”

Two weeks later at his State of the Union address, Obama declared his energy plan a success.

“The ‘all the above’ energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today America is closer to energy independence than we have been in decades.”