Obama names Sperling to top economic post

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Friday named Gene Sperling director of the National Economic Council, choosing a veteran of the Clinton administration budget battles to navigate the rocky shoals of record budget deficits, high unemployment and a Congress dominated by resurgent Republicans.

The announcement came while the president was visiting a Maryland window manufacturing company that is taking advantage of a new tax break for businesses that Obama pushed through Congress last month.

Sperling, currently a senior counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, replaces Lawrence H. Summers, a respected economist who served as President Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary and later as president of Harvard University.

Sperling is not an economist by training. But he is valued as a savvy and knowledgeable political player. His experience negotiating successfully with Republicans may prove useful as the administration shifts away from a highly creative period of developing policies to counteract the recent recession and hunkers down for a protracted fight over government spending, taxes and the fate of Obama's new health-care law.

Sperling is also seen as an able communicator who can shape the administration's message and convey it to the public and on Capitol Hill.

Sperling, 52, has played a varied role since January 2009 in his post as a counselor to Geithner, participating in some of the central debates that helped shaped the Obama administration's economic policies and ongoing response to the financial crisis. - The Washington Post