Briefing: Obama's West Wing

Upstairs
The second floor of the West Wing includes several of Obama's closest personal confidants, including deputy counsel Cassandra Butts and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who helped Obama put together his White House team. "I trust her completely," the president says. The office above the first-floor room is also home to Larry Summers (left), director of the National Economic Council, whose influence on the stimulus package has made him one of the WEst Wing's most powerful players. He has already openly flouted the "no drama" rule by feuding with other economic advisers.

Downstairs
The ground floor was supposed to have been headquarters for Tom Daschle (left), the only Cabinet nominee to be given an office in the West Wing. "Daschle got that office not just because he's a wily infighter who knows that physical proximity means influence," says a top Democrat. "He was an important sounding board and even mentor to Obama. His loss is massive. He provided an extraordinary sense of ballast to the place." Also missing from the West Wing is Carol Browner, Obama's ultimate czar, who has been dispatched to a room in the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House.

[From Issue 1073 — March 5, 2009]

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• Barack Obama in Rolling Stone
• National Affairs Blog: All the News that Fits From the Beltway and Beyond