{"id":6894,"date":"2013-01-25T19:25:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T03:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=6894"},"modified":"2013-01-29T19:27:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T03:27:39","slug":"obama-names-minnesota-native-denis-mcdonough-chief-of-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/obama-names-minnesota-native-denis-mcdonough-chief-of-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama names Minnesota native Denis McDonough chief of staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

McDonough grew up in Stillwater and graduated from St. John\u2019s University, where he studied history and played defensive back for legendary football coach John Gagliardi.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obama names Minnesota native Denis McDonough chief of staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Calling him \u201ca great friend to me\u201d and \u201cone of my closest and most trusted advisers,\u201d President Obama officially named Stillwater native Denis McDonough his new chief of staff on Friday.<\/p>\n

Obama praised McDonough for his work on national security issues \u2014 \u201cDenis has played a key role in every major national security decision of my presidency,\u201d Obama said, such as the draw-downs of the wars in the Middle East and high-profile changes to military policy \u2014 and his efficient, behind the scenes work at the White House. Calling him a \u201cman of deep faith,\u201d Obama said he\u2019s used McDonough as a liaison to important political constituencies like faith groups and immigration reform proponents.<\/p>\n

McDonough is said to be popular among White House staffers and received big cheers when his appointment was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, nobody outworks Denis McDonough,\u201d Obama said. \u201cIn addition to being an incredible talent and such a hard worker, Denis is also a pretty humble guy. To so many of his friends and his admirers, he\u2019s still just the dude from Stillwater, Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonough\u2019s appointment has been, by even Obama\u2019s admission, one of Washington\u2019s worst kept secrets since the president appointed his current chief of staff, Jack Lew, to head the Treasury Department earlier this month. McDonough has been a confidant of the president\u2019s since Obama\u2019s days in the Senate, where McDonough made his name as a national security expert. He has served as a deputy national security adviser since Obama took office in 2009.<\/p>\n

McDonough grew up in Stillwater and graduated from St. John\u2019s University, where he studied history and played defensive back for legendary football coach John Gagliardi. (\u201cThis does remind me of perhaps the one topic on which we\u2019ll never agree,\u201d Obama said, \u201cwhich is Vikings vs. Bears.\u201d)<\/p>\n

At 43 years old, McDonough is much younger than the three Obama chiefs of staff who preceded him. He lives in Alexandra, Va., with his wife and three children and is known to commute by bicycle to the White House.<\/p>\n

Obama joked that those days are behind him now.<\/p>\n

“As chief of staff, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s allowed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking directly to McDonough\u2019s kids, sitting in the front row of a crowd gathered for the announcement in the White House\u2019s East Room, Obama said, \u201cHe does what he does because he cares and loves you guys so much. \u2026 He wants to make sure that the next generation is inheriting the kind of America that we all want.\u201d<\/p>\n

View Entire Article and Comments… Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Obama names Minnesota native Denis McDonough chief of staff
\nMinnPost.com
\nDevin Henry
\n01\/25\/13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McDonough grew up in Stillwater and graduated from St. John\u2019s University, where he studied history and played defensive back for legendary football coach John Gagliardi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[406,405,247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama","category-denis-mcdonough","category-john-gagliardi","wp-image-borders"],"views":703,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6899,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6894\/revisions\/6899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}