By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute

With what appears to be a devastating election looming for his party, is President Obama attempting to follow in the footsteps of one of his predecessors and moderate toward the center?



Not if choosing Pete Rouse to replace chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is any indication, according to CNBC’s Larry Kudlow. On the Oct. 1 broadcast of “The Call,” CNBC Washington correspondent John Harwood predicted Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wasn’t going anywhere, but Obama would take a pro-business tack with the leadership of Department of Commerce.

However, Kudlow, citing a “deep political insider,” had a different forecast.



“The Commerce thing is a great idea and you're probably going to be right, but I know that you don't hear this,” Kudlow said. “But I had dinner last night with a deep political insider who told me that Michael Bloomberg is the next Treasury secretary. I heard that. All I'll say is this is a serious insider who said the deal has been done and that Bloomberg is the next Treasury secretary.”



If true, Bloomberg is an interesting choice, but he’s hardly a conservative. In fact, the New York mayor took a swipe at the Tea Party movement earlier in the day on WOR radio in New York, calling it “irrational” and declared it was “not a political movement.”



Earlier on “The Call,” which had been interrupted by the White House’s announcement that Emanuel was departing, Kudlow declared the move wasn’t one that signified a pro-business moderation, as the Clinton administration exhibited.



“There is no change going on here,” Kudlow said. “John Harwood look, you had in the Clinton administration – you had senior business people as chief of staff. I’m going to name two – Mack McLarty, who ran the oil and gas company in Arkansas, and Erskine Bowles, who was a distinguished Southern banker and businessman. Now we don’t see any movement whatsoever. This fellow, Pete Rouse – I don’t know him. He’s an inside guy from the liberal side of the Senate. They’re not reaching out to the world of business. Nothing’s going to change. There’s no policy impact. The liberal vision that [Reuters columnist] Jimmy Pethokoukis mentioned, that’s what’s getting spanked in this election, isn’t it John?”