joining us this morning is john podesta. is he live for us in washington.uld tell you we have ron brownsteen with us this morning. he's with the national journal. candy crowley who's the host of the state of the union. jamal simmons is a national editor. mr. poe des at that, let me start with you. whenever somebody releases a statement that says i want to spend more time with my family. i need to return. automatically like red flags start flying. do you believe that, in fact, he wanted to spend more time with his family or is this really a metaphor for something else that had to happen here? >> the reality was it was bill daley's choice. i don't think he was very happy in the white house these days. the structure wasn't working very well. he had given up a lot of his day-to-day duties to peat rousse who's the counselor to the president. i think he made the right call actually. when in your heart you feel like you're better off moving on, then it's time to move on. i think the president selected an outstanding choice in jack lew. >> a lot of people have said

a year ago my colleague john podesta, sarah wartell released a report calling for a more coordinated comprehensive approach to the u.s. competitiveness. so that american workers, businesses and families could prosper in a more competitive world. the lead of a blueprint for the u.s. competitiveness of the top of the national agenda and putting the country down the path to achieving a. as of was a year ago president obama also signed the american competes reauthorization act into law. the act is a major achievement in u.s. competitiveness policy. it authorizes significant investments and programs the national science foundation, the department of energy, the department of commerce all in order to ensure american competitiveness and it keeps america on a path of leadership and science and technology and education to ensure that we are doing what's right for our economy and the global world in the next several years but also for decades to come. as a part of the competes act congress asked secretary of commerce bryson to conduct a detailed analysis of the structural challenges to the nat

a year ago my colleagues john podesta, sarah wartell, and standard released a report calling for a more coordinated and comprehensive approach to u.s. competitiveness so the american workers, businesses and families could prosper in a more competitive world. they laid out a blueprint for u.s. competitiveness at the top of the national agenda and putting the country down the path to achieving it. it was a year ago that president obama also signed the american competes reauthorization act into law. the act is a major achievement and u.s. competitiveness policy. it authorizes significant investments in programs of the national science foundation, department of energy, of course the department of commerce all nor to assure americans competitiveness. it keeps america on a path of leadership of science and technology and education, and sure that we're doing what is right for our economy in a global world in the next over years but also for decades to come. as part of the competes act congress asked secretary of commerce bryson to conduct a detailed analysis of the structural challenges to our

a year ago my colleague john podesta, sarah wartell, released a report calling for aim more cord and copperheads approach to u.s. competitiveness. so the american worker, businesses and families to prosper in a more competitive world. they let out a blueprint for u.s. competitiveness at the top of the national agenda and putting the country down the path to achieving it. it was a year ago that president obama also signed the american mp3 authorization act into law. the act is a major achievement in u.s. competitiveness policy. it authorized significant investments in programs of the national science foundation, the department of energy, of course the department of commerce all in order to assure americans competitiveness but it keeps america on a path of leadership in science and technology and education, ensure that we are doing what's right for our economy in a global world in the next several years, but also for decades to come. as part of the compete act, congress as the sector of commerce brison to conduct a detailed analysis of the structural challenges to our nation's engine o

john podesta of -- will remember i had to go through the confirmation process i have never been partthe federal government before i had no idea of what it takes to go through the confirmation reprocess. [laughter] maybe some of the things i had done over the years so it took awhile to go through the process but is an honor to be secretary of commerce and a special honor to work with my colleague who really was the lead at the commerce department. i am four munn singh and this is really, really important for us consistently hard and a longer-term way about how we strengthen our competitiveness around the world as it is come put it -- very important but let me just say perhaps you know, some ways another good news day because the report on jobs maybe you have seen that but the report is now in the month of december, 200,000 net to new jobs, not just the private sector, that is often reported but the net number after increases in the private sector with some of sets of loss of jobs and a private sector. 200,000 now we have six months in a row in which the numbers each month 100,000 and

john podesta. he is going to talk to soledad o'brien at 8:00 a.m. that is a really tough job, folks. make no mistakes. if you don't know what the white house chief of staff does, he is gatekeeper or she is gatekeeper and it is not fun. lots of room for, you know, angst. >> yeah. a lot of times not the popular person in the room. it is 13 minutes past the hour. u.s. markets closed higher yesterday. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq were up just a bit. closing almost flat. >> hi there. >> it's interesting that a budget guy taking over. it shows you how money is the thing the economy is the thing that is so front and center. so chief of staff, former budget guy. >> i tend to think that is not a job that a lot of people want either. >> or they do because it's a certain -- it's a real -- serbly in an election year, too. talking about stocks this morning, stock futures rup. oil is up as well. weeping watching to see how the meetings with afrpg la america will and nicholas sarkozy are going on the debt crisis. so we're still an eye to europe and also looking at h