Valerie Jarrett joins Obama Admin as Senior White House Advisor

To many, it may seem as if Chicago is going to Washington, with the recent announcement that Obama has named Valerie Jarrett as Senior White House Advisor. The announcement comes on the heels of the appointment of Chicago Representative, Rahm Emmanuel as White House Chief of Staff:

President-elect Barack Obama has formally named his friend Valerie Jarrett to be a senior adviser in the White House. Her official title will be "senior advisor and assistant to the President for Inter-government relations and Public Liaison in the Obama White House," according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet.

Jarrett is a co-chair of Obama's transition team and was a top advisor to him during the presidential campaign. Source: Huffington Post

You may remember that Jarrett was mentioned as a possible replacement for Obama in the Senate. While this may have been good for Jarett's career, I'm glad that she has chosen to continue her work with Obama.

I think that this is a great move by Obama. It is important, now more than ever, that he have an advisor who knows him well that will be able to keep him grounded. The reality is that Obama will have a lot of people with various agendas in his ear. He needs someone like Valerie Jarrett, who is not a Washington insider, to help him separate the wheat from the chaff.