Jay Carney Pick Is 'Radical Departure' for White House

Jay Carney may have been working for Joe Biden the last two years, but his selection as White House press secretary is actually a "radical departure" from business as usual for the White House, writes Josh Gerstein at Politico. Unlike most in the Robert Gibbs operation—including the man passed over for the job, Bill Burton—Carney is not a longtime insider who worked on the 2008 campaign. In fact, he covered the campaign as a journalist.

Insiders see the move as "a break with campaign-style tactics in favor of a more buttoned-down focus on the business of governing, and possibly a détente with the White House press corps," writes Gerstein. Carney likely won't have the same White House access or clout as Gibbs enjoyed, but the new chief of staff Bill Daley apparently prefers it that way.