Word: council
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...council will work closely with the White House faith-based-initiatives office under the leadership of newly appointed director Joshua DuBois. The 26-year-old DuBois spearheaded religious outreach for Obama's presidential campaign and has been one of the President's closest advisers on religion. While in college, DuBois became an assistant pastor at a small Pentecostal church in Boston, and he helped make Obama's religious outreach the most extensive and comprehensive yet for a Democratic presidential campaign. He has also been behind some moves that have raised eyebrows, including Obama's participation in last summer's Presidential...
...White House organizational chart, both the faith-based-initiatives office and the advisory council will fall under the purview of the Domestic Policy Council. That decision represents a significant shift from the Bush Administration, in which the religious-liaison operation was focused more on outreach than on policy generation and its stated mission was relatively simple: to expand the opportunities for faith-based and other community organizations to compete for federal funds. The faith-based discussion largely centered on the question of who provided social services, and Bush himself weighed in on the side of arguing that faith-based organizations...
...based effort. "We need all hands on deck," Obama said, declaring that the problem during the Bush years wasn't that the right or wrong organizations were applying for grants but that federal funds for social services had dwindled considerably. With today's announcement and the establishment of the council, Obama has also made clear that he intends to involve the religious community in issues beyond federal funding, including more traditional concerns like religious liberty. (See pictures of Barack Obama behind the scenes on Inauguration...
They may not have to. One of the reasons to create a Presidential Advisory Council is to give its members the job of dealing with thorny issues and coming to consensus. If they can't arrive at a workable solution - whether on hiring questions or an abortion-reduction policy - it probably can't be done. If they do, there's a good chance that most of the communities they represent will buy into the policy recommendations that result...
...Council's potential to solve problems for Obama makes it all the more surprising that its members haven't been thoroughly vetted in the rush to publicly introduce them. Calls were still going out to invited council members as late as Tuesday night. Given that vetting snafus have already tripped up some of Obama's other appointments, most notably Tom Daschle, supporters are hoping that the President doesn't get burned by another religious leader who has made controversial statements à la Jeremiah Wright or Warren...