For the past five years, John Podesta, the former Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, has been building up the Center for American Progress, a liberal-oriented "think tank", or, as it is sometimes called, a virtual government-in-exile. According to this article,

Mr. Podesta has also poured money into building up liberal political communications. The center schedules events that often end up being shown on C-Span; sponsors about 60 liberal college newspapers; hosts a prominent blog, ThinkProgress.org; and provides a free downloadable daily news package called Mic Check for liberal radio stations to broadcast.

A number of wealthy donors and groups which have given grants to this group have been
identified, and it is heavily staffed by former Clinton administration officials.

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Valerie Jarrett is described as a close family friend, "Obama's big sister" and even "the other side of Barak's brain". Her connections are not so much with Washington, but with the Chicago community of affluent blacks, many of whom have graduated from Ivy league universities.

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Peter Rouse was formerly chief of staff for Senator Tom Daschle. When Daschle failed
re-election, Rouse began working for the newly elected Obama, and is credited with
helping direct his career in the Senate and his rise in the Democratic party and to the nomination.

Andrew Sullivan, writing about Rahm Emmanuel, as already mentioned, confirms his
a reputation as something of a shark. He is known for being in "the face" of opponents,
twisting arms, extracting commitments, and bullying, corralling, and pinioning party
members to get things accomplished.

In 2000, Emanuel was on the board of Freddie Mac, the now disgraced mortgage public-private entity whose overly generous loans helped to bring about the financial meltdown of the past two months. He has received a huge amount of campaign money from hedge funds, private equity firms and the financial industry.

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Although I'm not familiar with the names of Obama's economic advisors or their
qualifications or political orientation, a number of them have been listed.