Michael Daniel thinks “being too down in the weeds at the technical level could actually be a little bit of a distraction”; Ed Felten counters, “Imagine reaction if White House economic advisor bragged about lack of economics knowledge, or Attorney General bragged about lack of legal expertise.”
Daniel was the top spook for the White House Office of Management and Budget and practices martial arts.
Daniel holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Princeton University, a master of public policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a master in national resource planning degree from the National Defense University. After graduating from Princeton in 1992, Daniel took a job as a research assistant at the Southern Center for International Studies, a think tank in Atlanta. Upon receiving his master’s degree from Harvard, he joined OMB as a program examiner in the operations and personnel branch, covering the Navy, Marine Corps and contingency operations programs.
Michael Daniel’s Path to the White House [Eric Chabrow/Gov Info Security]