It is an angle play by Obama in the election year. He needs a Jewish figure to get the votes he has been losing rapidly.

It's a terrible angle play, given Lew's history. How can Obama embrace the meme of the 99% with Lew as Chief of Staff?

Don't buy the vote angle. The Republicans have always been trying to churn that meme up, but the intermittent polls that I've seen don't show much true erosion.

Bill Daley has been talking about leaving for a couple months, Obama couldn't talk him out of it. He had time and could have done far better than Lew.

His history as a $ guy is a good one actually. Believe what you will but there isn't a better explanation I could think of for this decision. guy makes almost zero sense for the job.