Tales from the Trail

A reboot of President Barack Obama’s White House, dubbed “Obama 2.0″ in a New York Times magazine article, is still showing the hourglass.

Many decisions about staff changes and other key issues are still far from resolved, but behind-the-scenes conversations continue.

Obama, who leaves for a 10-day Asia tour on Friday, will squeeze in time between summits and other events to huddle with aides over these issues.

“The president will, I think, no doubt spend time on the trip in Asia with both staff and with memos working through both reorganization as well as staff positions that need to be filled,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. For example, the position of National Economic Council director being vacated by Larry Summers.

“The sort of notion of Obama 2.0 I think takes into account a lot of different things,” Gibbs said. “We’re only a few hours away from the election and I know (interim White House chief of staff Pete Rouse) and others here are working on a whole series of things that you would likely put under that umbrella.”

It won’t be a conversation over beer in the Rose Garden, but today President Barack Obama gathers his Cabinet together across the street at Blair House to talk about the first six months of their term.

With public opinion polls showing support for Obama and for his main legislative priority — healthcare reform — waning, the president retreats with his Cabinet this weekend to talk things over.

Six months ago Obama and his family lived at Blair House for a couple of days before he was inaugurated as the 44th president.

Must be playing all that hardball by President Barack Obama’s administration.

Attorney General Eric Holder becomes the second Cabinet official to miss travel after breaking something.

Holder, the country’s top law enforcement official, cracked a tooth last night and missed a trip to Aspen, Colorado, where he had been scheduled to attend the “Aspen Ideas Festival” on the eve of a long weekend for the Fourth of July holiday.