President Obama’s re-election campaign apparatus will relaunch this weekend as a tax-exempt group to support his second term legislative priorities, Politico reports.

The new organization will be separate from the DNC and will be headed by campaign manager Jim Messina.

Los Angeles Times: “If it is able to sustain the passion that propelled Obama twice into
the White House, the pro-Obama group may outstrip the role played by
traditional interest groups, from organized labor to the environmental
movement, and could form an independent power base outside the White
House and the Democratic Party.”

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 52% of Americans approve of President Obama’s overall job performance.

They also mostly agree with his agenda:

“Fifty-six percent believe that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be stricter, compared with a combined 42% who want them less strict or kept the same… Also, for the first time in the poll, a majority of Americans — 52% — favor allowing illegal immigrants who hold jobs to apply for legal status in this country.”

“And in the latest fiscal fight in Washington, more respondents say they would blame congressional Republicans (45%) than Obama and congressional Democrats (33%) if the nation’s debt limit isn’t raised and the country is unable to meet its obligations.”

When President Obama quoted Ronald Reagan on gun control yesterday, it wasn’t the first time. In fact, Ryan Teague Beckwith notes it’s one of his favorite rhetorical tricks. Obama has quoted Reagan on everything from the debt ceiling to infrastructure spending to the campaign trail.

A new Pew Research survey finds President Obama’s approval rate at 52%, his highest since the early months of his presidency. “His personal favorability, currently 59%, has rebounded from a low of 50% in the fall campaign. And increasing percentages describe him as a strong leader, able to get things done and as someone who stands up for his beliefs.”

Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s image, “which reached a recent high of 42% favorable following the GOP convention this past summer, has fallen once again to a low of just 33%. Much of this decline has come among Republicans themselves.”

Matthew Dowd gives President Obama 5 useful tips as he prepares to start his second term next week:

1. Turnover in staff and cabinet leadership. It is very important for a president to bring in new leaders in a second term.  The folks that served in the first term are tired, exhausted, and lack much of the creativity needed to energize a second term.

2. Second term scandals. Be constantly aware and diligent in avoiding scandals and big mistakes that could doom the second term no matter the personnel or vision in place.

3. Rediscover first term vision. It is also important for President Obama to look back at the biggest things he didn’t accomplish in his first term and renew an effort to get that done.

4. Simplify second term agenda. Many Presidents have beleaguered second terms because they bit off way more than they could chew. They try to do too many things, and they end up not doing any of them well. Doing a few simple and direct things in a second term is the path to success.

5. Legacy. The final item President Obama should focus on is what is his political legacy post the second term. Who are the new brand of leaders he is bringing in and getting ready to carry on what he began?

President Obama took no questions from Fox News at his most recent press conference and Smart Politics finds this was the norm during his first term.

“ABC reporters have been called on the most frequently during Barack Obama’s 36 solo news conferences (formal and otherwise) conducted during his first term, followed by CBS, the Associated Press, and NBC, with FOX News coming in at a distant ninth at less than half the rate of the top outlets and less than 40 percent of press conferences overall.”

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar “will step down from his cabinet position in the Obama administration and return to Colorado to spend time with his family,” the Denver Post reports.

President Obama had fewer press conferences during his first term than any other president since Ronald Reagan, Politico reports.

With Monday’s event, Obama has done a total of 79 over four years. That’s 10 fewer than George W. Bush, 54 fewer than Bill Clinton and 63 fewer than George H.W. Bush.

Reagan had only 27 press conferences during his first term.

President Obama is close to naming Denis McDonough as his fifth chief of staff, with an announcement coming as soon as this week, Bloomberg reports.

McDonough would succeed Jack Lew, Obama’s choice as the next Treasury secretary.

First Read recaps the changes to President Obama’s cabinet.

Here are the cabinet secretaries who are remaining: Napolitano (DHS), Duncan (Education), Vilsack (Agriculture), Holder (Justice), Sebelius (HHS), and Shinseki (Veterans Affairs).

Here are the cabinet members leaving, plus their nominated replacements: Clinton at State (John Kerry nominated), Panetta at Defense (Chuck Hagel nominated), Geithner at Treasury (Jack Lew nominated), Solis at Labor and Jackson at EPA.

Josh Feldman: “I have to ask why this has become the big controversy that it has been. Most people who voted for Obama, I would expect, care more about the qualifications of his political appointees than their race or gender.”

“With the exception of Hillary Clinton, all of Obama’s ‘guy’ nominees thus far will be replacing other white guys. And, if you’ll recall, Obama’s first choice for his second-term Secretary of State was a black woman … But if you’ve been paying attention to the news at all since September, you’ll remember exactly why Rice’s appointment didn’t exactly work out … We have two Asian Cabinet members: Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. Attorney General Eric Holder, an African-American, is staying on for Obama’s second term. Also staying on are Kathleen Sebelius at Health and Human Services and Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security. Do these people not count? … There is, of course, one more reason why this whole thing is completely ridiculous. Obama still has Commerce and Labor secretaries to appoint.”

John Dickerson: “It’s unfair to charge Obama with a gender bias in his Cabinet picks. But if anyone is to blame, it’s the president himself … If people are now drawing grand conclusions based on a few staff picks, it’s because the Obama team helped train them to do so.”

Fortune: “As President Obama approaches his second inaugural, one thing has become clear: The 2008 peacemaker politician has emerged as a skilled guerrilla warrior. If Bill Clinton’s tactical legacy was disarming his opponents by stealing their ideas — welfare reform, ‘personal responsibility,’ cutting spending — Obama’s may be his skill at dividing to conquer his Republican foes.”

“Conservatives were once the reigning champs of honing in and exploiting an opponent’s weakness. Under this President, Lee Atwater’s Sun-Tzu quoting descendants have met their match.”

Politico: “In reality, no one. But there are a few emerging clues on staffers who would assume Plouffe’s multiple roles as the top in-house adviser on communications, messaging, political strategy and freelance Obama-whispering. Think Plouffe-by-committee.”

“Several administration officials tell me that current Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer… is likely to get an enhanced role sometime soon, and would possibly take over the messaging, comms and sounding board role that Plouffe occupied… It’s less clear who will take over the other half of Plouffe’s brief — since Obama shuttered the White House political office halfway through his first term.”

With many ridiculing Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew’s loopy signature — which will soon adorn all U.S. currency if he’s confirmed by the U.S. Senate — Yahoo News unveils the Jack Lew signature generator.

The reshuffling of President Obama’s Cabinet gained speed when Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced her resignation, the Washington Post reports.

But the White House said three others, including Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki would remain in their posts.

The Week: Why is Holder staying on?

President Obama will nominate White House chief of staff Jack Lew for Treasury secretary as soon as Thursday, Politico reports.

“In doing so, Obama is throwing Lew straight into the middle of an increasingly nasty budget war, the likes of which Washington hasn’t seen since the mid-1990s.”

“Lew should be prepared for this type of fiscal and political environment, though — he helped President Bill Clinton strike the 1997 balanced budget accord as a top official at the Office of Management and Budget, the agency he has since run for both presidents. And Lew played an important role in the contentious 2011 debt ceiling debate.”

The downside, according to Kevin Roose: Lew’s terrible signature would be on our money.

The Week: The right choice?

New York Times: “About 43 percent of Mr. Obama’s appointees have been women, about the same proportion as in the Clinton administration, but up from the roughly one-third appointed by George W. Bush… But Mr. Obama’s recent nominations raised concern that women were being underrepresented at the highest level of government and would be passed over for top positions.”

USA Today: Obama sticks to friends for top posts.

Paul Waldman: “If it is going to happen, history tells us we should be on the lookout starting about a year from now, since Year Six of a two-term presidency has been a fruitful time for scandal. Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky came to light in January 1998, at the start of Clinton’s sixth year in office. Iran-Contra was revealed in November 1986, in the sixth year of Reagan’s presidency. The Watergate break-in occurred in 1972 while Richard Nixon was running for re-election, but the revelations played out slowly enough that he didn’t resign until his sixth year in office, in August 1974.”