WASHINGTON--White House chief of staff Bill Daley's best day on the job was the Sunday when Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces. The worse day was when negotiations failed for a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
Daley commented during a session at the "Washington Ideas Forum" at the Newseum sponsored by The Aspen Institute and The Atlantic. Daley was interviewed Thursday Wednesday by Norah O'Donnell, CBS News chief White House correspondent.
On May 1, Daley was with Obama and other top officials in the White House situation room watching the raid by U.S. special forces of bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. Daley noted that he "may have been" the only person in the room who was not a national security specialist.
Daley revealed that on his first day on the job he learned about the compound in the "PDB"--a reference to the "President's Daily Brief," a top secret classified document.
A bi-partisan debt deal between Congress and the White House fell apart this summer. "We thought we were so close," Daley said. That was "probably the worse day" of his nine months on the job.
Daley also said that he talks regularly with the man who had the job before him--Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Daley was asked about reports in Ron Suskind's new book about the Obama White House about complaints of how top women were treated in the administration.
"I didn't even read the book, but I did hear that there were some issues early on under the predecessor of mine so I can dump on him for that," Daley quipped.
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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