Obama kept his 'Council' project quiet -- to get a quiet 'Council'

Look at the opportunity for milking publicity which Obama has deliberately precluded.

You’d expect a president to announce that he is going to create such a council, invite public input, announce or leak some possible names … have some public meetings with organizations in his pocket (NOW etc) — the whole suspense build-up over perhaps several weeks. To give up all that media coverage of fawning by NOW etc, he must have some good reason. Like needing to keep the configuration and chairing under very tight control, so the resulting ‘Council’ will be under his tight control. Giving up this big publicity series carrot, imo means Obama has a bigger fear of a future big stick, ie accidentally creating a Council he could NOT control.