Changing of guard for Obama inner circle?

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- At least two members of U.S. President Obama's inner circle are among those expected to leave as the administration reaches the halfway point, observers said.

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is widely expected to make a run for Chicago mayor while senior adviser David Axelrod is expected to leave in the spring to start laying the groundwork for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.

Some former aides and allies said they hope Obama will take advantage of the departures to bring in outsiders who will challenge the president's current team, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

"They miscalculated where people were out in the country on jobs, on spending, on the deficit, on debt," one longtime Democratic strategist said. "They have not been able to get ahead of any of it. And it's all about the insularity. Otherwise how do you explain how a group who came in with more goodwill in decades squandered it?"

Other advisers either announced or reportedly leaving include chief economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers, who said he will return to Harvard, where he is a professor; Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, expected to join Axelrod in pre-campaign trail work; and national security adviser James L. Jones, who reportedly said he would like to leave by the end of the year.

White House officials oppose the idea they're not in tune with the public, saying Obama receives a range of views from people inside and outside of the administration, the Post reported.

"I believe the circle of people this president talks to on a daily basis is more new to him than not," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.