i wish that thing and it's spawn DID stay in Chicagoland...
Posted on 01/07/2012 7:54:03 AM PST by Comrade Brother Abu Bubba
New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs.
Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged
remark by Michelle Obama to French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy that living in the White House was "hell."
In another, the book describes how Obama, after winning a U.S. Senate seat and writing a best-selling book, "The Audacity of Hope," sought self-protection and privacy as he came to terms with his new fame. Some staffers came up with a
word to describe times when Obama couldn't connect with people: "Barackward," a combination of "Barack" and "awkward."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The White House is "HELL"
Barackward Obama. BarackBackward Obama
The idea of Gibbsie cursing MO out is pretty comical ;-)
However I’m sure the MSM spin on this will be soon telling us how courageous and strong the Flotus is, why, even to the point of her “going rogue” when needed...
Now, how to combine Barack and backassward.
i wish that thing and it's spawn DID stay in Chicagoland...
Yeah, I guess it's awkward knowing that your celebrated life story was cribbed by a white guy.
When the Obamas first moved into the White House, it was soon clear that not only didn’t they feel honored to be there, they didn’t like living in the White House. They felt confined and trapped. They wanted be somewhere else as often as possible. I am a senior citizen. In all my years on this planet, I have never know of any first couple who didn’t feel honored to be there.
Personally, I think it’s “hell” because I believe she and Barry are on the outs.
I think they were only on the “ins” twice.
Thank you, thank you. Try the veal. I’ll be here all day : )
No one is interested in this book.
The Obamas [Hardcover]
Jodi Kantor (Author)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167 in Books
BN Sales rank: 210
“Book depicts tensions between First lady Michelle Obama, Aides “,p.
Arguing over AIDS is a series matter.
The First Fat A** (can’t call her a “lady”)....deserves what she gets....and more.
“The first lady, however, wasn’t there to cheer the achievement. She was in New York City watching television coverage “alone in her suite at the Waldorf Astoria, according to an aide, as her daughters slept.”
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/images/2008/10/19/michelleobamalobsterhiresa2.jpg
“Michelle Obama, who came to politics skeptically but saw her husband as someone capable of lofty achievements, worked hard not to be isolated. She sent emails to Jarrett when she had complaints about news coverage, which Jarrett would forward to others after removing the first lady’s name from them. When she couldn’t wedge certain events or people into her husband’s schedule, she would send her missives to Alyssa Mastromonaco, the president’s director of scheduling. The emails, Kantor writes, “were so stern that Mastromonaco showed them around to colleagues, unsure of how to respond to her boss’s wife’s displeasure.”
“When the whole enterprise seemed to have fallen apart, following the election of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, the first lady was furious. Instead of letting her husband down easy, which top staff hoped she would do, she lit into him.
“She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” the president told his aides. “They had the sense that was not the actual language she had used.”
Kantor writes, “To her, the Scott Brown victory provided grim evidence for what she had been saying for months, in some cases years: [her husband] had been leaning on the same tight group of insular, disorganized advisers for too long; they were not careful planners who looked out for worst-case scenarios.”
Emanuel, naturally, had a different read. And according to “The Obamas,” he was indignant about how the first lady handled the Brown victory. “Emanuel hated it when people criticized the administration from lofty perches,” writes Kantor. “More fundamentally, the chief of staff was trying to convince the president to scale back his health care efforts, but the first lady wanted him to push forward. Emanuel wanted to win by the standard measures of presidential success: legislative victories, poll numbers. Michelle Obama had more persona criteria: Was her husband fulfilling their mission?”
“The tug of war between Michelle Obama and Rahm Emanuel for the president’s spiritual or political soul contributed to a White House that was far more disorganized and friction-filled than the public perception holds. Kantor reports that then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was often deployed to push back against the first lady, informing her that she couldn’t take a private vacation on a state visit, spend large amounts on White House redecoration, or buy expensive clothes. “
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