Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady

YankeeFan · Dec 15, 2014

Times profile adapted from Jodi Kantor's upcoming book, The Obama's Obamas.

Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband.

In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said.

To her, the loss was more evidence of what she had been saying for a long time: Mr. Obama’s advisers were too insular and not strategic enough. She cherished the idea of her husband as a transformational figure, but thanks in part to the health care deals the administration had cut, many voters were beginning to view him as an ordinary politician.

The first lady never confronted the advisers directly — that was not her way — but they found out about her displeasure from the president. “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides.

Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff, repeated the first lady’s criticisms to colleagues with indignation, according to three of them. Mr. Emanuel, in a brief interview, denied that he had grown frustrated with Mrs. Obama, but other advisers described a grim situation: a president whose agenda had hit the rocks, a first lady who disapproved of the turn the White House had taken, and a chief of staff who chafed against her influence.

The Michelle Obama of January 2012 is an expert motivator and charmer, a champion of safe causes like helping military families and ending childhood obesity, an increasingly canny political player eager to pour her popularity into her husband’s re-election campaign. But interviews with more than 30 current and former aides, as well as some of the first couple’s closest friends, conducted for “The Obamas,” a new book, show that she has been an unrecognized force in her husband’s administration and that her story has been one first of struggle, then turnaround and greater fulfillment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/politics/michelle-obamas-evolution-as-first-lady.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

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waterytart · Jan 6, 2012

Rahm Emanuel was supposed to be the ultimate knife-fighter. Best I can tell, his profanity camouflaged his perpetual willingness to cave.

I know very little about Michelle Obama, but I think being crossways with Rahm speaks well of her.

JayFarrar · Jan 6, 2012

Mike Allen's Playbook had a bit this morning about the book.

It was basically, the Obamas don't like to socialize much and haven't had any former presidents over for dinner. Also made an interesting comparison with Michelle Obama as Bill Clinton with Barack being Hillary.

As the board's leading Hillary Clinton supporter (patent pending) I smirked, then laughed out loud.

YankeeFan · Jan 6, 2012

Politico has about 10 postings based on the book:

But at Mr. Emanuel’s 7:30 a.m. staff meeting the next day, Ms. Jarrett announced that the first lady had concerns about the White House’s response to the book, according to several people present. All eyes turned to Mr. Gibbs, who started to steam.

“Don’t go there, Robert, don’t do it,” Mr. Emanuel warned.

“That’s not right, I’ve been killing myself on this, where’s this coming from?” Mr. Gibbs yelled, adding expletives. He interrogated Ms. Jarrett, whose calm only seemed to frustrate him more. The two went back and forth, Ms. Jarrett unruffled, Mr. Gibbs shaking with rage. Finally, several staff members said, the press secretary cursed the first lady — colleagues stared down at the table, shocked — and stormed out.

Mr. Gibbs later acknowledged the outburst but said he had misdirected his rage. He accused Ms. Jarrett of making up the complaint. After the book incident, he “stopped taking her at all seriously as an adviser to the president,” Mr. Gibbs said, adding, “Her viewpoint in advising the president is that she has to be up and the rest of the White House has to be down.”

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/gibbs-stopped-taking-valerie-jarrett-seriously-109920.html
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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.

Michelle Obama, who came to politics skeptically but saw her husband as someone capable of lofty achievements, lashed out against her isolation. 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 herself 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."

It was when the jockeying between the two moved into the policy arena that matters grew most complicated. According to Kantor, in the lead-up to the 2010 midterm elections Emanuel and the first lady were at odds over whether the president should pick up the mantle of comprehensive immigration reformer. The chief of staff saw no point in pushing for legislation that had no chance of passage. The first lady, who had just been confronted by a second grader in a Maryland elementary school whose mother didn't have immigration papers, felt that ignoring the issue was fundamentally at odds with her husband's own political story.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/tensions-between-michelle-obama-rahm-emanuel-109904.html
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Boom_70 · Jan 6, 2012

There seems to be a book about almost every First Lady involving themselves in the politics of the White House. Barbara Bush is the only one that comes to mind that seemed to stay below the radar.

I never take them seriously.

zimbabwe · Jan 6, 2012

MisterCreosote said:

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"Eat your damn vegetables and exercise."

suburbia · Jan 6, 2012

waterytart said:

Rahm Emanuel was supposed to be the ultimate knife-fighter. Best I can tell, his profanity camouflaged his perpetual willingness to cave.

I know very little about Michelle Obama, but I think being crossways with Rahm speaks well of her.
Click to expand...

Rahm Emanuel may have been the ultimate knife-fighter, but he was also a classic DLC Democrat, which means he was in cahoots with many of the same interests as Republicans - big business, etc. Remember that Emanuel first became a national political player while working for Bill Clinton, who was one of the first DLCers.

Michael_ Gee · Jan 6, 2012

That's right, exercise is bad for you. I'm with Boom. It defies credulity that First Ladies wouldn't have SOME influence on their husbands. But all White House insider stories are exclusively sourced by the losers of power struggles seeking to shift blame elsewhere.

hondo · Jan 6, 2012

zimbabwe said:

MisterCreosote said:

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"Eat your damn vegetables and exercise."
Click to expand...

"Don't preach to us until you can get your husband to quit smoking."

imjustagirl · Jan 6, 2012

The Obama's what?

YankeeFan · Jan 6, 2012

imjustagirl said:

The Obama's what?
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Damn it!

Yeah, I guess that should have been a plural and not a possessive.

dooley_womack1 · Jan 6, 2012

imjustagirl said:

The Obama's what?
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It's about Obamas wife

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Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady

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