In a much-anticipated book about the first couple?s relationship, Michelle Obama emerges as a powerful, behind-the-scenes force committed to keeping President Barack Obama true to his campaign promises and willing to battle his top aides when she believed they were steering him off course.
The book, by Jodi Kantor of The New York Times, reveals the first lady?s deep ambivalence about her role in the White House, portraying her struggle with decisions as basic as whether to stay temporarily in Chicago with her girls after her husband moved into the White House.
Continue ReadingIt depicts her as the president?s compass on signature issues he pushed for in his 2008 campaign, including immigration and comprehensive health care reform ? a constant reminder within the walls of the White House of his liberal vision of change, even as some of the president?s top advisers encouraged him to be more of a political realist.
And it reveals her clashes with senior advisers Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs.
Gibbs, the president?s first press secretary, had an especially rocky relationship with the first lady and Valerie Jarrett, another senior adviser and a longtime friend of the first couple.
After Gibbs worked to knock down a report asserting that the first lady had told her French counterpart, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, that living in the White House was ?hell,? Jarrett said at a staff meeting that Michelle Obama had concerns about the White House response. Gibbs responded with an expletive-laden explosion, Kantor writes.
?That?s not right, I?ve been killing myself on this, where?s this coming from?? he yelled. Jarrett stayed calm, which seemed to further infuriate Gibbs. Eventually, ?the press secretary cursed the first lady ? colleagues stared down at the table, shocked ? and stormed out.?
Kantor?s overall portrayal is largely sympathetic, at least based on pieces drawn from the book that appeared online late Friday. She depicts the first lady as grounded and the president as willing to listen to her ideas.
And based on the Times story, it seems unlikely to create the kind of problems for the White House that Ron Suskind?s book, ?Confidence Men,? did last fall.
Still, the White House pushed back Friday night against Kantor?s narrative.
?This is the author?s take, reflecting her own opinions, on a remarkably strong relationship between the President and First Lady ? both of whom share an unwavering commitment to each other, and to improving the lives of Americans,? White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement. ?The book, an overdramatization of old news, is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years. The author last interviewed the Obamas in 2009 for a magazine piece, and did not interview them for this book. The emotions, thoughts and private moments described in the book, though often seemingly ascribed to the President and First Lady, reflect little more than the author?s own thoughts. These second-hand accounts are staples of every Administration in modern political history and often exaggerated.?
Kantor conducted interviews with 33 White House staffers, among others, but only interviewed the Obamas for a New York Times Magazine piece published in Oct. 2009, before she signed what has been reported as a seven-figure deal for the book.
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