Valerie Jarrett - Close to Barack and Michelle, she says what campaign aides don’t—or can’t.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/136349
Jarrett has no formal title inside the campaign, other than senior adviser.
Her place at the table comes from her long personal relationship with both Barack and Michelle Obama. She is the insider-outsider, a trusted friend who can give them a view from beyond the confines of the campaign bubble.
Jarrett was brought into the campaign part time last fall (she’s CEO of real-estate developer The Habitat Co.), when Obama was stuck 20 points behind Hillary Clinton and pundits were writing him off.
“It’s good to have someone saying, ‘Why are you doing it that way?’” says strategist David Axelrod.
Jarrett was Michelle Obama’s mentor. An aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in the 1990s, she hired Michelle away from her law firm to work for the city. A veteran of Chicago politics, Jarrett got her start working for Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor.
Her grandfather ran the Chicago Housing Authority in the 1940s.
Obama has long turned to her for advice. When he wanted to run for the U.S. Senate, he first had to convince Michelle and Jarrett that it was a good idea. He’s been seeking her counsel ever since.
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Meet Obama’s Right-Hand Woman
Close Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Perhaps The Most Powerful Woman In Chicago After Oprah, Talks With Katie Couric
(CBS) When Karl Rove worked for President Bush, he had so much influence that some called him “Bush’s Brain.” Valerie Jarrett is the woman known as the other side of Barack Obama’s brain.
Jarrett, a 51-year-old business leader and single mother, just may be the most powerful woman in Chicago besides Oprah. And she’s earned the complete confidence of Barack and Michelle Obama.
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Obama Camp Has Many Ties To Wife’s Employer
8/23/2008
http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=4616
Excerpt:
A few years ago, executives at the prestigious University of Chicago Medical Center were concerned that an increasing number of patients were arriving at their emergency room with what the executives considered to be non-urgent complaints. The visits were costly to the hospital, and many of the patients, coming from the surrounding South Side neighborhood, were poor and uninsured. ...
Axelrod’s firm recommended an aggressive promotional effort modeled on a political campaign — appoint a campaign manager, conduct focus groups, target messages to specific constituencies, then recruit religious leaders and other third-party “validators.” They, in turn, would write and submit opinion pieces to Chicago publications.
One key recommendation from Axelrod’s firm: “Respond quickly to opposition activity.”
The medical center’s initiative provides a window into the close relationship between the Obamas, their associates at the University of Chicago and Axelrod, the strategist most central to Barack Obama’s rise. ...
Sen. B. Hussein Obama (D-Chicago Machine)
yitbos
All part of the manipulation and creation of the Manchurian.