Posted on 10/27/2012 11:19:52 PM PDT by PieterCasparzen
[..]
“She’s there to try to promote what she understands to be what the president wants,” the former aide said. “Ultimately the president makes his own decisions. The question that is hard to get inside of, the black box, is whether she is really influencing him or merely executing decisions he’s made. That’s like asking, ‘Is the light on in the refrigerator when the door is closed?’ ”
[..]
When the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett showed up for a private lunch with the president last July, the table was set for three.
[..]
Mr. Obama’s first two chiefs of staff, Rahm Emanuel and Mr. Daley, clashed with Ms. Jarrett over strategic direction and over who had greater authority to interpret and carry out the president’s wishes, several officials said.
[..]
She is the only staff member who regularly follows the president home from the West Wing to the residence, a practice that has earned her the nickname “the Night Stalker.” By day, Mr. Obama is “Mr. President” to her, but in social settings, he is just “Barack.” When the Obamas take an out-of-town break, she often goes along.
[..]
A case in point is her full-time Secret Service detail. The White House refuses to disclose the number of agents or their cost, citing security concerns. But the appearance so worried some aides that two were dispatched to urge her to give the detail up.
She listened politely, one said, but the agents stayed.
[..]
She serves as the front door to the donors who helped elect the president, reviewing guest lists to White House parties and candidates for patronage positions. But she has snubbed some early supporters, among them the financier George Soros, ignoring his pleas for a substantive meeting on the economy with the president.
[..]
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Jarrett's role goes beyond merely exceeding tradition of POTUS advisor roles: there appears to be literally no limit to the latitude in her role. She appears to be, in essence, telling POTUS every move to make.
She can speak with him on a routine basis privately out of the office when only POTUS and possibly FLOTUS are present; I doubt an advisor ever had such privacy on such a contining, 24x7 basis with any POTUS.
Her role, according to the story, would appear to be actually designed so that POTUS is rarely, if ever, without her should significant events unfold, leading to the question: would POTUS handle a difficult situation if Jarrett was not available to him ?
With this arrangement, POTUS does not need to make a single significant decision, just keep up with Jarrett's advice - which has every appearance of being more like instructions - and understand enough to know what to say in front of others or in public. One can not help but recall that the development of Obamacare was entirely performed by Congressional staff and lobbyists; in order for POTUS to achieve that "accomplishment", he did not need to actually know or do anything, other than speak in the vaguest generalities and sign his name.
The role described for Jarrett in this story would explain why she is at perhaps every significant meeting POTUS attends; she can then function virtually as a de facto POTUS without relying on POTUS recounting to her what was said at meetings that Jarrett does not attend. The story seems to indicate that Jarrett simply attends every significant meeting, even if it's lunch with a single individual.
Jarrett's personal Secret Service detail is very concerning in terms of this commentary.
Her insistence on it could suggest that there is extreme concern that if something were to happen to Jarrett, POTUS would perhaps not be able to function acceptably without her.
Alternatively, it possibly could indicate that Jarrett represents a unique channel of communication between POTUS and an external party or parties.
In her "gatekeeper" role, Jarrett represents a unique person that is a 100% access filter to POTUS. This of course represents a unique locus of power and possibly a completely opaque channel of communication.
With how much time off POTUS has had, and how light his workload appears to be, Jarrett's role, for all intents and purposes appears to be essentially that of POTUS.
It would be interesting to hear testimony from both POTUS and Jarrett regarding why POTUS ordered the stand down in Benghazi.
bttt
I’m sure she is pro Israel right?
So the question is was it Jarrett who gave the stand down order?????
Rasputin
It would appear that this would have been Obama’s first original idea since January of 2009 if Jarrett did not provide him with the answer to the question as always.
You know, with a little subtle blink and nod of yes, or in this case, a tiny subtle shake of the head for no while no one else was looking.
I’m sure everyone’s used to kind of not looking at them so they don’t see the exchange.
It’s got to be like an old married couple at this point: you know, you just kind of know what they’re thinking with very subtle communication.
In heels...
George only likes Israeli commies.
George was very clear, do not do it unless you absolutely have to. Try every way you can to make it not happen.
If you must, go on TV right away and announce it. As soon as possible, don’t wait.
That will lessen the damage to “our friends”.
I’ll square it with them if you have to do it.
Use the usual code wording in your speech.
That’s a perfect caption.
Uh, oh, she might be the true leader of the free world: she’s the one who inputs speeches in Obama’s teleprompter!!!!
This is effed up on sooooo many levels...
She’s got a team of dozens that work for her that I’d assume do all the typing.
She appears to just be the messenger.
Or maybe that wooden thing that the puppetmaster controls the puppet with ?
Obama is Kramer and George is Morty Seinfeld.
I have never really liked Rice; but I am not sure that she would advise the likes of Jarrett on foreign policy. As for Soros I thought I read somewhere Soros was told to stand down by others which could have originally come from Jarrett. which I doubt he is doing. He is more likely going underground because the fire is getting to hot for him. He will get caught sooner or later.
I have never really liked Rice; but I am not sure that she would advise the likes of Jarrett on foreign policy. As for Soros I thought I read somewhere Soros was told to stand down by others which could have originally come from Jarrett. which I doubt he is doing. He is more likely going underground because the fire is getting to hot for him. He will get caught sooner or later.
Jarrett is Obama’s puppet master: he thinks he is in charge and she lets him think it.
Here’s a line from that article that disturbs me; Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice occasionally uses Ms. Jarrett, with whom she has become friendly, as an informal back channel to pass along foreign policy views, officials said.
I wondered as I listened to Condi on Greta’s show why she was going so soft on Obama and Benghazi. She sounded like she was in his corner. Now, I think this explains things. I’ll bet Condi voted for him as well, and probably will this election year. She was very secretive about it when asked, which led me to believe she is as much a back-stabber as Colin Powell, just more secretive about it.
Another post on who’s who in the Libyan revolution.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2951258/posts
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