Posted on 03/26/2014 4:09:08 AM PDT by mgist
White House ex-aide: First Lady Michelle Obama has turned East Wing into 'worst wing'
Reid Cherlin describes Michelle Obama's office as a "miserable place to work," where every meeting was an identity crisis and the wrong dress was just as bad as a failed policy initiative.
The glamorous First Lady cares so much about her clothes, the wrong skirt is considered a serious 'f--k up,' an ex-aide dishes. Playing the role of First Lady has squelched Michelle Obama’s spirit, and she’s turned the East Wing into the “worst wing,” a former White House aide claims.
The First Lady’s office has become a “confining, frustrating, even miserable place to work,” according to Reid Cherlin, a former West Wing assistant press secretary, who provided a rare account of the inner workings of the East Wing department in an essay for The New Republic.
Cherlin, who worked for the Obamas from 2007 to 2011 but has since become a writer, dished about the First Lady’s high expectations and staffers’ sense that everything has to be just right.
“The First Lady having the wrong pencil skirt on Monday is just as big of a f--k-up as someone speaking on the record when they didn’t mean to or a policy initiative that completely failed,” Cherlin wrote, quoting an unnamed former colleague.
He said that it’s “no big revelation” that the job of First Lady is an embarrassing anachronism.
After the 2008 election, he said, “there were hopes that Michelle Obama’s political appeal and charisma would enable her to transform it into something that reflected the role of modern women as equal participants in the political process.”
That never happened, he suggests, because Michelle decided to play it safe — having been burned by the intense criticism she received on the campaign trail when she said, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country.”
Staffers long for access to the First Lady, Cherlin says. Meetings with her are rare. When she did invite a staffer to a meeting, it became a “vital status symbol, a way for staffers to measure their worth.”
“Every meeting was like an identity crisis, whether you got invited or not,” one former East Winger said.
Former White House aid Reid Cherlin has claimed that Michelle Obama's office is a confining, frustrating and miserable place to work. “They don’t want to work for her; they want to be friends with her,” another said.
The restrictions Obama reportedly put on her own time created “jealousy and discontentment” among staffers, who squabbled over what little “access and responsibility” she would dispense, Cherlin claimed.
“How can we be the caliber that we’re expected to be with no attention and no resources and being an afterthought,” a former aide said. “All that can make for sparks.”
Obama, some of her subordinates told Cherlin, was good at setting a high bar but bad at conveying specific details she desired to see executed — a contradiction one former staffer said created a lot of “friction.”
Team members are constantly under pressure to plan her events months in advance and her entire operation is guided by the mantra, “Don’t do it if it’s not going to be perfect” — a saying that often created “paralyzing” anxiety among staffers.
For its part, the White House defended the way the First Lady has run the office.
“From day one, the First Lady ambitiously set out to make a measurable impact on the lives of everyday American families,” a spokesperson for her office said in a statement given to The New Republic. “The First Lady is laser-focused on moving the needle wherever and whenever possible."
Where is that job description in the constitution?
What function does it serve?
And why, for the love of God, do we have to pay for it?
Why the Ef does the “First Lady” even get meetings? Nobody elected her to anything. And every time here incompetent husband holds a meeting America dies a little.
July 31, 2009 By MB Snow There has been some discussion of Michelle Obama’s staff payroll compared to Laura Bush’s. Here are the results of my investigation. Michelle Obama has 16 paid staff which cost the American taxpayers $1,256,700. Laura Bush had 10 paid staff which cost the American taxpayers $764,900. A difference of $491,800. - See more at: http://www.politicalnewsnow.com/2009/08/04/michelle-obamas-paid-staff-laura-bushs-paid-staff-sroblog/#sthash.u4EmB10y.dpuf
Those comments "defending " her are what she has staff for. It's called PR. Millions of dollars are spent on this influence peddling and propaganda. Remember what looked like a citizens initiative fro drug legalization? It was bought and paid for by George Soros and the cartels he launders money for. It is mass deception, that amounts to massive gas lighting abuse on a nation.
So is a pencil skirt.
The whole “First Lady” thing is a ridiculous invention. Until fairly recently, the wife of a president was simply - well, a wife. She appeared with her husband at events where it was proper to do so, and generally kept her mouth shut except for making positive remarks about her country or some charitable activity in which she was involved.
This changed with Hillary, who obviously thought people had really meant to elect her and not her husband, but more or less reverted to the old way when GWB was president. Laura Bush made proper, dignified appearances and did not think that she was the center of attention or was qualified or permitted to interject herself into national or international issues.
And then the Obamas struck - and the celebrity-mad Michelle and Barry realized they had hit the big time and are milking it for all its worth. Michelle, like the Kardashians, got to be a celebrity for doing exactly nothing except wanting it and being in the right place at the right time with a celebrity husband anointed by the press.
She acts like a celebrity (shallow, arrogant, “do you know who I am” obnoxiousness) and also has the modern media celebrity’s strange propensity to think that celebrityhood actually qualifies her as an expert on everything from diet to international affairs. And, the true sign of a celebrity: she thinks it’s all about her.
One thing I seriously hope happens the next time around, no matter who gets elected, is that this “First Lady” nonsense disappears, even if it takes an Act of Congress to define the fact that the spouse of a president is not a constitutionally defined office.
She has to have meetings. It’s a lot of work planning and implementing ways to intrude into people’s lives.
must be dificult for the mooch being in a sham marriage with a fag!
I see that "awesome managerial and leadership skills" is also on her resumé.
——to plan her events months in advance -——
The same planning is done for the President. The result is the schedule rules. It doesn’t matter that there is a problem in Bengazi or Crimea..... the schedule is etched in stone and is followed.
I would guess the same is true for golf. Golf is scheduled months in advance as well. Golf is criticized here but the truth is, the President is scheduled to play golf to portray the fact he actually has a life.
The truth is both live life as a lie. Golf is a part of the lie
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Is US President Barack Obama’s Marriage on the Rocks?
Formidable: Michelle Obama with her husband
Mail Online reported citing The National Enquirer that the Obamas are sleeping in separate bedrooms, and that the President has been disloyal to his wife. Michelle reportedly discovered that Obama’s secret service bodyguards were helping the President cover up his infidelity.
According to the publication, the problems in their marriage came out in the open during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, when Obama posed for a “selfie” with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. It is also being said that Michelle was displeased with the act, leading to “ugly” fights between the couple.
Tensions between the President and his wife was also said to be one of the reasons why Michelle stayed behind in Hawaii, while Obama and their children - Sasha and Malia - returned to Washington.
But the White House refuted these claims, and said that Michelle’s extended stay was a birthday gift from the President. Michelle turned 50 on Jan. 17.
“If you have kids, you know that telling your spouse they can spend a week away from home is actually a big present,” Obama’s spokesperson told the media at the time.
Interestingly, this is not the first time the Obamas’ marriage has come under scrutiny. Mail Online reported that ever since Obama became the President, two books have claimed that the couple has come close to getting divorced during the early years of their marriage.
These books claimed that Obama’s political ambition took a toll on their personal lives.
“There was little conversation and even less romance. She was angry at his selfishness and careerism; he thought she was cold and ungrateful,” Washington reporter Richard Wolffe wrote, according to Mail Online.
Michelle was also said to be unhappy with life in Washington. The author of a book on former French First Lady, Carla Bruni, stated that when asked about life in Washington, Michelle replied, “Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!”
However, Michelle has denied saying anything to that effect.
This sounds like it was written by a bitter drama queen.
Well put. We are in the midst of the form over substance generation. The Obamas and their rise to power are a symptom not a cause.
A narcissist married to a narcissist
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