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."
I think this is more appropriate for scale:
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Michelle Obama afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, i.e. media attention
Dylan Byers Politico Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:16 CDT
© Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press
A quick look at how the sausage get made, or doesn't
On Tuesday night, The New York Times reported that no reporters would be traveling with First Lady Michelle Obama to China, and that she would be giving no interviews while there. Nicholas Kristof, the Times columnist, called the First Lady's decision "a mistake," and said it "signals weakness or fear of coverage." Several conservative outlets picked up the Times report, including the influential Drudge Report, which linked to a Weekly Standard article about it.
Shortly after noon on Wednesday, I reached out to the First Lady's office to inquire about the decision. A spokesperson for the First Lady responded to my inquiry but declared the response "off the record," meaning I wasn't allowed to use the information therein. When I told the spokesperson that I needed a response I could use, the spokesperson replied with another off-the-record statement regarding the First Lady's trip.
The spokesperson then wrote, "If you need something attributable, you can take this on background from a White House official..."
The statement that followed did not address my original inquiry. Instead, it offered a formulaic explanation about "the power and importance of education" and "reaching people," followed by an explanation that the First Lady would participate in open press events and take questions online and in forums.
By now it was 5 p.m. ET, nearly five hours after my initial inquiry. When I told the spokesperson that I did not see why the quote needed to be anonymous and attributed to "a White House official," the spokesperson said if I needed something on the record I could refer to the First Lady's travel guidance and a transcript of a press call regarding the trip. These documents did not contain an answer to my question regarding why no reporters would be traveling with the First Lady.
Now, I'll leave frustration over Michelle Obama's trip to The New York Times, Nick Krisfof, The Weekly Standard and Drudge Report (a motley crew right there). What I want to know -- and what I've wanted to know since last October -- is why the spokesperson in the First Lady's office didn't want to give me a name I could put on a harmless, formulaic quote?
“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.”
There is a soft underbelly after all....
suspected and now confirmed. The criticism DOES reach the inner sanctum.
Good,,,very very good.
The parasitic Obama's gargantuan Entitlement Disease keeps eating away at America's greatness.
Moocher's pricey China trip was "sold" to Americans as a "non-political" visit....... to chat up education.
But all of her appearances and inane remarks were connivingly structured for one purpose: to set herself up as a future candidate....and doing it on our dime.
MISSION CREEP The final explanation was that the trip and the tripe she was pedaling was "soft diplomacy" --to "ease tensions" between the US and China. Come again? Who elected this self-serving creep? Who gave her diplomat credentials?
Seems Obama is still bribing her after the Mandela Memorial blond fiasco. Moocher got the $12,000 Herrara dress, a state dinner to hostess, and the trip to China to burnish her credentials as a candidate .....so far.
I just hope Valerie Jarett doesn't get carpel tunnel syndrome wire-transferring funds offshore for campaign expenses.
” “The First Lady is laser-focused on moving the needle wherever and whenever possible.”
AHA! Now we know where the laser is!
Bump to get graphics later
^^^THIS^^^ LOL!
See how it's really our fault, not hers?
First thing I thought when I read the headline.
My opinion? (not that you asked.....:-) )
I don't know this for a fact, but can guess that the WH has entire legions of people dedicated to comportment, style, etiquette, modes of address, and protocol. There are legions more who would help, just to have the access to the office.
The fact that Moochelle hasn't taken advantage of any of this, speaks loudly for her character.
This reads like an article in The Onion.
Poor, poor, pitiful East Wing staffers! I really do feel sorry for them.
The clothes have no empress.
“Paging Jerry Springer!”
——The clothes have no empress.-—
Superb Bon Mot
In the days of Louis XV and Louis XVI, there were in Paris Salons where people gathered to talk and discuss the issues of the day. Most prized by the hostesses were those guests that could provide exceptional Bon Mots.
Today, we gather in Jim Robinson’s Salon to read your Bon Mot.
During the early years, the MSM would fawn all over her for some of those goshawful outfits. MSM called her trendy and trendsetter and fashionable.
Apparently, she read her own press clippings and thought she was a fashion setter.
However, someone on the inside got the message that those goshawful outfits were goshawful. She seems to have improved her public persona and appearance.
Great. It’s like everyone is in high school. I bet the West Wing is even more screwed up.
I can't say I'd always know the right way to behave in all these formal circumstances, but if I were Prez I'd hire a bunch of Emily Posts to give step-by-step directions.
I’m watching his show now. I can see it.
Commie 2014
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