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Michelle Obama 'raged against Rahm Emmanuel and White House advisors'
Michelle Obama clashed frequently with Rahm Emmanuel, her husband's White House chief of staff, as the pair vied for influence over the President, according to a new book.The First Lady reportedly believed that Mr Emmanuel's willingness to cut backroom deals during the battle over health care reform was tainting Barack Obama's image as a new kind of American leader. The Obamas paints a picture of a presidential inner circle divided between Mrs Obama's idealistic belief in what the administration could achieve and the grittier pragmatism of Mr Emmanuel. The book, written by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, claims that the chief of staff refused to allow the president's wife into high-level morning meetings, leading a brooding Mrs Obama to berate other senior advisers by email. She allegedly sent furious notes to Alyssa Mastromonaco, the president's director of scheduling, and to Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago friend who now serves as one President Obama's top advisors. Ms Jarrett was said to remove the First Lady's name before circulating the emails widely within the West Wing. The then-press secretary Robert Gibbs was apparently often dispatched to placate Mrs Obama when limits were put on the amount she could spend on clothes or White House redecoration, as well as to explain why she could not take private holiday while on state visits. Aides were said to refer her East Wing office as "Guam" because it was "pleasant but powerless". The tension between Mrs Obama and Mr Emmanuel, a hardened political operative who is now Mayor of Chicago, reached a fever pitch during the battle for healthcare reform in late 2009 and early 2010. Posted by: tipper 2012-01-07 |
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