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jefferson_dem

(32,683 posts)
Fri Jan 6, 2012, 10:41 PM Jan 2012

Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady

Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady
By JODI KANTOR



Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband.

In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said.

To her, the loss was more evidence of what she had been saying for a long time: Mr. Obama’s advisers were too insular and not strategic enough. She cherished the idea of her husband as a transformational figure, but thanks in part to the health care deals the administration had cut, many voters were beginning to view him as an ordinary politician.

The first lady never confronted the advisers directly — that was not her way — but they found out about her displeasure from the president. “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides.

The Michelle Obama of January 2012 is an expert motivator and charmer, a champion of safe causes like helping military families and ending childhood obesity, an increasingly canny political player eager to pour her popularity into her husband’s re-election campaign. But interviews with more than 30 current and former aides, as well as some of the first couple’s closest friends, conducted for “The Obamas,” a new book, show that she has been an unrecognized force in her husband’s administration and that her story has been one first of struggle, then turnaround and greater fulfillment.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/politics/michelle-obamas-evolution-as-first-lady.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all?src=tp

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Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady (Original Post) jefferson_dem Jan 2012 OP
Apparently what's in that new book (article in the OP) should be taken w/ grain of salt, see below Tx4obama Jan 2012 #1
Great find. jaxx Jan 2012 #2
Heavens! A WOMAN has political thoughts and pushes to get her husband's agenda going! Bolo Boffin Jan 2012 #3

Tx4obama

(36,974 posts)
1. Apparently what's in that new book (article in the OP) should be taken w/ grain of salt, see below
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 02:06 AM
Jan 2012

Last edited Sat Jan 7, 2012, 04:12 AM - Edit history (1)


White House Reacts Swiftly, Dismissively To New Book, 'The Obamas'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/white-house-reacts-the-obamas_n_1190854.html


Bolo Boffin

(23,796 posts)
3. Heavens! A WOMAN has political thoughts and pushes to get her husband's agenda going!
Sun Jan 8, 2012, 09:03 AM
Jan 2012

My fainting couch! Where is my fainting couch?

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