A look at Valerie Jarrett
From a lengthy article by Noam Scheiber in The New Republic:
While aboard Air Force One at the end of the 2012 campaign, Jarrett turned to Obama and told him, “Mr. President, I don’t understand how you’re not getting eighty-five percent of the vote.” The other Obama aides in the cabin looked around in disbelief before concluding that she’d been earnest.
Jarrett worships Obama without a smidgeon of a sense irony or balance. In that, the two are well-matched, which may account for some of their closeness. It dovetails nicely with her 2008 statement:
I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. ”¦ He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability ”” the extraordinary, uncanny ability ”” to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make sense out of them, and I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually. ”¦ So, what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but somebody with such extraordinary talents that had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy. ”¦ He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do
The TNR piece presents both Obama and Jarrett as alike not only in their high opinions of Obama, but as similar in other ways: drunk with power, and personally petty and vengeful.
(The article doesn’t go into it, but I can guess the identity of the little birdie who whispered in obama’s ear to write that letter to Ahmadinejad.)
The piece also describes how, slowly but surely, Obama replaced the few independent thinkers who were his early advisors, those with a substantial amount of expertise and a reputation of their own (for example, Larry Summers and Rahm Emmanuel) with what the author calls “ciphers.” For example, “Obama’s top economic adviser is [now] Jeff Zients, a former management consultant and Jarrett pal who had no experience in government before joining the administration.” This was probably done not just for the obvious reason that Obama wants no one with enough moxie and expertise to challenge him. It’s also probably because Jarrett wants no one with enough moxie and expertise to challenge her. The narcissist and his adoring worshipper are flip sides of the same coin— hubristic, petty, ignoranct, isolated, stubborn, intolerant of criticism, secretive, defensive, maximally political, and remarkably adept at offending almost every person with whom they deal. And Scheiber’s descriptions of the meetings that Jarrett was in charge of, with gay activists before Obama made his big gay marriage announcement, describes the ghastly way the gay activists were treated.
Jarrett is his most trusted person on earth, despite (or probably because of) all of this:
According to a former high-level aide, there is no longer a daily meeting between the president and his top advisers. Under the old system, if the president waved off one adviser’s objection to his preferred plan of action, another could step in to vouch for the objection’s merit. The advice Obama gets now, though, comes more regularly through one-off interactions with the likes of Jarrett and Denis McDonough, who don’t have anyone else to back them up. In the second term, observes the former aide, “Maybe the president says, more often than in the past, ”˜We’re doing it.’”
The result is that Obama has become even more persuaded of his righteousness as the years have gone on. His belief that he can win over opponents is unshaken.
The whole piece by Sheiber seems split and confused. He describes horrible dysfunction, two terrible people making bad decisions and treating people like dirt. But he detests the Republicans who would thwart them, and thinks that, if anything, Obama and Jarrett are insufficiently to the left. And Scheiber ends this way:
It’s no surprise that Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett would govern as reasonable people. It’s who they are. The tragedy is that we live in surpassingly unreasonable times.
Oh, the pretzel knots into which Scheiber must tie himself. Two and two equals five.
[NOTE: The TNR article on Jarrett seems to be part of an orchestrated and coordinated press campaign against her by Obama supporters to get him to fire her. Ha! Dream on.
Jarrett is the new designated fall guy (gal) to explain what went so terribly wrong with the Lightworker. But she has been an integral part of Obama’s political success. She’s been with him from the early days of his political career, advising and assisting in a myriad of ways. I believe he is very dependent on her psychologically, and she on him.]
Does she really so blindly and naively worship him, or is it rather that she knows him well, and, narcissist that he is, she knows exactly how to play him?
G Jourbet:
She worships him.
The “tell” on that is that her remarks about him are so preposterously over-the-top that no one would make that sort of thing up. She is a true believer. In turn, that is one of her biggest pluses as far as Obama is concerned. She is one person who truly understands what a superior being he is.
G Joubert:
I won’t pretend to know what binds them together. I can only wonder at the amazing quantity of dirt she must have on him. (And vice-versa, but that direction doesn’t interest me much.)
If the relationship between the two of them ever cracks, we will see the floodgates open on revelations like we never dreamed of.
I do wonder what will become of her in 2017. He will always be a former President of the United States. But she can never have this sort of authority without responsibility ever again.
How can anyone be in the least bit surprised at this. They both come from upper-middle class, Lefty, “Black” backgrounds, in the case of Barry buoyed by endless amounts of out side money. In their adulthood they had to prove their African-American bonafides, that they are “down with the struggle” as Rush says. So they live on a higher level of political fantasy, circling around their bottomless egos in a continuous mirror dance. How many years will it take to clean up this pile of bovine excrement that they will call their legacy?
Neo, I have finally begun David Mamet’s book. I just wondered, have you commented on it? As a changer my self I would be interested in your take.
Neo:
You may well be correct. If she does indeed worship him, that would explain a lot of what she’s said and done.
God help him if he ever disappoints her.
Daniel in Brookline:
My gut feeling is that there is nothing he could do to disappoint her. That sort of worship makes excuses for all seeming flaws.
JimG33:
I liked Mamet’s article on his change, which I read and commented on here and here.
I started his book this summer, but somehow I couldn’t get into it. Maybe because it was summer. Maybe because I sort of already knew the story. But it seemed a bit disorganized and rambling to me, as a book.
I think highly of him, and think it took courage to “come out” like this.
Valerie should have the title of Chief Ego Feeder. Plus, I also think she manipulates Michelle, who would probably slug Barry from time to time if he didn’t praise her for her healthy dinners and good taste in clothes. And please tell me why she gets Secret Service protection.
Any man who has not been intellectually, physically, and emotionally challenged is a stunted individual.
I think you’ve got a good read their relationship, Neo. It seems to me that Valerie does a lot of the day to day work that Obama prefers not to. For example, during the initial weeks of the Ferguson troubles, it was Jarrett who was coordinating with the mayor, the governor, the police chief on a daily basis (per the NYT).
I think one also has to factor in her relationship with Michelle. Jarrett was Michelle’s boss at the Univ. of Chicago hospital; she created the job for Michelle. Jarrett regularly eats dinner with the Obamas, she vacations with them – she is part of their family.
Can’t imagine Obama would ever let Valerie go.
I’ve never understood, if he’s such a goddamned genius, why no one can get access to his SAT scores or college grades.
miklos:
Ah, but that’s part of his genius! He knows how to keep things hidden.
My gut feeling is that there is nothing he could do to disappoint her. That sort of worship makes excuses for all seeming flaws.
I don’t know, Neo… we all have our limits.
It might be an entertaining game to ask that question — what could President Obama do, or fail to do, that would cause VJ to lose faith? I don’t think voting Republican would do it. Cheating on Michelle would certainly not be enough; I suspect that bridge was crossed a long time ago. Joining the KKK might not do it either. But faith does have its weak points, especially for insecure people.
(I’m reminded of a recent Saturday Night Live sketch, in which black intellectuals were asked what would get them to not vote for Obama. Conclusion: nothing could cause him to lose their vote, nothing at all.)
Here’s a different question: would Obama throw Ms. Jarrett under the bus to save his own skin? I suspect that, if he had to, he would. And even that might not cause her to lose faith in him. But others have lost faith in him before, particularly when he ridiculed them for being so foolish as to believe in him. (Could he make that monumental a mistake in her case? I think he could.)
But hey, Donna Brazile thinks Jarretts detractors are sexist. Who could have seen that coming?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/11/opinion/brazile-sexist-attack-on-valerie-jarrett/index.html?hpt=op_t1
Daniel in Brookline:
My take on it? I think he would throw her under the bus if he needed to. And she would still believe in him.
Sort of like the Communists Stalin had executed who kept thinking “if only Stalin knew.” Some of them took their faith in him to the grave, apparently.
I read somewhere (can’t recall where) that she’s the Rasputin of this regime. From what I’ve seen, that seems about right.
She certainly gives me the creeps.
Here’s something I have been wondering about for years: What effect — if any — did Jarrett’s time in Iran have on her thinking about that nation?
(She was born in Iran in 1956, and lived there until she was five. She spoke Persian as child, as you would expect, probably learning it from family servants and friends.)
A couple of factiods:
1) Valerie Jarrett is almost identical in size, weight and stature to Barry’s grandmother.
In his subconscious, she’s a re-invented, idyllic ‘grandmother’ authority figure — her strokes compensating for his brutal teen years — inhaling deeply. (The choom gang)
2) Valerie Jarrett’s father-in-law was also huge in Chicago politics.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/03/all_in_the_family_valerie_jarrett_and_the_chicago_communists.html
Most interesting reading.^^^^
3) IIRC Vernon Jarrett was a major patron of Black college students — funded by Muslim monies out of the Middle East.
I’ve long felt the Secret Service scandals are about access and who is allowed to come and go, and that she is probably part of that. The fish and poi deliveries, Sharpton and other even more nefarious characters. She is an Iranian and the link between Islam and her community begs much closer inspection. I believe that would answer many, many questions about problems past and present.
800 days.
Like a drug dealer and the addict, working together as co conspirators.
3) IIRC Vernon Jarrett was a major patron of Black college students – funded by Muslim monies out of the Middle East.
Reminds me of Nation of Islam and how Malcom X and MLK J died.
Neo –
I think you’re right that he’d throw her under the bus if he had to. And that she’d accept it. However, I also think that her reasoning for accepting it would be based on a combination of two items. The first is that he doesn’t have much time left in office anyway, so the effect of her being gone is more muted than it otherwise might be. And the second is that it’s For the Greater Good(tm). Sacrificing her allows Obama’s wonderfulness to continue to help the people of America. It’d be like a bodyguard voluntarily taking a hit to protect his employer.
And sure, she won’t have immediate access anymore. But if Obama likes her as much as rumors suggest, then he’s going to stay in contact with her anyway.
A little off topic, but this sentence caught my attention: Obama wants no one with enough moxie and expertise to challenge him.
I don’t believe he’ll get any challenges from his recent “Ebola Czar” appointment. (Wonder what Mr. Klain is up to now that the Ebola scare has wandered off the front page.)
Yes, because Obama also worships Obama without a smidgeon of a sense of irony or balance.
rickl:
Exactly.
Neo and Jim:
Mamet is Mamet. Great book but his style.
Pres. Jarrett could write the biggest book of all time but she won’t.
Sick sick people. I’m so exhausted with these sickos and we still have two years to go. How in the world did this ever happen? Will it ever happen again?
No way Obama would throw her under the bus. Unless, of course, there was a secret and mutual agreement as to how this would work out.
Jarrett is the stronger of the two. And she is the keeper of the secrets. Most likely Obama is both totally dependent on her and afraid of what she would do if she left. She now holds the cards, not him. imo
How in the world did this ever happen?
The Left happened. Evil has a source.
My initial impression is that Obama is a narcissist and that Jarrett is his enabler. My guess is that she is an inverted narcissist herself.
Noam shows himself to be unaware of the U.S. Constitution with a statement like this:
“As recently as early this year, the official White House position was that it preferred Congress to ban workplace discrimination against gays. Congress!”
The author’s genuine surprise that a President would ‘prefer’ (not understand) that Congress pass a law for him to sign, is telling. It is probably why the White House (and media) sycophants appear to be successful in getting Obama to use his executive authority to re-write immigration law ‘if congress won’t act’ in a timely manner for him. To heck with that old parchment that Madison drafted.
Her job is safe, unless it comes down to a choice between his (political) survival and hers. In that case, I agree with Neo that he would throw her under the bus in a heartbeat.
But I just don’t see that happening. What would the advantage be at this point? He’s a lame duck and he’s not going to give up the one person who can be counted on to tell him how consistently wonderful he is. My guess is that Michelle doesn’t play that role.
Speaking of which, I’ve always been curious about the odd dynamic between Michelle and Jarrett. By all accounts Jarrett is best buddies with Michelle also and she certainly spends a lot of time with the family. On a personal level, is Jarrett more like a mother figure, or mother-in-law figure? They’ve already got Michelle’s own mother living there as well. Just seems a bit crowded in this particular first family. Michelle doesn’t seem like the type to put up with that much “togetherness” with another woman who isn’t actually a relative.
CV:
Oh, I absolutely don’t see it happening, either.
I was merely trying to convey that, if push came to shove and it became very important politically for him to dump her (which I don’t foresee), he would certainly be willing to sacrifice her.
Valerie girl is an ideological groupie.
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Barry Soetoro shuts out criticism.
It’s a tic that he built up during his teen (Hell) years with his grandmother.
The louder anyone says “No!” — “It can’t be done.” the more determined Barry is to push back twice as hard.
He routinely goaded his grandmother (1983) just to see her fly off the handle. By the age of 22, he was no longer under her thumbscrew.
Underneath his serene countenance is a very, very, nervous soul, for he is a classic Gonnabee faker.
Such souls always aspire to roles that they can’t handle — all the while polishing their image.
Actually managing the place is another matter.
Behind the scene the Wan is an angry autocrat. Just a snippet of his rage pops through, from time to time. And such rage always turns on what’s making him look bad.
&&&
It must peeve him to see the rest of the planet falling down all too fast… certainly faster than America… the humbling of which is his number one passion.
He has yet to figure out that he’s being humbled, first.
Putin, et. al. are already looking past him. They know that he can’t get any treaties through the Senate. They’ll be DOA.
As for the DoD budget, Congress is just going to write up its own. Barry won’t really be able to stop it.
Shutting down the government so as to put the knife into defense contractors is just not going to play well. It’s the kind of bill that overrides a veto. It’s not for nothing that the DoD has contracted in all fifty states.
It’s no surprise that Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett would govern as reasonable people. It’s who they are.
That someone could write that after having written this article is very telling. People were so snowed and they are still not able to admit they were wrong. Crazy.
The advice Obama gets now, though, comes more regularly through one-off interactions with the likes of Jarrett and Denis McDonough, who don’t have anyone else to back them up.
It is terrifying that they are governing this way but it explains so much.
When I was in school, we used to talk about a thing called ‘groupthink’ and how bad it is and how to prevent it. I’ve been thinking about that a lot the last few years. I think this administration will be the new bad example going forward (I believe Kennedy cuban missile crisis might have been the good example – With the Bay of Pigs being the bad one).
Lea-but groupthink is a functional explanation for psycho-social dysfunction.
The case under discussion here is how the seductive tentacles of narcissism reinforce ideological rigidity. The may be complimentary explanations or not – but they do not overlap because they are not the same notions.
Lea-but groupthink is a functional explanation for psycho-social dysfunction.
I am referring to the removal of people who will speak out, both through filtering everything through Jarrett and replacing everyone with a different idea. It is hard to argue that that has helped the situation. IF things have gotten worse since they did these things, it seems likely measures used to prevent groupthink might have at least required Barack to be less uninformed about the other possibilities and ways of doing things.
Now, he may have been a hopeless case from the start too.
The only on-camera time I’ve ever seen Valerie Jarrett was on the PBS Discovering Your Roots show two weeks back, which uncovered Jarrett’s black (Republican not mentioned, I think) Louisiana Congressman ancestor.
She came across very strangely, like she was determined to give nothing away. Watch it and see what you think.