May 13, 2012

"As the person who controlled access to the first couple, Valerie Jarrett saw Oprah as a potential threat to her power."

Writes Edward Klein, author of a new book about Obama:
If Oprah went unchecked, she would bypass Valerie and go directly to the president and first lady. What good was it being the gatekeeper if you couldn’t lock the gate when you wanted? And so Valerie set about turning Michelle against Oprah. Oprah was too close to the president... Oprah was acting like she was the first lady... Oprah didn’t know her place...  Oprah was a bad influence... Valerie advised Michelle to “distance herself” from Oprah and cut her out of the White House inner circle.



It didn’t take much to convince Michelle. As Michelle knew only too well, her husband had a compelling need to win the approval of strong women like Oprah....

“Michelle is very jealous, I would say unusually so,” said someone who was very close to Oprah. “Most people after years of marriage have trust and don’t follow their husbands around and check on them. Michelle doesn’t seem to trust Barack at all. She insists on knowing his every movement and drops in on him at all kinds of odd times. It’s been the buzz of the White House....

“Michelle talked to Gayle King about it, just talking as friends. She has become much closer to Gayle than to Oprah, to Oprah’s anger and surprise. She told Gayle that if she found out her husband was running around, she wouldn’t keep quiet. Gayle was kind of astonished that she would say that.”
Man, people are gossiping! Much more at the link, including the quote, supposedly the real words of Oprah: “Michelle hates fat people and doesn’t want me waddling around the White House!” That was after Oprah tried to get in on Michelle's obesity-fighting action. And here's the corresponding Michelle quote: “Oprah only wants to cash in...."

And Edward Klein has a book to sell. 

On the topic of Obama and his relationship to "strong women," here's a slideshow on the subject chez Wapo.

26 comments:

James said...

From the same book by Klein:

The Bribe to silence Wright

"After the media went ballistic on me, I received an e-mail offering me money not to preach at all until the November presidential election.”

“Who sent the e-mail?” I asked Wright.

“It was from one of Barack’s closest friends.”

“He offered you money?”

“Not directly,” Wright said. “He sent the offer to one of the members of the church, who sent it to me.”

“How much money did he offer you?”

“One hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Wright said.

“Did Obama himself ever make an effort to see you?”

“Yes,” Wright said. “Barack said he wanted to meet me in secret, in a secure place. And I said, ‘You’re used to coming to my home, you’ve been here countless times, so what’s wrong with coming to my home?’ So we met in the living room of the parsonage of Trinity United Church of Christ, at South Pleasant Avenue right off 95th Street, just Barack and me. I don’t know if he had a wire on him. His security was outside somewhere."

somefeller said...

I'm surprised it's taken this long for the good gossipy books to come out about the current Administration. Usually it only takes a year or so for the insider accounts to start coming out for fun and profit.

Wally Kalbacken said...

The value of the gossip has to be evaluated strategically for the leaker/gossiper to maximize value for leaking/gossiping. The usual "wait until out of office" protocol is not being honored for Obama, and I read that as insiders wanting to get while the gettin' is good.

Freeman Hunt said...

Silly.

pm317 said...

And Edward Klein has a book to sell.

Not really. All this explains very well her extravagant Spain trip coinciding with Obama's birthday bash with Oprah in Chicago. It also explains why Oprah is not jumping up and down for Obama's second term.

pm317 said...

She told Gayle that if she found out her husband was running around, she wouldn’t keep quiet.

MO is blackmailing Obama. You cross me, I will talk and screw you.

pm317 said...

Anecdotal evidence about MO's jealousy and such..

Watch MO around 0:34; priceless.

Anonymous said...

In a forest if a tree falls and no one reports, then how do people know?

This, Fiction story, thus is not relevant.

There is NOTHING - not a thing - wrong with this great POTUS.

We will be re-elected every-where in the US of A.

No one will cover Klein or Wright. This means No NYT, No NPR, No PBS, and No WashPost.

So, how will people know about it?

It is over, folks! GOP is finished. Kaput. Natta. Gone.

Hagar said...

"When thieves fall out, the honest man comes into his own."

wyo sis said...

It always seems to boil down to women. Obama is surrounded by controlling women. Everything around him is a cat fight. These are not strong women that he respects and listens to they are overbearing women who force him to comply. The men in his life introduce him to license and excess and the women force him to do things he doesn't really want to do.

MayBee said...

Gayle did come to the first State Dinners, but Oprah did not.

traditionalguy said...

This affirms the narrative that Obama is a manager of his image 100% of the time.

Evan his wife who should be the one who knows him treats him as if the real Obama is missing to her and that all she or anyone gets is a temporary facade of a great man.

Rush observes that conduct and says of it that all of Obama's positions have an expiration date.

The carefully hidden truth is rising to the surface now.

John henry said...

Michelle said:

"Oprah didn’t know her place..."

Does that make Oprah one of those "uppity negroes"?

The phrase "knowing their place" has been pretty racially charged over the past century or so. Especially when used as a complaint about blacks.

I am amazed that MO would be so tone deaf as to use that phrase. Especially about a black woman.

Assuming that she said it, of course, and that Ezra Klein did not just make it up out of whole cloth. He has been known to do such so I will take it with a big grain of salt.

John Henry


John Henry

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Evan his wife...


Ah HA!!! so the rumors are true. Michelle, AKA Evan, is a tranny and a beard for Obama.

LOL

Freeman Hunt said...

If Valerie Jarrett kept Oprah's influence on the President in check, then at least Jarrett did something right. Crack needs to show up here and talk about Oprah, stagemaker for all things New Age.

edutcher said...

Makes Jarrett sound like she's white.

Or a Democrat Senator.

Joe said...

That video is hilarious. Not all white men can jump and not all black men can dance. And Obama totally checked out her ass. Didn't anyone teach him tact, especially if you're president?

(Oprah's not supporting Obama's second term because her network is losing money like crazy and alienating half the population is a poor way to make money. I think that's as far as Oprah cares.)

ndspinelli said...

Gato negro pelear!!

Rialby said...

If only women ruled the world?!?

Balfegor said...

re: wyo sis:

It always seems to boil down to women. Obama is surrounded by controlling women. Everything around him is a cat fight. These are not strong women that he respects and listens to they are overbearing women who force him to comply.

That would seem to be somewhat at odds with the image that has trickled out of his White House as kind of woman-unfriendly. Although I suppose "Michelle Obama is jealous of other women" could explain that too.

The Crack Emcee said...

Freeman Hunt,

Crack needs to show up here and talk about Oprah, stagemaker for all things New Age.

Thank you, Freeman (I sometimes get upset when I can say something a billion times and then, when it's revealed as true, nobody acknowledges I said it was obvious). I'm going to do a blogpost (or even an entire podcast) on this, but either way it'll start with these two quotes - From the Obama/Oprah story:

The book claims that in the weeks after the 2008 U.S. election victory Mr Obama gave Miss Winfrey’s advice ‘priority over Michelle’s’

Mr Klein writes: ‘When she (Winfrey) phoned, he dropped everything and took her call. They huddled over strategy. Of all of Obama’s unofficial White House advisers, Oprah had unparalleled access, input, influence, and power.’

Mr Klein quotes a White House insider who says that Mrs Obama was ‘furious’ about her husband’s late night phone calls to Miss Winfrey and that he should be turning to her for advice instead.


And from the John Edwards/Reille Hunter story:

Then Hunter went on the run with [Edwards' aide, Andrew Young] and his wife. Edwards' campaign finance chairman let them stay at his vacation mansion in Aspen, Colo., and paid for them to live in a $20,000-a-month manor in Santa Barbara, Calif. Hunter chose the location because it was close to her New Age spiritual adviser, Bob McGovern.

Hunter so relied on McGovern that when an Aspen restaurant served her a Reuben sandwich with the wrong sauce on it, she made an angry call to him to ask him to fix it, according to testimony at Edwards' trial.


Unless they know what they're looking at, only few can see how NewAgers are upturning lives and influencing history. They're just a bunch of "flakey" believers to most, yet in both of these articles they're described as "dangerous" and untrustworthy. (Reille is considered so dangerous and untrustworthy neither the prosecution or defense will call her in the Edwards trial.) And yes, dangerous and untrustworthy - Oprah - "the moral force" of the nation. Oh man, it doesn't get any more cynical than that.

Let's not forget that Oprah interviewed Reille Hunter and made her look like a fool (she is a fool, but still) which is kind of a funny thing to do when Reille firmly shares every belief Oprah's ever espoused, no?

I'll leave what that was about to you guys,...

MayBee said...

Heh, Crack.

Maybe Montecito is the New Age vortex.

Unknown said...

You know, I would love to believe all this stuff, but how did this author get all these direct quotes, like with the Family Clinton meeting? Or all these conversations with Oprah and Gayle.

I'm not believing it. Sure is fun tho!

Kirk Parker said...

"Hunter so relied on McGovern that when an Aspen restaurant served her a Reuben sandwich with the wrong sauce on it, she made an angry call to him to ask him to fix it, according to testimony at Edwards' trial."

Jeez, what a piece of work. I wonder if that kind of behavior gets its own diagnosis in the new DSM?

The Crack Emcee said...

Kirk Parker,

I wonder if that kind of behavior gets its own diagnosis in the new DSM?

Yeah, but it's just listed under the word "sucker" and - beyond slapping someone shitless - there's no known cure.

Tragic,...

Amartel said...

It's good to see that Baghdad Bob (supra @11:48) has found employment here in our great nation. Stay sober, good sir.