|
By CJP | September 22, 2008
 "Vogue" has a lengthy profile in its October issue on the woman they and other media call "Obama's secret weapon" and "the other side of Barack's brain." She is so powerful within the campaign and wields such a level of influence over Obama that she's been mentioned as a shoe-in for a major position within an Obama administration, possibly even White House Chief of Staff.
The weapon, who isn't such a secret anymore, is Valerie Jarrett, a businesswoman in Chicago who came into the Obamas' universe when she hired Michelle Robinson to work for her in the office of the Mayor of Chicago in 1991. Jarrett first called Michelle in for an interview, but later met her and her finance, Barack, for dinner to discuss Michelle's move. Within weeks, Michelle was working for Jarret, and the rest is history.
In the article, we also learn that:
- Jarrett shares an international childhood with Obama. She was born in Iran, where her physician father had taken their family for a five-year work abroad program, before heading home to Chicago when Jarrett was five;
- She attended Stanford and Michigan Law, and worked in a large Chicago law firm until her daughter was born;
- Her great-grandfather was the first African American graduate of M.I.T., and her daughter just finished her first year at Harvard Law;
- Jarrett worked for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, and was later Deputy Chief of Staff of Mayor Richard Daley;
- She's now the CEO of the Habitat Company, a real estate development company, and was on the board of the Chicago Stock Exchange;
- She wakes between 4:30 and 5 a.m., uses two blackberries, participates in the daily campaign conference call with David Axelrod, and was described by Obama himself this way: "I trust her completely. She's involved in every conversation we have in the campaign."
To learn more about the woman we'll likely hear much more about in the future, see the full Vogue feature HERE.
|
