GREAT article on Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett in this month's Vogue, lots on Michelle and

[blondeatlast]

Barack, too. Next time someone spouts off on PUMA crapola, try directing them to this. Gotta say it; I LOVE her style, too!

But Valerie Jarrett's real clout comes less from her career than from her extraordinary connections and seemingly endless capacity for extracurriculars. As one observer put it, "She knows everyone in Chicago." Obama's media adviser Anita Dunn recently cracked that "she may be one of the most plugged-in people in the United States." Or as Susan Sher says, "Whatever situation she's in, she rises to the top," enumerating how Jarrett did just that at City Hall, where she ended up in the famously difficult post of chairing the Chicago Transit Authority for eight years; at the Chicago Stock Exchange; and on the board of the University of Chicago Hospital, which she now also chairs. "She is like a god in Chicago, an icon," says Adrienne Pitts, a 40-year-old lawyer who takes every opportunity to see Jarrett speak at events around the city, something she does with less frequency now that Jarrett is so often traveling with Team Obama or helicoptering into problem situations or trying to catch some of the big, joyous campaign moments and watch history change. That is, when she can get away from her day job.

In addition to all her other roles, Jarrett has taken on what is essentially a second, very demanding full-time job as senior adviser to Barack Obama and is just beginning her national coming out as a member of the candidate's inner circle. She has been variously described in the press—and to me—as "the other side of Barack's brain," "Barack's secret weapon," and "a female version of Barack," all of which get at parts of her specialness but none of which quite sums it up. Indeed, that is the very phrase she uses to explain why David Brooks reached for but failed to grasp a Greater Understanding of Barack Obama on the editorial page of The New York Times on the day I am interviewing her. Brooks wrote that Obama "put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged….He absorbed things from those diverse places but was not fully of them."

"Barack doesn't sum up," she responds. "They should stop trying to sum up someone who doesn't sum up! And he doesn't lend himself to being labeled, because he's nuanced in a lot of refreshing and interesting ways. He is a real, live human being who's married to a real woman. Based on every stereotype you can think of, he is the least likely person to become the president of the United States. And yet, doesn't it say something really wonderful about our country that he could be the nominee of the Democratic Party? Barack's mom was on food stamps for a while—single mom, had him when she was eighteen; dad left when he was two. Michelle's father was a blue-collar worker with a terrible disability who died at a relatively young age. And yet Barack and Michelle went to the best schools in the country! And instead of pursuing the corner office at a big law firm, they both devoted their lives to public service. Isn't that the American Dream? Where else but in America could this happen? Nowhere!" This is the one and only time I see her almost get worked up and raise her voice.

(more)

I read it in print, but it's also online at Style.com.

http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/2008_Oct_Valerie_Jarrett/

[blondeatlast]

1. k--lots of great stuff about the family here, too... nt

[denem]

2. "Barack doesn't sum up"

Agreed. Lots of great stuff!