Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas by Edward Klein Read Free Book Online Page A

at all times, as well as a mobile phone that she uses only when she calls the president or first lady. She was known around the White House as “the Night Stalker,” because she was frequently seen heading to the family quarters after dark. There she had dinner with the Obamas and their daughters—the only White House adviser accorded such a privilege.
    One cannot exaggerate the influence that Jarrett has over the Obama family. She was in on the decision to send Sasha and Malia to the Sidwell Friends School instead of to a public school. She helps pick out the girls’ clothes. During dinner she feels free to contradict the girls’ parents and say things like, “Another scoop of ice cream won’t hurt them.”
    “Often, she sits up with the president and his wife until late at night and goes over pressing business,” said a former White House aide who discussed with Jarrett her nightly sessions with the Obamas in the Residence. “Valerie and Michelle both take notes during those sessions. They are very much working meetings, not girly gossip. And Valerie didn’t miss the opportunity to set off some IEDs [improvised explosive devices] under the legs of her White House rivals.”
    “There is a tremendous amount of jockeying in the White House under Barack Obama, people hoping to push other people out of their positions, fighting over stupid stuff,” a former high-ranking member of the staff told me. “This fighting is not built around flattering the king and queen. It’s about arousing suspicion in their minds. . . . In all of this, Valerie Jarrett is both the arsonist and the firefighter. She has been able to spread her tentacles into every nook and cranny of the executive branch ofgovernment. She creates problems so she can say to the president and first lady, ‘I would do anything for you; I would put everything at risk to show how trustworthy I am.’”
    There was yet another aspect to the relationship between Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett. Since he felt so utterly dependent on her, he believed he couldn’t get along without her. Indeed, he readily admitted that he didn’t make a decision about anything—whether it was tax policy or whom he should see on an overseas trip—without first passing it by Jarrett for her approval.
    Such dependence often breeds feelings of helplessness and vulnerability on the part of the needy person, and you had to wonder if Obama’s relationship with Jarrett wasn’t more complicated and ambivalent than it appeared. In any case, Obama’s dependent behavior seemed out of character with his arrogant and haughty personality and led to the conclusion that, despite appearances, Obama was plagued, as were so many other politicians, by a lack of self-confidence.
    Because of this self-doubt, Obama was vulnerable and thin-skinned. He was easily wounded. He interpreted all criticism as public humiliation. And this, in turn, made him hesitant to engage in the vigorous give-and-take of politics, where he might be unmasked, laid bare before his enemies, and left feeling once again like a helpless child.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    MAKING THE CASE AGAINST BILL
    D uring their ten-day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, the Obamas occupied separate bedrooms.
    “They slept in their own bedrooms,” a member of the Blue Heron Farm household staff said in an interview for this book. “They both had stacks of books by their beds. The president was reading The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell and Rodin’s Debutante by Ward Just. I don’t know if they visited each other’s bedroom at night, but I didn’t see any signs of that.
    “The president ate in bed,” the domestic servant continued. “You had to change the sheets every day. He smoked cigarettes and didn’t try to hide it at all. And he snores. I heard him. He ate a lot of junk food, chips and stuff. He loved fudge and bought it from Murdick’s Fudge. It was a wonder that he stayed so thin.
    “The Obamas seemed like they were bickering a