PrintMay 29, 2011
Michelle Obama's high staff turnover
Here's a shocker: Michelle Obama has trouble keeping staff. Despite the effort by Julie Mason and Amie Parnes to soft-peddle their Politico report regarding the high turnover rate on the FLOTUS's staff, the message comes through loud and clear.
The first lady is a lovely woman, but she's tough as nails and that can be hard for some people...She has really high expectations.
Apparently the source of this quote wanted to remain unidentified, that is to say, employed.
Titled "Spotlight takes its toll on First Lady's staff," the article goes on to suggest that Laura Bush had a similar level of turnover, when, in fact, the same article demonstrates that Mrs. Bush's turnover was about half that of M.O. After all, the "lovely" Michelle is on her 3rd chief of staff and 3rd social secretary and 2nd communications director in less than 3 years on the job. Did her staffers not realize there might be some spotlight involved in the gig when they signed up?
The lickspittle media is consistently exposed as being the Obamas' handmaidens, but the length to which this article goes is remarkable. It takes what should be investigative reporting and turns it into just another puff piece. Rather than investigating why it might be so difficult to remain employed by M.O., the reporters blame it on:
Yet another excuse used in the article to account for the FLOTUS's high staff turnover:
Pressure on the first lady can trickle down to the staff level, exacerbating internal tensions among aides, and occasional conflict with the West Wing, sources said. "For whatever reason" said one source familiar with the office, the first lady's staff just hasn't "gelled.""You don't take these sorts of jobs unless you love the principal (figure)" the source said. "And you can deal with a principal who has high expectations when you're gelling as a group, but that just wasn't happening."
So is it the gel that is missing or the love? However much the administration and its allies in the press want to spin it, the American people sense that Michelle has a mean or angry side. Just google "Michelle Obama angry" and a whole page of angry photos of this "lovely" woman pops up first.
Here's an idea the gals at Politico never considered: just maybe M.O. has a temperament poorly suited to managing a staff, suffers from the same lack of experience as her greenhorn husband, and just doesn't play well with others. The authors would rather fall back on the unsupported claim that M.O. Is a
...a lawyer who left a high-powered executive career at the University of Chicago Medical Center before coming to the White House.
In fact, Michelle's job as a community organizer at the hospital appears to be one created purely as an act of political patronage. Her starting salary of $121, 910 suddenly leaped to $316, 962 once her husband was elected as U.S. senator from Illinois. One of Barack's first acts in the Senate was to provide a million-plus dollar earmark to Michelle's employer. There is no evidence to support the idea that Mrs. Obama actually supervised any staff in this position, which was so vital to the hospital that it was eliminated once Michelle no longer needed the income.
We can only hope that some glorious day soon we will get a true inside report of the chaos, anger and cacophony that likely reign within the FLOTUS's staff quarters.
Ralph Alter is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. He blogs at www.rightot.blogspot.com
