In the path of lightning

[babylonsister]

In the path of lightning
Valerie Jarrett is known as the other side of Barack Obama's brain. Can this tough-minded adviser, who is guided by aphorisms and gut instinct, help him reach the White House?

By Don Terry
July 27, 2008

Obama and Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett (right) joins Barack Obama on his campgian bus last January in Iowa. (Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak / January 2, 2008)

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So when you want cold-eyed analysis and blunt advice on handling your beloved but inflammatory former pastor, for example, or who you should name to join you on the ticket, or dozens of other issues rushing at you all at once, who can you trust? Really trust?

Long before he began running for president, the answer for Obama was the same as it is today.

Valerie Jarrett.

"I trust her completely,'' he says simply.

Technically her title is "senior adviser.'' But Jarrett, the soft-spoken, steely willed, longtime Chicago powerbroker, has also been called the other side of Obama's brain. At the very least, he says, she is his eyes and ears in meetings that he cannot attend.

Yet even as her role in Obama's campaign has expanded over the past year, Jarrett has kept her day job as president and CEO of the Habitat Company, a major real-estate firm and court-appointed receiver of Chicago public housing, overseeing the beleaguered agency's long, painful struggle to desegregate by building new mixed-income developments. She travels with Obama or his wife, Michelle, as often as she can-usually on weekends or in times of crisis.

"I try to make all the major events,'' she says. But Obama, who officially becomes the Democratic presidential nominee in August, told me in a recent Saturday morning telephone interview that he and Jarrett "talk every day about a whole range of issues.''

"She participates in every conversation we have in the campaign,'' he said. "She is involved in broad strategic decisions about our message and how we approach the campaign, and she's involved in the details of managing the organization. She's really a great utility player.''

Every successful politician, monarch or business tycoon needs someone like Jarrett, a straight-talking, fiercely loyal, well-connected, discreet, disciplined, protective confidant/friend/sounding board/ surrogate sibling who has known the candidate since before he or she became the next big thing. Obama told me that having an adviser like Jarrett, someone who "knows your flaws but also knows your strengths'' and encourages you "to follow your gut'' when others advocate sticking to the script is crucial in the brutal, chaotic, 24/7 world of presidential politics.

"She's always very insistent on me trusting my instincts,'' Obama told me. "One of the dangers in running for high office is you get so much chatter in your ear that you stop listening to yourself.''

more...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-072708-jarrett,0,1640738.story

[gblady]

1. great, informative article...

I enjoy reading about those who help Barack...
thanks for sharing.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Very nice. The anti-Rove.