White House Calls Baloney On "The Obamas"

The White House has already pushed back against "The Obamas," a new book by journalist Jodi Kantor that hits stores on Jan. 10. Kantor last interviewed the Obamas for a magazine article in 2009, but says she spoke with more than 30 current and former aides for the book, which details contentious relationships between First Lady Obama and President Obama's Senior Advisors, as well as Mrs. Obama's influence over her husband's presidency. The book is an "overdramatization of old news," according to the White House.

Kantor frames the book as an analysis of Mrs. Obama's "transformation" from Campaign Trail Wife to First Lady, and suggests she used her influence to protect what she regarded as her husband's vision, which led to clashes with staff, and what sounds like a war between the East and West Wings. According to Kantor's book excerpt in The New York Times, Mrs. Obama had especially uncomfortable relationships with the President's first Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and with first Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, both now out of the White House.

The First Lady believed that "Mr. Obama’s advisers were too insular and not strategic enough," writes Kantor, and continues:

The first lady never confronted the advisers directly — that was not her way — but they found out about her displeasure from the president. “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides.

Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff, repeated the first lady’s criticisms to colleagues with indignation, according to three of them.

As tensions rose early in the Administration, Kantor reports that the First Lady's office became cut off from the rest of the White House, and aides began "referring to the East Wing as 'Guam' -- pleasant but powerless."

“The book, an overdramatization of old news, is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement on Friday.

"This is the author’s take, reflecting her own opinions...The emotions, thoughts and private moments described in the book, though often seemingly ascribed to the President and First Lady, reflect little more than the author’s own thoughts," said Schultz.

"These second-hand accounts are staples of every Administration in modern political history and often exaggerated.”

Emanuel is now Mayor of Chicago, and Mrs. Obama joined him last October for the first-ever Let's Move! Food Desert Summit.

The closing paragraphs of the Times excerpt describe Mrs. Obama's toast at the President's 50th birthday party at the White House in August of 2011. Kantor describes the toast as "a stemwinder:"

As the sun faded, the 150 guests — friends, celebrities, officials — sat on the South Lawn, listening to the first lady describe her version of Barack Obama: a tireless, upright leader who rose above Washington games, killed the world’s most wanted terrorist and still managed to coach his daughter Sasha’s basketball team. The president, looking embarrassed, tried to cut her off, several guests said, but she told him he had to sit and listen.

She also thanked him for putting up with how hard she had been on him. At that line, a few of the advisers glanced at each other in recognition.

Obama Foodorama's Marian Burros has more on "The Obamas," here next week...