Girl Talk or TMI?
“Carla Bruni informed the first lady that the press of state business prevented her husband from making love to her as much as she would like, though in her telling they once kept another foreign leader waiting while they finished having sex. Bruni wanted to know if, like the Sarkozys, Michelle and the president had ever kept anyone waiting that way. Michelle laughed nervously and said no.” (p. 240)
Rahm Being Rahm
“Some subordinates (mostly male) found him bracing, funny, and refreshingly free of the usual passive-aggressive manipulation they had experienced in previous jobs. When he called them (men and women) ‘princess,’ they loved it. Others were repelled. […] Reports that he’d mellowed over time were untrue. When an aide came into his office and stammered nervously on a difficult topic, Rahm barked at him, ‘Take your fucking tampon out and tell me what you have to say.’” (p. 161)
Jumping the Gun
“Back in May [2008], when it was clear to Obama that Hillary Clinton couldn’t catch up, Obama asked [director of his Senate staff Chris Lu] to launch early transition planning. But he warned him to tell no one, not even his wife. Clinton hadn’t conceded yet, and if word leaked, she would no doubt bludgeon Obama with the news (even though Clinton had started her own transition planning much earlier).” (p. 15)
Fair and Balanced
“When Rupert Murdoch passed the word inside News Corp. that he was planning to endorse Obama, Roger Ailes threatened to quit. Murdoch, knowing that Ailes was a cash cow for his company, gave Ailes a five-year contract, endorsed McCain early, and let Ailes move News Corp. even further right.” (p. 275)
Bill Clinton, “Hack-in-Chief”
After a series of gaffes from Bill Clinton on his wife’s campaign, “word got back to the Obama and Clinton camps in February that Rahm Emanuel had phoned the former president and told him to ‘stop acting like the fucking hack-in-chief.’ Rahm was the only one other than Hillary who dared talk to Bill Clinton that way, which was one reason Bill liked him so much.” (p. 71)
Team of Rivals
“At first Hillary Clinton was often too deferential to Obama in meetings, just shy of obsequious. One assistant secretary of State described it as like a teenager trying too hard on a date. When she laid it on thick, the president, a bit embarrassed, would say little, which in turn made him seem a tad aloof. It was apparently better in private. Over time they recognized they had compatible senses of humor and made each other laugh with small observations about the people they met. Their staffs were terrified of detailing the relationship, but there wasn’t much to say anyway. It was surprisingly unfraught.” (p. 232)
Health Care
The president was opposed by the majority of his staff on his decision to push for health-care reform, and Vice President Biden told Obama that in spite of his campaign promises “They’ll give you a pass on this one.” The president was focused on getting the bill passed, though, and at one point quoted the Apollo 13 crew in a staff meeting, saying “Failure is not an option.” Even so, he acknowledged the need for a bipartisan approach and not, as he felt Hillary Clinton had done in 1994, dropping a plan on the Capitol like ‘a stone tablet.'” (pp. 244-249, 266)
Olympics Failure
After a brief, failed campaign to secure Chicago as the home of the 2016 Olympics, “back at the White House Obama shrugged and noted Michelle’s heavy investment of time and effort: ‘Look guys, if I didn’t go, my wife would have killed me.’” (p.289)
“The Fish Jell-O!”
“Obama liked Seinfeld moments. On a trip with GOP Senator Richard Lugar in 2005 to the former Soviet Union, the Americans were served an array of inedibles, including a fish encased in gelatin. Ever after, any unappetizing dish on a foreign trip might prompt the president to whisper in mock horror, ‘The fish Jell-O! The fish Jell-O!’” (p. 300)
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