WASHINGTON (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama is a behind-the-scenes force in the White House whose opinions on policy and politics drew her into conflict with presidential advisers and who bristled at some of the demands and constraints of life as the president's wife, according to a detailed account of the first couple's relationship.
New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book, ``The Obamas,'' Friday evening and The Times posted a 3,300-word adaption on its website that appeared to capture its most revealing accounts. The book is based on interviews with 30 current and former aides, though President Barack Obama and the first lady declined to be interviewed for the book.
The book portrays Mrs. Obama as having gone through an evolution from struggle to fulfillment in her role at the White House but all the while an ``unrecognized force'' in pursuing the president's goals.
She is seen publicly as the friendly and popular face of the softer side of the White House, the one reading to school kids or promoting exercise as a means to reduce child obesity.
According to Kantor, early in 2010 as the president's health care agenda seemed in danger of collapsing, Mrs. Obama let it be known she was annoyed by how the White House was handling the strategy. After media reports indicated Emanuel was unhappy pursuing the health care overhaul, Emanuel offered to resign, Kantor wrote. The president declined the offer.
By that spring, however, Kantor writes that Mrs. Obama ``made it clear that she thought her husband needed a new team, according to her aides.''
Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged remark by Michelle Obama to French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy that living in the White House was ``hell.''
Gibbs cursed the first lady, who was absent. Kantor writes that Gibbs later said his anger was misplaced and that he blamed Jarrett for creating the confrontation. Kantor writes that Jarrett appeared to have been too quick with her criticism of Gibbs and that two aides to the first lady later said Jarrett had misspoken.
The White House had a cold reaction to the book, calling it an ``over-dramatization of old news'' and emphasizing that the first couple did not speak to the author, who last interviewed them for a magazine piece in 2009.
``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,'' White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. ``These secondhand accounts are staples of every administration in modern political history and often exaggerated.''
The book, in an array of reconstructed anecdotes, depicts a first couple often wishing they could escape the confining White House life more freely; a president who at times gets deeply frustrated by how the press covers him; and a former chief of staff, Emanuel, who let loose with profane outbursts on staff members. All of those themes have been presented in some form in other publications.
One incident recalled that Jarrett used a phone aboard Air Force One to call a New York Times reporter. The reporter was pursuing a story about how Obama's West Wing was essentially a big boys' club, and Jarrett was calling to argue that the premise of a male-dominated operation was overblown. The book says even though Jarrett was the one making the call, it was Obama himself who was managing the response to the Times' story even before it came out by ``personally dictating talking points to the aides who would speak to the reporter.''
In another, the book describes how Obama, after winning a U.S. Senate seat and writing a best-selling book, ``The Audacity of Hope,'' sought self-protection and privacy as he came to terms with his new fame. Some staffers came up with a word to describe times when the senator couldn't connect with people: ``Barackward,'' a combination of ``Barack'' and ``awkward.''
But despite the White House pushback to the book, Kantor also includes many positive portrayals of both Obamas as committed parents and a down to earth power couple who have not lost their perspective.
Other revelations in the book:
_ Mrs. Obama initially chafed at life in the White House and for a short period before the inauguration had even mulled staying in Chicago in 2009 at least until the two Obama daughters completed their school session.
_ As the first African-American first lady, Mrs. Obama wanted to make sure that when it came to White House decor and entertainment she wanted to display sophistication, creating anxiety with Obama advisers who wanted to make sure the White House did not appear to have a tin ear to the nation's struggling economy.
_ Despite reticence in 2010 to campaign during the midterm elections, Mrs. Obama is now ``an increasingly canny political player eager to pour her popularity into her husband's re-election campaign.''
<미셸이 오바마 보좌관들과 갈등>
버락 오바마 미국 대통령의 백악관 생활을 다룬 새 책에 오바마 대통령의 부인 미셸 여사와 보좌관들 간의 갈등이 소개돼 관심 이 쏠리고 있다.
조디 캔터 뉴욕타임스 기자는 오는 10일(현지시간) 출간되는 책 '오바마 가(家)'에서 미셸 여사가 국정운영과 관련해 대통령 보좌관들과 대립각을 세운 일화들을 상세하게 소개했다.
캔터는 이 책을 집필하기 위해 오바마 대통령이 고용한 전·현직 정부 관계자들 과 오바마 부부의 친구 30여명을 인터뷰한 것으로 알려졌다.
그는 책에서 미셸 여사를 "노련한 동기부여자이자 매력적인 사람", "점점 더 영 리해지는 정치 플레이어"라고 표현했다.
캔터는 미셸 여사가 때때로 오바마 대통령으로 하여금 건강보험개혁이나 이민정 책개혁과 같은 어려운 정치적 사안들을 추진하도록 밀어붙였고, 그 과정에서 정부가 야당인 공화당과 타협하는 문제에 대해 남편의 보좌관들과 이견을 보였다고 밝혔다.
또 미셸 여사가 백악관의 람 이매뉴얼 전 비서실장과 로버트 기브스 전 대변인 이 지지한 정치전략들에 반대의견을 내며 대립했고, 그녀가 "너무 배타적이고 충분 히 전략적이지 못하다"고 생각하는 참모들을 교체하라고 대통령을 다그치기도 했다 고 전했다.
일례로 작년 초 미셸 여사는 오바마 대통령이 야심 차게 추진해 온 건강보험개 혁법과 관련해 정부가 공화당의 요구를 너무 많이 수용했다고 불만을 드러냈다.
캔터는 책에서 "대통령이 내놓은 제안은 교착상태에 빠지고, 영부인은 (야당과
타협하려는) 백악관을 탐탁지 않게 여기고, 참모들은 미셸 여사에게 짜증이 나있는 암울한 상황"이었다고 묘사했다.
그는 미셸 여사가 "오바마에 대한 자신의 비전과 현실 사이의 괴리" 때문에 괴 로워했으며 공화당과의 타협으로 남편의 이미지가 그저 평범한 정치인으로 전락하는 데 좌절했다고 덧붙였다.
백악관은 그러나 이 책을 "낡은 이야기들을 지나치게 과장한 것"이라고 폄하하 면서 캔터가 지난 2009년 이후 대통령 내외와 이야기를 나눠본 적조차 없다고 냉담 한 반응을 보였다.
에릭 슐츠 백악관 대변인은 "이 책에서 대통령 내외의 것처럼 묘사된 감정과 생각, 사적인 순간들은 작가 개인의 생각에 지나지 않는다"고 일축했다. (연합뉴스)
