Exchange of the Day

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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January 09, 2012

Exchange of the Day

An uncomfortable White House scene from the new book, The Obamas by Jodi Kantor, on how First Lady Michelle Obama was apparently dissatisfied with how the White House press office was handling reports of comments made to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy that life in the White House was hell:

Robert Gibbs to Valerie Jarrett: "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

Jarrett: "The first lady would not believe you're speaking this way.

Gibbs: "Then fuck her, too!"

David Remnick: "Kantor nails her story -- she had six sources in the room -- and casts it all in the stock lexicon of D.C. confrontations: Gibbs 'shook with rage' and soon 'stormed out.' The rest of the group 'sat stunned.' The conflict, the profanity, the yelling: it's the sort of vivid, if ultimately meaningless, detail that provides books like Renegade, Game Change, and, now, The Obamas with their lurid and irresistible zing. Such books regard more earnest matters like history, context, and ideas the way a child looks at a plate of Brussels sprouts. They aim to serve up big bowls of ice cream. And, no matter what Michelle Obama counsels, we political gluttons will lick the spoon clean."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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January 09, 2012