Who Is Valerie Jarret?

Noam Scheiber has a must-read profile of the woman he argues is the key to understanding the Obama presidency.

“Valerie Jarret is not above keeping a shit list—or as hers was titled, a ‘least constructive’ list… The woman who once resisted Emanuel’s commandment against rewarding bad behavior has often gone out of her way to suppress dissent among ideological allies and others who question the president.”

“As it happens, the way the White House runs these days does even less to check Obama’s inclinations. According to a former high-level aide, there is no longer a daily meeting between the president and his top advisers. Under the old system, if the president waved off one adviser’s objection to his preferred plan of action, another could step in to vouch for the objection’s merit. The advice Obama gets now, though, comes more regularly through one-off interactions with the likes of Jarrett and Denis McDonough, who don’t have anyone else to back them up.”