Cult of personality.
(Politico) — Valerie Jarrett pulled back the curtain on life at the White House Tuesday evening, opening up to the audience at POLITICO’s Policy + Politics 2011 Conference and Awards event about a side of President Barack Obama that only a close adviser gets the chance to see.
“What he’s like behind the scenes is pretty much like what he is all the time,” Jarrett, the evening’s keynote speaker, told POLITICO’s Mike Allen. “He means what he says. That’s the magic.”
Before any big speech, including the one he delivered on Tuesday in Osawatomie, Kan., Jarrett said the president never fails to do his homework to make sure he is at peace with the words he delivers to the nation.
“Once he produces a speech that actually reflects what he believes, he’s very calm,” she said. “He doesn’t stress out about it. He just enjoys it.”