State of the Union -- A new book on the rocky marriage of Mr and Mrs Obama

David Remnick pings:

January 16, 2011

“In public, they smiled and waved,” Jodi Kantor writes, “but how were the Obamas really reacting to the White House?”

Keywords - “The Obamas” (Little, Brown); Jodi Kantor; (Pres.) Barack Obama; Michelle Obama; Marriages; First Ladies; First Couples

In “The West Wing,” employment at the White House was an invitation to a fizzy world of noble intent and screwball comedy. The spawn of William Powell and Myrna Loy aced their F.B.I. security clearances, did the world-altering work of civil seraphim, and strode endless hallways, cracking wise in pools of amber light. As it happens, to work at the White House is to wake each morning in darkness and in dread. It is not only the crises of global moment that shred the nerves. The constant tide of trivia cascading down the BlackBerry screen each morning, through Twitter and Politico, makes an aide’s first sip of coffee taste of acid reflux.

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