Valerie Jarrett Gains Influence with Barack Obama

Valerie Jarrett is a Barack Obama teammate whose name will become better known during the days ahead. Valerie Jarrett helped the Obama team rise to the top during the campaign, and now she is the co-chairwoman of Obama's transition to the presidency.

Who is Valerie Jarrett? She did her duty on Sunday morning. She appeared with Tom Brokaw on NBC's "Face the Nation" and she not only outlined her role in the upcoming White House, but she also spoke about Obama's agenda for change.

The Obama campaign toward the White House was long and difficult. The campaign started early in 2007 and endured through 20 months, with virtually no vacations. At one point, Valerie Jarrett remembers an attempt to provide a break. "We were telling stories and teasing him and trying to lighten the mood," Jarrett recalls. But then the chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, entered the room and made everyone become serious once more.

Americans may get to know Valerie Bowman Jarrett better, because she possibly will become a United States Senator. Legislators in Illinois must replace Barack Obama, the same as legislators in Delaware must replace Joe Biden.

Jarrett was born 52 yeears ago to an African-American family in Shiraz, Iran. This was when Iran was a friendly country to the United States. She grew up in Chicago. Her family was not strongly into politics but her great uncle is Vernon Jordan, the political activist and attorney who was a golfing buddy of Bill Clinton. Jordan was the chairman of Clinton's 1992 transition team.

During the 1980s, Jarrett worked for Harold Washington, who was the first (and still only) African-American mayor of Chicago. Jarrett then joined the administration of Mayor Richard J. Daley, so she has plenty of experience in the hard elbow-room of Chicago politics. Barack Obama may be perceived as a dreamy "yes we can" politician, but anyone who is based in Chicago politics knows that there is a hard side.

Valerie Jarrett, United States Senator? We shall see. Barack Obama promises he will not try to influence the decision.

SOURCE

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-na-obamacircle9-2008nov09,0,2581343.story