Missing History & Opportunity in the Obama East Wing

What a heady and tumultuous eight months that whirled by with the first biracial president and African American first lady. My focus is the East Wing of the equation. For the Obamas, two cute and curious kids, an internationally famous puppy and so many inspirational firsts or twists on the past such as the incredible Michelle Obama Kitchen Garden that are now part of the American presidential fabric. But not the electronic strand that marks a spot for the current generation or future ones. It also takes time to coalesce all the moving parts of a White House experience in the first year especially with appointed staff learning the history of the People's House, its contents and all who lived there since the muddy time of John & Abigail Adams. The White House is an eighteen acre bubble shared by an energetic family, military trained attack dogs, eagle eyed snipers, priceless antiques, a rambunctious puppy, incredible works of arts, thousands of daily visitors, vintage trees, a one hundred member staff dedicated to the Residence and now, the newest first lady's bees. That's just the stuff you see if on the premises. It is for those who are not on the premises that my post encompasses.

After leaving the Vatican, the First Family heads to Air Force One to go to Ghana.

The only way to understand the White House is to read voraciously or look at the pictures or if one must, suffer through the soundbites the traditional media thinks are important. What endures is the White House legacy. To that end if one is reading this post online, one should also be able to go to the White House website and find the riches and beauty of the house. It takes a while before new first ladies find their sea legs. Only two first ladies had a relative to call upon to get a multitude of details on the operations of a White House, Louisa Adams had her mother-in-law Abigail Adams as Laura Bush had Barbara Bush.

The West Wing side of the Obama Administration shows savvy at the White House website with a blog, policy briefs, and a YouTube channel. Nothing like it exists readily for the Obama East Wing. Yes, there are a couple of photo albums for the first lady, Michelle Obama, but no blog, no fulsome history of each of the State Rooms, the extensive White House American Art collections, no White House Residence senior staff profiles, no details of events hosted by the first lady that resonate - the music series, the output of the $200 investment of the Kitchen Garden or the choices of China, silverware or floral arrangements used at events. Those things must wait for chronicling by a haphazard news media that misses points for posterity. These details are important and will be part of the record of Michelle Obama's tenure as first lady, especially as the first African American. (Photo courtesy the White House of Michelle Obama meeting the retired Chief Florist Nancy Clarke's new granddaughter at a staff party in the mansion.)

Content on the White House website is important and even the West Wing is struggling to capture everything and get pieces filled in. The East Wing should join alongside the West in providing rich, detailed content about state or official events at the People's House. A great piece has been the live streaming of events on the White House website by both the president and the first lady. Time marches rapidly and before we know it, a year will float by before attention turns to making information available on the website.

The Lincoln Sitting Room off the Lincoln Bedroom on the second floor of the Residence. Cataloging once again the art works for the public is critical.

Certainly Laura Bush had some gaps, but one thing about her being n ex-librarian is that it was extremely thorough on her side of the White House web ledger. It was beyond outstanding and a model that future first ladies should follow with attention to detail to pieces of furniture, pre-scheduled Ask the Staff live chats, individual first ladies portraits and biographies, 3 D tours of renovated spaces - including the Cabinet Room and the Situation Room. Interesting and shocking that President Obama can be comfortably ensconced in the Oval Office decor of President Bush but not the technology savvy displayed on his website. A news sighting of the changing of the White House fountains to Celtic Green for Saint Patrick's Day was duly noted by the press, but its not captured as part of the new thinking the first lady is bringing to White House traditions. I'm waiting, but patiently not so much, as too much history is going by too fast.

Michelle Obama oft repeats that she wants to bring the White House to people who have never seen it and offering up a robust web presence would do that for millions in this nation and millions if not billions more outside of it. Nothing has captured the imagination of global interest like her garden and the implications for nutritional value of home grown local food. Prince Charles waxed ecstatic about the Kitchen Garden and members of Congress along with other guests plus the family eat the fruits of the labor of the kids at Bancroft Elementary, Mrs. Obama, the White House chefs and the landscape crew. It would be great to talk about the garden in terms of healthy eating right at the site - rather than through the occasional news article prompted by a photo op.

Every White House Pet is special. There was a Barney Cam - yeah, he bit a reporter for which first lady Laura Bush wrote a handwritten apology, Socks was a superstar cat and Bo is threatening to need his own reporter assigned to him because he garners so much attention. It was a wonderfully weird presidential picture as the Obamas went on vacation to see a baby car seat (for Maya's infant daughter) and Bo leave a helicopter in the same image. The East Wing smartly came up with a Bo piece that went into bags for the troops. It was pretty cute to watch Malia intently read the doggy bio information before she placed it in the backpack she was supposed to be filling at a service event.

Malia is reading every detail.

All great things in good time, I suppose. Please, Obama East Wing staff - please pay attention to the mound of details about the White House, its environs and the furniture of history that many in the public are acutely interested in for the first time. It is an opportunity so many want and few have have to make such a lasting impact on learning about the White House and its internationally famous first family. The archives of what Laura Bush did is an excellent example from where to start and innovate. We need more information, history lessons and access on the White House website - Please, Please, PLEASE with a vermeil candelabra on top. (Michelle Obama in her East Wing office with her new Chief of Staff, Susan Sher.)

Michelle's First White House Christmas Tree

Lynda Bird Johnson Robb celebrating Christmas in the Blue Room with the presidential grandchildren in 1968. Photos courtesy the White House

Plans proceed apace as the Sundbacks of Sheperdstown, West Virginia won the White House Christmas Tree Sweepstakes or better yet, are now known officially as the Grand Champions of the National Christmas Tree Contest. Since 1956, the couple, Eric & Gloria Sundback, now in their eighties, have discouraged deer and fought hard against Mother Nature's more harmful weather whimsies to keep the trees growing strong while some are tall. Their tenacity won spots to have their trees ferried to the White House several times over the decades. Horticulture and forestry experts, they started because they could never find a tree that suited them, so hence their own orchard. Rosalynn Carter & Nancy Reagan also decorated trees from the Sundback farm. Michelle Obama's first Christmas in the White House will see her taking receipt of a Fraser Fir tree from a lifetime of hard work finding better needle retention and increasing branch strength on a horse drawn sleigh. This is the third year in a row the Fraser Fir has beat out the Pines, Spruces and Nobles.

Hillary Clinton had a spectacular tree skirt from 1993 as part of her A Visit from St. Nicholas theme.  The ornaments were from architecture students that was pretty spectacular under this 1995 Fraser Fir. For comparison below, the 1993 Tree which was Hillary's first at the White House.

There are exactly 118 days until Christmas, but the Obama White House must have the up to nineteen foot tree (and no higher) selected from Eric & Gloria Sundback Trees delivered a few days after the presidential turkey pardon on the picturesque sleigh. The tree will have a special topper that cannot brush the ceiling directly below the gilt ceiling medallion to make the holiday tableau wonderful for what will be one of the most highly photographed and trafficked areas for the Obamas first Holiday Season. The velvet ropes around the tree keep people form handling the sometimes delicate or antique ornaments. Pat Nixon sent waves a shock through the choice of an atomic symbol rather than the sedate star normally used. As discussed on White House Christmas in July post on the volunteer elves need three days to trim out the place with decor that follows the theme which remains a closely guarded secret for the Obama White House. Sasha, Malia and Bo will have some definite ideas about what goes on the tree and under the tree. A gingerbread house is in order for this year and perhaps Michelle will ask Roland Mesnier to consider making one and decorating it as he has in the past for Laura Bush.

President Kennedy & Jacqueline Kennedy displayed this official tree as part of the Nutcracker Theme of 1961 inaugurating the idea of a theme. Barbara Bush repeated the Nutcracker Suite theme in 1990. Hillary Clinton took another swing at the popular Nutcracker theme in 1996.

In 2002, Laura Bush had an almost nineteen foot Noble Fir delivered from Hedlund Christmas Trees from the northwest in Elma,Washington. They too were experienced with the rituals of White House Trees having made the trip a few years before after winning the honor to give first lady Hillary Clinton the tree. You have to win the contest from the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) first. Next, the tree selected for either the White House or The Vice President's place at One Observatory Circle is a direct result of a full scale competition complete with airline reservations, refrigerated trucks and professional tree handlers. My best analogy is its like the Westminster Dog show for elite, carefully bred living trees with 5 categories and a gnarled tree twist. One American farm gets to enter their top two trees and if selected the winner by a panel of outside judges, that farm is retired from competition for the next three years.

This is the 2007 delivery of a Fraser Fir with Laura Bush as she kicked off the Holiday in the National Parks theme that required an ornament to commemorate each of the 391 National Park Service sites.

The trees take almost a decade to get to the required height, but that may be more accidental than planned. Since 1966 the NCTA has presented the tree. The first lady's team in the East Wing strive to come up with a theme that the Residence staff of exemplary pastry chefs, carpenters and electricians work to implement. In 2008, the Obamas spent Christmas in the Aloha State before changing climates to arrive in an icy DC in time for the girls to start a new term at a new school in their new home city. This is Michelle Obama's maiden Holiday season and it will be interesting to see how many fresh and exciting new ideas she can come up with to celebrate a cherished part of the Season! We shall be eating a few sugar plums with joyous anticipation as snugly in bed as the laptop allows and watching ... closely just like Santa Claus does for the Obamas. It will be so different from 2008 getting the tree.

Malia & Dad go searching for their last tree in Chicago as a family before entering the White House. A new level of entertaining ahead as the White House has not had presidential children to celebrate the Holidays in decades.

Update:  Here is another link explaining a bit more about the White House Holiday planning process that picked up steam in July.

Painted Ladies of the White House

There were a number of firsts with the painting of Hillary Clinton's portrait. The first African American portrait artist Simmie Knox did a tandem of her and President's Clinton's official oil portraits. She is wearing a pantsuit with her hand touching her best selling book with an example of historic White House China on the table. The painting hangs on the Ground floor in the Hall. Portraits courtesy of the White House Collection.

All over the White House the painted eyes of presidents and first ladies watch the new occupants as they settle into the presidential manor. President Nixon used to speak with the portraits and keep himself in the wilting humidity of a Washington summer closeted in
the Lincoln Sitting Room with the fireplace crackling. Nancy Reagan was very particular about the portraits and where certain first ladies would grace the walls. Her portrait is a stunning red visage that matches perfectly the red carpets on the Ground Floor and Cross Hall - it was not an accident. Part of the tradition in modern times is to select a portrait artist and the result is part of a White House Ceremony unveiling the art. Usually, the second term in office is when the president and first lady start thinking about their formal portraits and start to select or audition painters of the first brush. The styles change over the years, with portraits of the first First Couples being part of living in the early days of the republic. (President Obama & Nancy Reagan on Ground Floor in the hallway pass her portrait on the way into Diplomatic Reception Room as he signs The Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission honoring his memory.)

Teacher for the Deaf & crochet expert Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge 1923 - 1929 as First Lady Teetotaler Lucy Ware Webb Hayes 1877 - 1881 as First Lady Daughter-in-law Angelica Singleton Van Buren acted as hostess/First Lady 1839-1841 as Hannah Van Buren had passed away. Permanently displayed in the Red Room. Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1825-1829) is the daughter-in-law of Abigail Adams is the first lady who advocated for females and their rights.

Wearing French empire and showing shapely cleavage, the Dolley Payne Todd Madison portrait (1804) in oil by her friend Gilbert Stuart is so well known it graces alongside presidential portraits. She was the official hostess for Thomas Jefferson when the portrait appeared and later she became first lady With 44 presidents and 46 first ladies in total, (some presidents were widowers and remarried or bachelors or married for the first time while in office), the wall space in the 55,000 square foot Executive Mansion has prime space and lesser space. The current president and first lady select who goes where. One prime piece of real estate is just beneath and around the Grand Staircase just off the foyer or anything on the state floor and mostly, it is the presidents in the corridors with special first ladies or hostesses of presidents inside the colored salons off the Cross Hall.

Tourists see the Vermeil Room on the ground floor where its incandescent light makes Jackie Kennedy's acclaimed portrait seems as if its always hung there in its rightful prominent place. Martha Dandridge Custis Washington has the most prominent space along the same wall and same height of her husbands Gilbert Stuart painting of her husband George in the White House's largest formal space, the East Room.

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe's (tenure 1817 -1825 though her daughter Eliza stepped in most of the time as hostess) oil portrait by John Vanderlyn retains a prominent place near the South Portico just before the entrance to the Green Room. Her ermine shawl is perfect for the French Empire design of the Blue Room she and her husband worked so hard to furnish.

The artists themselves are varied with some interesting stoeirs. Anders Zorn painted the youngest first Lady ever, Frances Folsom Cleveland. Howard Chandler Christy painted Grace Coolige with her collie, Rob Roy, beside her and the South Portico of the White House over her shoulder. Boldly sporting a nineteenth century pompadour, Henry Inman painted Angelica Van Buren who was related to Dolley Madison by marriage. Inmans work populates the vast White House Art Collection with many paintings of The First People. Modern twists occurred with Eleanor Roosevelt (1933 - 1945) the hands never still and Mamie Eisenhower (1953-1961) in her inaugural ball gown. Florence King Harding has a memorable coif immortalized in oils by Philip Alexius deLaslode lombos in 1921.

The chair pose is almost as popular as the ones with the White House as a backdrop.

Completed in 1967, Elizabeth (Bess) Wallace Truman seems to be the modern start for the seated pose. Above, wearing the famed triple strand is Barbara Pierce Bush (1989 - 1993) from 1992 painted in oils by Herbert E. Abrams. Elizabeth (Betty) Bloomer Ford painted by Felix De Cossio. It took awhile post presidency for the portrait of Rosalynn Smith Carter (1977-1981). In 1984, the softly hued oil portrait was completed by George Agusta. Rosalynn Carter has nothing on Martha Washington (1788-1796) whose official portrait came from Eliphalet F. Andrews who used a live model and dress from the nineteenth century when she was definitely a person of the eighteenth. The portrait was finally done a hundred years after the founding of America in 1878.

A new twist with oval portraits and using two Ediths. Edith Carrow Roosevelt (1901 - 1909) used a different frame, the south White House gardens while sitting on a bench. Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1913 -1821) was the second first lady of the Wilson Administration who approved who and what the president saw during his illness and recovery.

First lady oil paintings are fascinating with the variety of styles and choices for what they want to project for the American People in the centuries to come. These portraits are waves from the past that reflect on style, culture, and the individual - the American way!

These three are My favorites

Helen (Nellie) Herron Taft (1909 - 1913) had the idea of the South Portico First in 1910 painted by Karl Bror Albert Kronstrand

(Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1961 -1963) Photo courtesy of Robin at Big Red Kitchen) Aaron Shikler completed Jackie's in 1970 and indeed, did the famous oil painting of President Kennedy that has pride of place just outside the State Dining Room. Seventeen years later he created new magic with Nancy Davis Reagan's (1981 - 1989) oil portrait

Which are your favorites?

Note: An official photograph is also issued with the advent of technology. Mrs. Obama in oil ought to be as spectacular as the full official photo.

Washing, Waxing & Cleaning the President's House

Mary Kaltman works with chef on 1965 Christmas Cookies in White House Kitchen. Photo courtesy White House Historical Association.

Lady Bird Johnson had Mary Kaltman as food-coordinator-housekeeper and for a while she did the same for the Nixons in the White House. She wrote a book Keeping Up With Keeping House: A Practical Guide for the Harried Housewife for those female denizens against dust (known in the day as homemakers) who wanted the information on how to perform the domestic arts in grand style. In school, the subject used to be called Home Ec (for Home Economics), which made cooking and cleaning a subject for mostly girls. In prior years, Mrs. Mary E. Sharpe took upon herself as the housekeeper to make President Truman's waistline trim.

But Mrs. Kaltman was tough enough to send the domestic side of the Johnson white House into domestic hostility, sometimes famous in the East Wing. Seems she and the oo-la-la famed French chef, Verdon René, hired in April 1961 for his epicurean skills, ran into the budget minded housekeeper/Queen of Food at the White House who insisted on frozen foods, recipes from a common book and a president that wanted his fish slathered in sauce with the skin still on. Mon Dieu. They had a similar arrangement to what the Obama Family has now - on the second floor Sam Kass is in charge of the personal meals and he came with them from Chicago while the Executive Chef handles state functions. A hundred years earlier another battle ended as Mary Todd Lincoln had the housekeeping staff report directly to her. Now, that subject is split into two functions at the Executive Mansion, with cleaning it and cooking for it being two different, yet equal professional career paths. (Sasha clearly knows the ropes and speaks to one of the long tenured White House butlers about exactly what she wants while the First Granny looks on.)

Using the latest tools in 1955, the spic and span brigades wore ties while sanding, cleaning and waxing in the East Room during the Eisenhower era. Photo courtesy the White House Historical Association from a series on the Working White House and the national Archives and Records Administration.

The Cross Hall and Grand Foyer getting a thorough polishing in the Obama White House.

Wiping down, waxing a nations antiques, polishing heirloom silver and vacuuming the nap only one way on priceless rugs every day in the White House is akin to auto detailing a pristine parade of 100 Rolls Royces every 24 hours. Mrs. Kaltman believed in good old fashioned elbow grease and did not cotton to fancy tools or words. Her successor Shirley Bailey was of the same mind and used paste wax, one male person polished the brass fixtures and cleaned the little chandelier danglies day in and day out. She had her folks hand ironing all the linen napkins for events after they came out of the industrial strength washers and dryers. (From the Reagan era vacuuming the Blue Room)

There is a wonderful movie, Back stairs at the White House made on the life of an early twentieth century maid. Many of those at the White House worked for the first family while also working with an aunt, uncle, mother, father and brother. No matter the messes made, memoirs and anecdotes focus on the history and the occasions rather than any grist for the mill. Many serve for decades. An amusing anecdote shared by first lady Hillary Clinton came at the hands of an exuberant tween, Chelsea who had entertained friends with a movie. The popcorn did not exactly land in mouths and Hillary was horrified. The White House staff was in shock as Hillary had Chelsea clean up every kernel and they were not allowed to help. Kind of like Sasha & Malia have no bed service in the mornings - bed made with their own hands before leaving for school and they must help carry in the dishes in the morning for their breakfast.

From 1877, the staff/servants during Lucy Hayes' time as first lady. Almost sixty years later the staff was integrated by Eleanor Roosevelt. She felt the need to make White House domestic staff help African Americans only which kept wages lower and reduced any rancor. Photo courtesy Hayes Administration and Bob Cesca.

The Smithsonian has an exhibit, The Working White House, traveling the nation for the next two years about the Working White House and the staff that makes the Executive Residence run amidst thousands of daily events, an active family, and it being the home of the American head of state with an ambitious entertaining schedule. Christine Limerick, the Chief housekeeper during the Clinton years makes appearances to discuss what happens off camera and what the staff does in their daily and special circumstances. There are butlers, ushers, a presidential valet and a small staff of housekeepers who are mindful of the products they use on the nation's antiques. Laura Bush toted up almost 1500 formal events in eight years. That's a heap of cleaning done with dedication and attention to every fine detail. (Shirley Bailey on the second floor residence in the Nixon White house early 1970's.)

Shirley Bailey in 1970 learned her craft working for hoteliers before setting her keen eye about the executive mansion. The job always has perils such as the hate between the president and the person in charge of the food in the 1930s & !940s. Henrietta Nesbitt as the stern housekeeper overseeing cooking for FDR & Eleanor Roosevelt courted fame for the lousiness of the food served during her tenure. In 1926, single lady Miss Ellen Reilly was hired as the head of housekeeping for the White House and even traveled with President Calvin Coolidge being hired from managing a cafeteria at a retailing outfit in Boston. Blair House, the presidential guest house, has the same attention to excellence and the opportunities to transfer over to the White House when an opening becomes available allows them to serve the president directly.

Its not only the floors, walls, and dishes that get a good scrubbing in the White House. Liberty could usually be found in the Oval Office, but here is Susan Ford with Frankie Blair providing a vigorous doggy bath.

First Ladies Doing Vacations Their Way

Mamie Eisenhower had no shame in her game going on vacation in the dead of winter. Back in the 1950's longer plane rides made for longer presidential vacations. For 10 days in February 1958, Mamie Eisenhower hung out in Georgia with her husband. On the 23rd of February, the president went on his private plane - Columbine III with the usual assortment of staff and announced the next stop was Phoenix, Arizona where he would lunch with friends at Elizabeth Arden's Maine Chance Farm. The first lady was staying on to soak up the sun in Arizona, and he would be doing a power lunch with pals and turning right around to go back to DC. Even back then, lots of screaming between the press secretary and the press about who was paying for that,.. I was more interested that the works at the Arden beauty farm was $400 a week. Sheesh! In a top flight spa you can do that before you put on the robe. (Mamie sampling her birthday cake - she really was a popular first lady. Photo courtesy AM New York)

Now Jackie Kennedy picked exotic places, but this has to be a 1960's thing that had no etiquette precedent in the First Lady Rule Book. What do you wear to ride a camel with your sister in Pakistan? Date line: Karachi, March 25, 1962 the answer is Kitten heels, pearls, hair immaculate that dares the wind, and a designer dress as you sit sidesaddle above a bunch of men leading your walking, humped spit creator. Jackie's vacation trip was at the suggestion of the Ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith.

This is a first lady who loved horses. Sardar was very dear to Jackie Kennedy and she even chats about the talented horse in her memoirs. He had a nickname that was partial to her father and gambling. The horse had the unofficial moniker Black Jack given to the gelding by the first lady. There are some famous photos of her and the horse. That horse was beloved and went with Mrs. Kennedy after she found a Virginia farm for her family. (Photo courtesy JFK Library)

Pat Nixon did her vacationing on a 125 acre island in da Bahamas mon while in the White House and afterwards. Florida was another favorite as the Nixons also hung out with very wealthy friends. Lots of presidential and first lady time was clocked in what became known as the Winter White House on Key Bisayne in Florida and the Western White House in San Clemente, California for the Nixons. Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter have a very active lifestyle post presidency. They build houses for charity, travel the world and its hot spots and while in Plains, Georgia, ride their bikes. (President & Mrs. Carter Photo courtesy of the The Carter Center & Charles Plant)

The First Family & extended family of President Obama's sister & niece got a great look at the Grand Canyon at both Powell's Point & Hopi Point.

Michelle Obama is wearing shorts in the blistering heat of the Grand Canyon. No one knows what the attire was for the whitewater rafting in the midst of pouring rain and hail while the president went flyfishing in Montana. A trip to Old Faithful was casual as they hiked to see one of America's treasured geysers. The Obamas shared thier treats of picking a basket of peaches in Palisades area of Colorado as well. All in all vacations are fun and its historically rare seeing first ladies fully being themselves while on vacation. Hillary Clinton was photographed twice in a bathing suit to her horror, but the 21st century is rewriting a first family's leisure time.

Poor Bo, left home again...

Social Secretary: The Iron Butterfly

Weddings between centuries old protocol and the technicolor of modern life can embrace or clash in the White House. Work of or through the Office of the Social Secretary keeps evolving as presidential terms today require public and private events coordination with efficiency and effectiveness on everything from a private coffee clutch for the first lady to events with tens of thousands of excited citizens or the president meeting a head of state or his cabinet. Its a tough job and no two people bring the same skills or approach. In the future, certain White House gender roles have yet to reach cosmopolitan cross-pollination, but the future holds promise for the first female Chief Usher, male Social Secretary (A Deputy is male) or a couple with the first female President and First Gentleman. Sterling events shape the tenor of White House. (Floating toy sharks going into the South Lawn Fountain for the June 2009 Congressional picnic that was an Obama Ohana Luau. Photo courtesy AP)

Desiree Rogers day of the Congressional picnic as she checks last minute details on her blackberry.

Amiability and ability to get along and communicate with multiple departments and constituencies for each and every White House moment with scheduling changes at the last moment make it seem like juggling revving chainsaws, grisly if you miss, and any near misses or straight out flops are seen by everyone. Who can forget Queen Elizabeth being greeted at the White House for a state visit in the early 1990's with her voice heard from the podium, but only her magnificent hat could be seen as there were no steps for the rather tiny Queen of the British Empire to stand upon. The Social Secretary is responsible for ensuring that those sorts of details are clear. Gerald & Betty Ford had their own fun social gaffe when the president asked the Queen to dance and the Marine Corps band went straight into their repertoire of music from Rodgers & Hart, The Lady is a Tramp. Catchy.

White House Social Secretary is a central component of a fully pledged East Wing Operation. Most of the Social Secretary's of the past came with experience at cotillions, collegiate network and a Rolodex in Washington that made things sparkle behind the scenes. Some were absolute nightmares because of their ties to the first lady while others could soothe troubled waters with smooth as silk words. No Social Secretary will be successful in a modern White House without paying homage to the person who is responsible for every direct White House hire, event and procurement, the Chief Usher. During the Camelot era, Letitia Baldridge brought a state department background a social pedigree to the Kennedys as she served both as Social Secretary & the first lady's chief of staff. Ann Stock was the Clinton social secretary from 1994 until 1997. The position also opens doors to other opportunities as Capricia Marshall was the Clinton Administration's Social Secretary with a current nomination to be President Obama's Chief of Protocol that the White House Social Secretary office must work and with daily.(Letitia Baldrige 1961 - 1963 upper left, Capricia Marshall 1997-2001 courtesy of The Washington Post)

Laura Bush's Social Secretary, Lea Berman, ran a tight shop that sat few state dinners but smaller versions of them, but she did one large mega event for the Queen of England in 2007. Lea succeeded Cathy Fenton after the 2004 election, hired straight from being Lynne Cheney's Chief of staff. She cleaned house, exiting the Executive Chef like it was a TV reality series and with the urgent need to find a pastry chef that could live up to Roland Mesnier one of a kind pastry & gingerbread house standards. At that time, the East Wing had everyone in an intense state of roiling stomach acid there was so much turbulence and turf protection. (Lea Berman, Social Secretary for Laura Bush 2005 - 2007 walks along the East Colonnade towards the residence Photo courtesy the Washington Post)

The blowback in the current administrations Social Office has been minimal so far. Desirée Rogers has handled many thing really well by virtue of her executive experience, education and foremost her relationship with the first lady. Innovation in White House entertainment is part of the Obama Charm with the Easter Egg Roll, picnic and the Governor's Ball. Desirée has had a jaw-dropping gaping hole in her judgment by even considering having herself photographed in Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden wearing an Oscar de la Renta ball gown and needed a veto from the West Wing before the idea was fully dropped. As previously fretted about, Desirée Rogers penchant for publicity is a two-edged sword as the role is not at all about her - yet her self-stylized branding is about her being a cultural liaison (do the Obamas need a translator) before she has even put on a full state visit. The ramifications of even thinking of a state dinner in this economic climate would be as loopy as even dreaming of having your picture taken wearing a high-end designer trench coat by Viktor & Rolf and Cartier earrings in the East Room and your not even the first lady.

The recent contretemps in the East Wing With the 4 month on the Job Chief of Staff, Jackie Norris, leaving for a lower profile job with a volunteer organization has some genesis in the friction between her & Rogers. Susan Sher, Norris's replacement, is a great friend of Rogers and senior West Wing official Valerie Jarrett and a former boss of the first lady. A noticeable detail is how much the Social Secretary is photographed with the first lady or the family at events. The Secret Service are probably the best at being omnipresent and positioning themselves out of the frame of certain shots.(Photos courtesy Wall Street Journal)

One of the toughest jobs for a Social Secretary had to be during the Carter presidency. Gretchen Householder Poston was the WH Social Secretary at an an intense time that saw a reduction in lavish entertainment by Mrs. Carter during a recession and a scaling back due to the Iran Hostage crisis. There was also an intense negotiation to get the Camp David Accords and the resulting event at the White House is now world history.

Each one has had challenges, intrigues and time will tell how this works out for the Obama presidency. Most do not stay the full tenure of a president & first lady as the job is a tough, time consuming one that encompasses the needs of the West Wing with the changing demands of the East Wing. Hats off to all who have had the opportunity to serve in this capacity!

Happy Birthday Mom! From both of us, NanaRh.