Friday, June 5, 2009

Michelle Obama's Stealth Move

This shake up is more than likely about not being in synch, than anything else. FLOTUS replaced her Chief of Staff Jackie Norris with Susan Sher, a long time close friend:

First lady Michelle Obama has replaced her chief of staff, Jackie Norris, with a longtime friend from Chicago, Susan Sher.

The announcement of the East Wing shakeup was made by press release this afternoon without giving any indication of what had prompted the change only a few months into the administration.

Norris, a former top aide to President Obama in Iowa during the campaign, leaves to become a senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service, according to a press release from the White House.

"I am grateful to President and Mrs. Obama for the opportunities and friendship they have given me over the last few years and I am looking forward to becoming an integral part of this Administration's efforts to advance the cause of national and community service," Norris said in a statement distributed by the White House press office.

She will be replaced by Sher, who is described in the release as a close confidant of the first lady who has been advising Michelle Obama on health care and other issues. In the same statement, Sher said that "Mrs. Obama and I have worked together for many years on issues that we both care deeply about and I appreciate the opportunity to be of greater service to her and this Administration."

In her own statement, Michelle Obama called Norris a "a colleague and friend since the earliest days" and praised her for building "a strong organization in the East Wing."

But she noted that Sher is "a trusted advisor, longtime mentor and friend dating back to my work at the City of Chicago and later the University of Chicago."

Notice the press release was released late yesterday and FLOTUS and the wee Michelles are in a plane to Paris, right now. Stealth move.

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