As President Obama moves to revamp his senior White House staff in the weeks leading up to Inauguration Day, he may want to consider adding something distinctly lacking from the highest echelons of the West Wing: Diversity.
Incredibly, nearly all the most senior advisors to the nation’s first black president – whose appeal to minorities and women won him reelection – are white males. Democrats made much during the campaign of an alleged GOP “war on women.” But Obama’s own battalions include relatively few of the distaff variety.
Of what are arguably the ten top most important White House advisers, only one – Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett – is a woman. Jarrett is also African American.
But the other nine are each white men: Vice President Joe Biden; Senior Advisor David Plouffe; Chief of Staff Jack Lew; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Counselor to the President Pete Rouse; National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling; Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer; Acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients; and Press Secretary Jay Carney.
Photo by Keith Koffler
White House officials are particularly powerful because, unlike members of the Cabinet, they have constant, direct access to the president.
Even if one expands the list to a broader basket of powerful players, including a few outside the White House, Obama isn’t doing very well on the diversity scale.
Only one of a group that now includes 24 advisers, Domestic Policy Director Cecelia Munoz, is Hispanic. Just seven – Munoz, Jarrett, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the White House Counsel and two deputy Chiefs of Staff – are women, less than a third of the total.
The rest are men: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan, Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors, chief speechwriter Jon Favreau, a third deputy chief of staff, and the Council of Economic Advisers Chair. Of these, only two are minorities – Holder and Nabors, who are each African American.
One chit in Obama’s favor is that Jarrett may be Obama’s closest aide. It’s also worth noting that he has another African American woman close to him who provides important advice, although she is not exactly an appointed official: Michelle Obama.
108 thoughts on “Obama’s Top White House Aides are Almost All Men”
Maureen Dowd ought to write a column on this — it begs for ridicule.
Maureen will not touch anything that might not Bear well on BHO ZO!
Statistical facts beg for ridicule?
All he did was count the number of people on 0bama’s staff that were white males and then compared them to the number that were not.
Diversity is great. But diversity of opinions are better.
The only opinion any of these people have is how to consolidate more power into the executive branch.
Whether they are male or female they have one thing in common…
They can’t be trusted.
You beat me to it. And just who are aming the most evil and devious amng them? Try Consigliere Valeriz Jarret who is on a “pay back” vendetta.
These shown are Nothing more than Leftovrer BUREUCRAT CLINTONITES TROLLS who finally have found their IDOL to allow tham full POLITBURO type of ELITISM which precludes INTELLIGENT THINKING…
They’re not the “old, White men” that the Dems like to ridicule with the ageist, sexist, and racist taunts they throw at the Repubs, but in a few years they too will meet that fate.
Racial and sexual diversity doesn’t equal competence or excellence in any field or venue and it wouldn’t make any impact on the way the WhiteHouse operates.
The hypocrite-in-chief
He’s just saving Money on Birth Control pills… that’s DA PLAN!!!
Does it really matter? Why can’t we just pick the best of the fields? It doesn’t really matter which gender they are, so long as they are best there is to offer.
It does matter because Dependocrats are hypocrites who preach one thing but do another
YEAH just watch WEASEL REID and Daffy DUrbin waste time over INSANITY of their makinf=g on the SEnate floor while covering up for OBama lack of Leadership as the Unions are back Campaigning to allow tax on the 1% which will pay for about 10 days of Interst on the TRILLIONS of borrowed money while they DEmand more borrowing so as to allow them to Funding Unions… Solyndras.. and Wind mills in ALASKA…( THEY FREEZE UP YOU SEE)… Is this that TIME for Flushing the Senate Touile and may be organyze for athird Party of INDEPENDENTS for the next Round of Elections??? Both Parties seem mired in Stupoidity and only working for theirb own re-election….Just Saying..
Hey Keith, you are forgetting Obama’s mama-n-law! Movin’ on up to da white house…where she finally got a piece of the lie…..
He may appoint Larry Sinclair to something soon.
Or FERRAKANH for Director of anti WHITE policies …
How about qualified PEOPLE in these positions-regardless of sex,race or any other stupid reason to dumb down our country.Affirmative Action kills the fish from the head down.
“Black” President? He’s no more black than he is white!
And Valerie Jarret was born in Iran. She’s probably running the U.S. government far more than the Mulatto who reads a teleprompter, campaigns, and plays golf. Obama just does what the voices tell him to, mostly the female Muslim who runs the sock-puppet president.
“African-American” is not a race, Teresa Kerry is African American and 100% Caucasian.
Africa has other races than Negro and to refer to “African-American” as Negro is doing a disservice and lowering expectations for such a person. South Africa has a large Caucasian population, mostly Dutch in heritage.
CORRECTAMUNDO!
Plus Obama is half WHITE and IF other sources are to be believed about 40% ARAB – and ONLY 10% BLACK..!!.
You’re wasting your time Danbury. Obama is an example of PERCEPTION trumping REALITY. If the people choose a false perception then that becomes our political reality…for better or for worse. Sad, but true.
Mulatto? Really?!! Might as well call him colored.
You still call Asians, orientals too?
Oh my…a newspeak editor.
Just call him OREO….
You keep posting things liek this the white house will deny you access
You might also like to know that the White House Social Secretary
is also a man…Jeremy Bernard I believe his name is.
I DOUBT THAT “HILL” IS A “CLOSE” ADVISOR – MORE OF A “…friends close but enemies closer.” STRATEGY.
Let’s not make a big deal of this or he’ll go find more like Valerie Jarrett!
more Romulans in the Cabinet?
This will get zero traction from the leftist media because it’s their guy, The One, so, total waste of space to bother reporting this one.
Unfortunately true.
Valerie Jarrett hates too much.
My only question is, “Who was the most qualified”? That should be the stance of everyone who truly cares about equality. Why should we support hiring decisions based upon gender, race, age, etc. ? That would be sexist, racist, and discriminatory, would it not? Too often we place mediocre people in important positions to fill the “quota”, and it costs companies rather than helps them. STOP IT!
Too late Linda. The madness has taken root.
The gross hypocrisy of the left is astounding, lets not forget their ‘war on women’ campaign despite the women of the White House being found to be paid less than men despite the Lilly Ledbetter rhetoric reiterated at nausea.
Far better to utilize the very best minds and experience. The stakes are too high! Any other considerations, including diversity, should be irrelevant.
Who cares? I didn’t vote for Obama, but if the people he has chosen are, in his view, the right people for the job, what difference does their demographics make? Should he pick less capable candidates just to check off boxes?
When will we ever just view people as people? Aren’t we there now. I mean seriously. We have a black president, he was twice elected by a majority of the country, I think it’s time to move on past the “some people still don’t have equal rights” garbage.
JD, Keith agrees with you — he’s only demonstrating that Obama lives in a glass house.
Another victory in the WAR on WOMEN!!
Doesnt Obama talk such a great game?
It does not matter women just want free birth control, nothing more.
Not necessarily ALL women, just the sort who think Obama’s a good idea. And of that subset, “Nothing More” is inaccurate. They also want free abortions, free housing, free phones, free food, free health care…
I thought Valerie Jarret was of Iranian decent? Does that count as African American too?
Uh, Iran is not in Africa.
Her parents were American born international communists. All these people in America’s leadership are red diaper babies.
Yeah, having married a Black Woman gives him his WH diversity cred!
Ha-Ha.
The one woman appointee was NOT the best qualified person but a longtime personal and family friend.
They are all men because he’s gay. That will be the bombshell that comes out in his second term that he is Gay.
I suppose this PC madness will continue until the country is destroyed. Too bad we must go down before people wake up.
“Incredibly, nearly all the most senior advisors to the nation’s first black president – whose appeal to minorities and women won him reelection – are white males.”
No, they are not.
David Plouffe.
Jack Lew.
Gene Sperling.
Dan Pfeiffer.
Jeffrey Zients.
Jay Carney.
None are “white men”; they are all Jews. Why is it okay to complain that “white men” are appointed, but it’s “anti-Semitic” to say that all Jews were appointed???
And Pete Rouse His mother is Japanese, and his father a Jew from Czechoslovakia. He’s not a “white man”, either.
Do some research.
Would it not be normal for a muslim to appoint mostly men?
ON TARGET…. FIRE FOR EFFECT…
Just another example of the Republican’s War on Women. When will it end? When will it end?
You did not mention that all of them are Jewish! 98% of the entire Obama administration and Bushs, Clintons,Regans, were all Zionist!
I seem to remember Carol Dunning and other women who worked in the WH reporting that the Obama WH was extremely hostile to women, demeaning them and creating a working environment for women which violated employment regulations.
Yes, Teresa. Indeed this column begs for ridicule, especially since it is linked from Drudge. Might as well have a link from the National Enquirer or News of the World. When will the nonsense stop? The election is over. Move on.
Move on yourself, chickadee; or is that chickadude? Got one of them androgynous names so no telling.
Maybe Obama could borrow Romney’s binder full of women so he wouldn’t have to be so hypocritical
If he bothered to recruit women as a group, the resumes would be in a notebook or a computer file…Yes, I know you meant this as yet another slap at Romney.
Ok FLUKE what say you about this obvious ANTI female mentality?? Does Obama attempt SAVINGS on Pills or does he think that there are NO Intelligent women whose pay as Staffers are Lower that Men’s in the WHITE OUTHOUSE????
“Do as I say, not as I do.” -Barack Obama
Obama is a Muslim. What do you expect!?
In the meantime, there are stories berating the republicans for their committee chair appointees. Nice to see they are continuing their hypocrisy by loving the obama for doing the same thing
Perhaps the men chosen are just better than the possible female alternatives. Just a thought.
Can we stop with all this diversity cr@p? Why is it SO bad to just hire the best person for the job regardless of race or gender?
If you do that, you may end up with too many men, too many whites, too many – something, even though that wasn’t your intention. You know, you hire one white guy, ask if he has freinds that he’d recommend, he does and they’re all good but happen to be white as well… This is called “disparate impact” by the courts.
Disparate impact is the only way they can pretend to quantify “racism”. Since most of the definitions are arbitrary and ruled on by leftist-appointed judges with wide discretion and wider personal prejudices, it ends up as just another tool for the left to reward freinds and get “REVENGE!” on enemies. Disparate impact just gives them a scum of data to cover up their socioeconomic manipulations.
Well it is the Muslim way. And we all know what Obummer is. They don’t respect women.
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Bean counting at its worst. Obama used to have a bunch of women in his inner circle. Some (e.g., Ann Lewis) betrayed him and walked out. Others betrayed him for better deals with private interests (e.g., Melody Barnes). Some this author omits from his list (e.g. Stephanie Cutter)..
Even so, one-third of the inner circle counted here are women. That’s not bad.
How about asking why they are mostly JOOISH?
Or why most of the Federal Reserve is JOOISH
And why our troops are used to fight Wars for Israel
Oh wait, the writer is probably jooish, lmao
WAKE UP America!
Who cares? 2/2 of my bosses are FEMALE!!!! UH OH! Come on….what does it really matter…does everything have ti be divided down to race, gender, and sexual orientation?
Hey, 98% of Black women voted for Obama so where is the outrage from them? Seems that there are more bigots in America than what we originally thought when it comes to double standards.
Don’t worry, Sell-Out White Men are fully capable enough to tell you convincingly just how Racist You are.
The first family costs the taxpayers 1.4 billion dollars a year. That’s billion, with a “b”. Who cares about his yes men?
No mention of this news in the main stream.
LMAO! the “Main Stream Media” reporting “news”… thats funny!
Have you read that Romney is having lunch with Obama tomorrow in the private dining room of the WH? If I was Mitt, I would have told Obama to stick where the sun don’t shine…………
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