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A friendship between ladies - AMIE PARNES | POLITICO CLICK

Earlier this month, when Jill Biden celebrated her 59th birthday with
staffers at an intimate gathering on an Eisenhower Executive Office Building
balcony, Michelle Obama stopped by to join in on the fun.

The first lady gave the second lady a hug, and the two chatted over a cake
adorned with flowers made of frosting and cooed over a Biden staffer’s
newborn baby.

Those close to Obama say the moment speaks to the close relationship the
first lady and Biden have forged since getting to know each other while
stumping for their husbands on the campaign trail two summers ago. It’s a
friendship fused through an only-you-know-how-it-feels bond that has
continued to grow stronger since the two families moved to Washington,
according to sources close to both women.

While Obama and Biden aides say the two aren’t exactly B.F.F’s, they say
they do feel at ease talking about “everything from the personal to the
professional” when they get together, according to one East Wing aide.

“The first lady told me that the first time she saw Dr. Biden after the
president nominated the vice president, she knew that they would become dear
friends,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told POLITICO. “She
said that they did not shake hands. They hugged warmly and instantly felt
like old friends.”

Although neither has much free time, "whenever they can find moments
together, they catch up and chat about everything from their work on
military families to the kids to ‘girl things,’” one Biden aide said, adding
that the second lady appreciated Obama’s early and emphatic support for her
decision to continue her teaching career at a Northern Virginia community
college after moving to town.

“They genuinely have each other’s backs,” an Obama aide added.

Their mutual fondness is hardly a secret. In a sit-down with CBS’s Sunday
Morning last year, Biden said she and the first lady “have a good time
together.”

“She’s fun,” Biden said of Obama. “She is a fun woman to be around.”

Asked about her relationship with Biden in the same interview, Obama said,
“She’s a great listener—somebody that you can really feel hears what you’re
saying and remembers.”

Yet all this is in marked differences to previous occupants of the East
Wing.
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While Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney swapped books, chatted on the phone from
time to time and appeared alongside each other at events, they didn’t do
things like travel together outside the country, aides say. (In April, Obama
and Biden — both wearing Converse All Stars — traveled to Haiti together on
an unannounced visit to tour the earthquake-ravaged country.)

“The fact that these two women [Obama and Biden] could go together and show
solidarity on an important mission [like Haiti] was very powerful,” said
Anita McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush. “It also shows the
outside world that this relationship is very strong. ... I don’t think you’d
make a trip like that if you didn’t want to be together. It does show that
there is a personal relationship there.”

Martha Joynt Kumar, a White House historian and professor at Towson State
University, said the relationships between first and second ladies "tend to
mirror the relationship between the principals."

"Most often, these relationships are not social relationships," Kumar said.

But Obama and Biden, Kumar said, appear to be crossing paths more than
previous first and second ladies—not just Bush and Cheney but also Hillary
Clinton and Tipper Gore--who "did fewer things together." Nancy Reagan and
Barbara Bush, she noted, "who were not people who would work together."

From the start, top aides—such as Obama’s former chief of staff Jackie
Norris--felt it was important for the two offices and their staffs to
collaborate on events, policy and communications issues, sources say.

Besides their Haiti trip, the women together escorted Yogi Berra to the
pitchers’ mound at a World Series game, while sporting matching jackets.
Later, they teamed up at a string of events for military families, appeared
in a public service announcement together and stood beside one another
during bill signings at the White House.

Still, it seems to be something more personal that brings the first and
second ladies together. Last year, after moving to Washington, the two
caught up over lunch at Georgia Brown’s, near the White House.

They’ve also been cheerleaders of sorts on the sidelines of basketball games
where first daughter Sasha Obama and Biden’s granddaughter Maisy play on the
same team.

At one recent game, the Obamas and Bidens all came to a game and watched as
it went into overtime—happily.

"We just had this glimpse of normalcy," the first lady told Marie Claire for
a profile of Biden. "Our families sitting together, all worked up about a
game that went into overtime — just enjoying being there together."
--
Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.co