Valerie Jarrett, co-chairwoman of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison, took a moment to talk with BlackEnterprise.com about how the transition is faring and how she personally plans to execute her job.
What do you plan to do to make government transparency a reality in this administration?
In the course of our transition we have reached out in an unprecedented way to include people from all around the country in preparing for the transition. My office has reached out to a wide range of constituency organizations as well as state and local elected officials to seek their input on how our offices could better serve the people of America. That has never been done before. Group after group have said that they can’t believe that they have been invited to participate before the president-elect has even taken office.
Can you give me an example of one of the groups you have reached out to?
We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago where more than 2,000 community organizers from the group Realizing the Promise came to Washington D.C. and had a series of policy discussions with our transition team around the issues that are important to their group at the local level. The same day I spoke with a consortium of foundations, a couple hundred people who are the leaders of foundations throughout the country, to figure out ways that we can make sure that the philanthropic community is coordinating at the federal level so that dollars can be best leveraged. Those are just two examples on one day of where we touched more than 2,000 people.
We aired the meeting with the 2,000 people online. That is something that we will be continuing to do in the administration, to have town hall meetings available online so that the people who can’t come to Washington or who aren’t physically able to participate in our sessions can view them. We are reinforcing our open and transparent approach.
Has it been complicated serving as the co-chairwoman of the transition team and preparing for your new position as assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison?
Complicated? No. Challenging in terms of sleep? Yes. We are all working really hard, but the stakes are high. Our challenges are enormous, but our opportunities are endless. We have a transition office in Chicago and Washington, and I go back and forth every week. What is palpable in both offices is this energy and enthusiasm and excitement about the possibilities that lie ahead.
I think already President-elect Obama has assembled in record speed an extraordinary cabinet full of diverse and rich ideas. He has had a series of meetings focusing on the economy and national security, two key issues that are important to the nation. There is a steady flow of announcements each day in the course of this transition, each one sending a strong message to the people of America that this administration will put them first.
The cabinet is filling out very nicely. Many of the men and women chosen recently were remnants from the Clinton administration. Some say those choices fly in the face of Obama’s message of change. In helping to choose and vet those individuals, how did you reconcile Obama’s mantra of change with the country’s need for experience during these perilous economic times?
I think you hit the nail on the head. I wouldn’t describe them as remnants of the Clinton administration. Take somebody like Susan Rice, who was extraordinary in the U.S. State Department when she served under President Clinton. Now Obama has appointed her to a different position, but one which will go along with the experience that she had under Clinton and which she has gathered over the last eight years. I think when he describes change he is looking for people who believe in his philosophy of putting America first.
The fact that many have had experience in prior administrations–whether it is from Clinton’s administration or in the case of Defense Secretary Bob Gates, the Bush administration, or from the private sector –doesn’t mean that the people aren’t philosophically committed to the same vision that the president-elect has for our country.
Look at Sen. [Hillary] Clinton, who was obviously an integral part of the Clin
ton administration. But he believes that she understands what it is he is looking for. He is very clear that he is the President of the United States. In the interview process, what he is looking for are people who have experience that they can bring to the table. They should not be penalized if they happened to serve in a prior administration.You have been described as a problem solver during the campaign and now as co-chairwoman of the Obama transition team. How are you dealing with the problems surrounding Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the possible links to the transition team?
There is no link. The president-elect asked that there be a review of his transition staff and any contact that they may have had with the governor. That review has been conducted and completed, and it’s ready for release. The review affirms the public statements that the president-elect made last week: that he had no contact with the governor’s staff and the president-elect’s staff was not involved in any inappropriate discussions with the governor’s staff. That has been reaffirmed with the results of that analysis.
Gregg Craig who is serving as council to the president-elect in the course of the transition has been keeping the U.S Attorney’s Office informed of our fact-gathering process as it has been going along to ensure that we fully cooperate with the investigation.
There are a lot of people who have tried, during the campaign and now, to get close to President-elect Obama– people with both good and bad intentions. How do you weed out the good from the bad?
The goal of his administration is to be inclusive, to bring people into a dialog with the president-elect and his teams with a level of transparency that we have not seen before.
He wakes up every morning and he makes h
is decisions through one lens and that lens is what is in the best interest of the American people. Because the American people had in this election an unprecedented frustration with “government-as-usual†with the special interest groups dominating Washington, what the president-elect has said is we are going to open the process up. We are going to reach out in a very proactive way to include voices that have not been heard historically. We won’t entertain what is on the lobbyist agenda. We are going to look for what is on the American people’s agenda. Our decision-making will be guided by that sole purpose. As people come forth with their ideas and suggestions, I think it will be readily apparent whether those ideas and suggestions are ones that will actually benefit the American people.I never met anyone better at listening through the most thorough dialogue on an issue. [Obama] does that by making sure he has people at the table with a wide range of perspectives.
Are you looking forward to moving to Washington?
That’s a trick question. I grew up in Chicago. My parents live in Chicago. Many of my dearest lifelong friends live in Chicago. On the other hand, the opportunity to work with the president-elect, who also happens to be one of my dearest friends, is the most extraordinary opportunity of my lifetime. So I am humbled by the opportunity, and of course I look forward to moving to Washington and being part of an administration that will not just change our country for the better, but will change the world.