Desiree Rogers: Not your mother's social secretary: Politico

Quoted via Politico:

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Longtime friend Sugar Rautbord, a prominent Chicago philanthropist and writer, said Rogers was a fixture on the social and business scene in Chicago and has what “certain politicians have: part glamour, part intelligence, part aloofness, part approachability.It’s a perfect combination.”

But her out-front approach to what is normally an understated staff job has raised eyebrows in certain circles — a certain tsk-tsking privately among some in the society set that she might be ever-so-slightly too out in front. Rogers’ talk in the Journal of nurturing a “Brand Obama” from the secretary’s post induced a few cringes among some who said the president should be pure Main Street, not Madison Avenue.

“My impression is that there is more public eye attached to this social secretary than ever before. White House staff tend to do their jobs quietly and then they recede,” said William Seale, author of “The President’s House.” “There is a time, within my memory, that being in the public eye would have been looked down upon as inappropriate, but times change.” more