This is the product of a fun outing after the Production Meeting yesterday. You are aware of the developments in the Campaign, and they have been spectacular. One columnist attempted to draw a parallel to the media treatment of other world leaders. That special treatment was deemed necessary to maintaining order and stability.
The trajectory of the career of Leonid Brezhnev, former General Secretary of the USSR was mentioned. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s in Moscow and stayed in power- or at least someone stayed in power, ruling in his name, as he was increasingly bed-ridden. The Soviet Media reported him as hale and active, though largely unseen.
The Soviet media was stuck with that glowing treatment until they had to report his passing, and the arrival of a dynamic and vibrant Yuri Andropov, who had to deal with a decade of growing problems with no one actually driving the business of government. Rather, it had been about maintaining the semblance of governing to maintain the coterie of apparatchiks around the office. The Soviet Union barely survived his tenure, and Mr. Gorbachev was left to deal with the collapse.
There was laughter at the picnic table when the intern dispatched from Legal reminded us to insert the disclaimer: we are talking about messaging here, not The Message of anyone in this political circus. We generally are of the “good government” orientation, so be advised we are making no assertions about any of the personalities involved, but to quickly report on some of the people actually running our government, since we do not know who they actually might be.
So, that led to the search. As you can imagine, the messaging about who is actually in the White House is a matter that would undermine confidence that there is only one President. That matter was part of the initial formation of the staff surrounding the Oval Office. In 2020, the first set of more than 100 staffers, was said to “look like America.” To a degree it did, with 61% being female, 54% Persons of Color, and 20% first generation Americans.
We won’t even start a discussion about whether that represents a nominal distribution of the marvelous diversity of our nation, since an unknown percentage is non-binary or experimental. There are other categories of equity not included in the statistical categories. DeMille, our Section Leader, just asked us to start without relying on partisan sources, to see who is at the control panel of the teleprompter in front of the Presidential podium.
We discovered that was a challenge in and of itself. Specific roles and personalities have been deliberately covered only by titles, not names, and to determine who is most influential, beyond the immediate family, we had to start with a list of three individuals recently subpoenaed by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight.
There are more, of course, but we will start with those deemed important enough to their opposition to make a brief introduction. They are not in order of importance, but by deposition.
Ashley Williams, Special Assistant to the President & Deputy Director, Oval Office Ops.
Williams is a former student activist and political operative who once protested Hillary Clinton as too conservative.
Her picture was the hardest to find, since there is an actress of the same name and a Presidential daughter who shares her first.
Anthony Bernal, Assistant to the President & Senior Adviser to First Lady.
Bernal is a Gay Hispanic man with Texas roots known for his comparison of other staff members private parts.
Annie Tomasini, Deputy Chief of Staff
Tomasini is a former star NCAA basketball player and feminist and political insider.
All three are being called to provide depositions this month, as the GOP Convention starts Monday for the coronation of their Nominee and the announcement of the second position on the ticket.
Finding something not tinged with bias, for or against, is a challenge. For one of them, even finding a picture was a bit of a challenge. But for introductory purposes, we will keep this first meeting brief and relatively objective in the brief one-sentence biographic clip.
There are two other significant actors in the Staff Drama, those being
Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon,
O’Malley-Dillon was Deputy Chief of Staff in the first three years of the Biden Administration after serving as 1st female presidential campaign manager, also for Beto O’Rourke.
Senior Adviser Mike Donilon
Donilon is an attorney and campaign consultant who was chief strategist of Biden’s 2020 and 2024campaigns.
Both have a wealth of political experience and We will do a more complete introduction to them as things unfold.
Anyway, this should serve to at least identify some of the people who are actually running things. As their participation emerges in the next pivotal weeks leading to the Chicago Convention next month, we will try to provide some additional detail on who is actually managing the Oval Office.
We thought it would be interesting to actually meet the people in charge of the big city across the Potomac. We are not sure any of them would be electable if they actually stood for office, but that isn’t the point, is it? It is who controls the office. We used to get to vote on that!
Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com