Valerie Jarrett was our First Female President

By Daniel John Sobieski

Hillary Clinton has become the first female nominated for President of the United States but, should she win the election, she will not be the first female to occupy and control the Oval Office (insert Monica Lewinsky joke here). That honor arguably goes to Valerie Jarrett, currently Senior Adviser to President Obama.

Jarrett, born in Iran to American parents, has been with the Obamas since her days as Deputy Chief of Staff in the office of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, the elder. She hired Michelle Obama, then Michelle Robinson to fill an opening in the mayor’s office. As Wiikileaks describes the beginning of a long relationship:.........The rest, as they say, is history. Not only did Valerie Jarrett  become a mentor to the young Barack Obama, she soon became what Investor’s Business Daily called Obama’s Rasputin, someone who had more security than our personnel did in Benghazi.....Read more

My Take - Although the author is correct in his understanding as to whose in charge - he's wrong if this is the basis for his judgment Jarrett is the first female president.  The first was Edith Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson.  After he had his stroke  "Edith Wilson took over many routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government. She decided which matters of state were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. "I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators," she wrote later of her role, "and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs."  There were those who believed - and I think correctly so - she did what she wanted to do - and that was to be President of the United States, and acted accordingly.  But either way - based on Sobieski's reasoning - Edith Wilson was America's first  female President.