Editorial: First lady having opinions? It’s a White House tradition

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Updated: February 11, 2012 8:12AM

Michelle Obama, according to a book to be released Tuesday, occasionally expressed frustration with Rahm Emanuel when he was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

Shocking, huh?

As if previous first ladies, including Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton, did not have their own run-ins with top White House advisers.

Even the circumspect Laura Bush could mix it up. If she felt her husband’s advisers were offering counsel that was “inconsistent with what she sees in the president’s heart,” former chief of staff Andy Card once said, she was “not bashful about telling us.”

The new book, The Obamas, by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, offers a few other insights into Michelle Obama’s early White House days, including:

† Her initial desire to keep Malia and Sasha in school in Chicago for the remainder of a semester, rather than whisk them off to Washington.

† Her perhaps overly ambitious desire, given how this might look during a recession, to redecorate the White House.

† Her sense of being lost in the White House at first, unsure of her role, and of feeling confined.

† Her growing frustration that her husband’s aides were urging him to compromise on his goals too much.

Does any of this reflect poorly on the Obamas? Is any of it inappropriate?

Of course not.

Every first lady struggles to balance her private and public responsibilities. And most first ladies have an influence on their husband that the chief of staff can only envy.

Kantor presents these tidbits of news, such as they are, within the context of a seemingly fair-minded account of a hard-working White House full of smart people — including Michelle — who are intensely loyal to the president. And yet the White House has been quick to give the book the cold shoulder, saying it is an “over-dramatization of old news.”

We suppose they had to say that. To admit that people are human, and that tensions in high places are normal, inevitable and often even healthy just isn’t allowed.