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The Water Cooler Title: Lonely Barry Obama wants The First Fudgepacker back: “I just called Reggie, I miss him" WASHINGTON — Air Force One had just landed in Manchester, N.H., on a brisk Tuesday morning last month when President Obama made an admission to Valerie B. Jarrett, his close friend and senior adviser. “I just called Reggie,” Mr. Obama said. It was his first domestic trip without Reggie Love, the former Duke University basketball player who had been his constant companion and presidential “body man” until he left in November to study for his M.B.A. full time. “I miss him,” the president confessed. More noteworthy than Mr. Obama’s spending the short flight calling his longtime aide is what he did not do: schmooze with Washington politicians. No one from the New Hampshire Congressional delegation traveled with Mr. Obama on the plane, a perk that presidents often offer to lawmakers to foster good will. Mr. Obama, in general, does not go out of his way to play the glad-handing, ego-stroking presidential role. While he does sometimes offer a ride on Air Force One to a senator or member of Congress, more often than not, he keeps Congress and official Washington at arm’s length, spending his down time with a small — and shrinking — inner circle of aides and old friends. He typically golfs with a trio of mid- to low-level staff members little known outside the West Wing. He does not spend much time at Camp David, the retreat other presidents have used to woo Washington. His social life runs toward evenings playing Taboo with old friends and their families, Wii video games with his wife and daughters or basketball with Robert Wolf, a banker and the rare new best friend Mr. Obama has acquired since entering politics. He vacations with friends from Chicago on Martha’s Vineyard in August and in Hawaii at Christmas. This week, for example, Mr. Obama is ensconced in the protective bubble of the Secret Service. With him are his closest outside-the-Beltway-friends, including Eric Whitaker, a Chicago doctor, and two of Mr. Obama’s Hawaii friends from Punahou School: Mike Ramos, a businessman, and Robert Titcomb, a commercial fisherman whom Mr. Obama has stuck by despite his arrest in April on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute. Mr. Obama bolted from Washington last Friday barely an hour after he had signed legislation extending the payroll tax cut after a grinding fight with House Republicans whose result is widely viewed as a big win for him. His relationship with Washington insiders is described by members of both parties as “remote,” “distant” and “perfunctory.” “This is not a Lincoln bedroom guy,” said James Carville, the Democratic strategist, referring to the guest bedroom at the White House where President Bill Clinton put up supporters and donors. “In fact, he’s the anti-Lincoln bedroom guy. He doesn’t seem to relish, or even like, having politicians around.” To many in Washington — including those, of course, who crave presidential face time — Mr. Obama’s seeming aloofness is risky. He is the nation’s politician in chief, and the presidency has always been first and foremost about politics. “It’s about building relationships,” said Gerald Rafshoon, a television producer who was President Jimmy Carter’s communications director. “Some people are saying he’s a recluse. You don’t want that reputation. He needs to show that he likes people.” Mr. Rafshoon’s old boss, an outsider to Washington when he became president, recently wrote in his book “White House Diary” that he did not socialize enough when he was the chief executive. On Capitol Hill, Republicans say they rarely hear from the president, and members of his own party complain that Mr. Obama and his top aides are handicapping themselves by not reaching out enough. “When you have relationships with individual members, you can call them up and ask a favor, and a lot of times, if it’s not objectionable, you can get things done,” said Representative Dennis A. Cardoza, Democrat of California. The president hosts plenty of large gatherings — like a recent holiday reception at the White House, attended by 400 lawmakers and their spouses — but they lack the intimacy of smaller events, where there is real give and take, Mr. Cardoza and others lawmakers said. Similarly, some of the president’s aides acknowledge complaints from Democratic fund-raisers that they have not been shown much love from the president, beyond standard grip-and-grin photographs at fund-raising dinners. White House officials, however, counter that Mr. Obama’s detachment from Congress could end up benefiting him politically. After all, many Americans regard this Congress as dysfunctional, with abysmal approval ratings. “We have a culture here where people actively dislike everything about this whole city,” one senior administration official said of Washington, adding, “the only leverage he has right now is as an outsider.” Another official argued that Mr. Obama’s perceived distance from Congress is partly why he is viewed as the clear winner of the payroll tax cut fight. In fact, Mr. Obama’s re-election strategy involves running against Congress, particularly the Republican-led House, calling attention to its inability to pass even the simplest legislation without resorting to threats to shut down the government or default on the country’s debt. With that in mind, another senior administration official said, the last thing the president wants is to provide more photo ops of himself golfing with Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, as he did this summer in a frustrated effort to resolve the torturous fight over raising the debt ceiling. Some critics compare Mr. Obama unfavorably with the gregarious Mr. Clinton, who used to play cards on Air Force One with Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic Party heavy-hitter, or golf with Vernon Jordan, the well-connected Democratic power broker. But another former president, George W. Bush, was not especially tight with much of the Washington establishment. He was known for going to bed at 9 p.m., regularly retreating to his ranch in Texas and having distant if polite relations with Capitol Hill. Despite the narrative in Washington of Mr. Obama as a loner, his friends and aides say he likes people just fine. He looked positively ebullient when he worked the crowd at a hangar last Wednesday at Fort Bragg, N.C., reaching out to nearly every one of 3,000 troops returning from Iraq. With Mr. Love’s departure, Mr. Obama’s new body man is Marvin Nicholson, a former bartender and golf caddy who served as Mr. Obama’s trip director and regularly accompanied him to Andrews Air Force Base for rounds of golf. So Mr. Nicholson is already well versed in how his boss spends his free time. Said Mr. Love, who has probably spent more time with Mr. Obama in recent years than anyone other than the first lady: “The president would prefer to watch the Bears, White Sox or Bulls, or any sports matchup, instead of watching MSNBC or watching 13 Republican presidential debates.”
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