Memo to Obama: Trade in those Chicagoans for some Washington wise men

Sally Quinn, 68, is much younger, and not native to
Washington — she’s from Savannah, Ga. She was deservedly the most famous
of the Washington Post “Style” writers
and she married the boss — former executive editor Ben Bradlee. There were
few couples with more power and panache and, although everyone assumed them to
be Democrats, their influence crossed administrations.

She was poised to fall in love with the Obamas. “They were
beautiful and glamorous, hip and fun,” she wrote in her latest Washington
Post column. “They were the new Kennedys,
and Washington would come alive again.”

It didn’t happen. Quinn complains that the Obamas filled
their social slots with “his crowd” from Chicago. Earlier this month, she wrote
that the White House social secretary, Desiree Rogers, “a major social and
political player in the Windy City,” was “an unlikely choice” for the job,
because, among other reasons, “she was not of Washington.”

In that column, Quinn, who lives with her husband in
Georgetown, urged Obama to fire Rogers, and noted that the Obamas thus far have
hosted only one state dinner. “That, unfortunately (aside from the
gate-crashers), was used to reward White House staffers instead of being an
opportunity to bring in the best and the brightest from around the country.”
(And Georgetown, presumably. Quinn and Bradlee were not on the guest list.)

Back in May 2007, Sally Quinn wrote a hugely admiring column
about Obama, whom she called “a really smart, appealing, thoughtful person.”
But then she noted that “We don’t know who he is.” And she immediately followed
this observation with what today reads like advice or even a warning: “Who are
his people? Whom does he surround himself with? … As attractive and likable as
Obama is, we still need references.” She added, “I am not saying his capacity
to hold the job centers on a selection of well-known Washington operatives.”
But that seems precisely what she was saying.

In Wednesday’s column, Quinn recalls the arrival in
Washington of the Carters and their Georgia associates. “He and Rosalynn and
many of their advisers were decidedly not interested in the locals and made it
known. That chill was such a mistake that Teddy Kennedy felt free to challenge
Carter, which doomed Carter’s reelection.”

Which just goes to show that cave-dwellers live on, at least
in the sense that the phrase implies a vision so narrow as to be myopic. From
my perch in Chicago in 1980, I thought Jimmy Carter lost because of gas lines
and soaring inflation and interest rates. Oh, and all those Americans held
hostage in Iran for 444 days.