I started in the Obama White House on day two in 2009. I felt lucky every day to be there, but it was also the hardest job I've ever had, bar none. The pressure was incredible, knowing how much we were trying to do and how badly people needed problems fixed right away.
And as we were coming to the passage of the ACA, in March 2010, I decided it was time to go. I was there for roughly 14 months, and it took quite a bit out of me. And I should note: I had no children or other responsibilities (other than an incontinent beagle).
The 2008 campaign was HARD, but we weren't doing it in the middle of COVID, or against Donald Trump. And when we went to work in the WH, our predecessors left us in decent shape. We weren't figuring out how to govern while managing a pandemic and trying not get each other sick.
I left because I was exhausted. Because I'd done campaigns for my whole life and wanted to take a proper vacation and pay off my debt and so on. It was not a reflection on President Obama, or Rahm, or (even though I gave him enough grief) my boss @danpfeiffer. I was just tired.
I don't know how anyone has lasted a year in the middle of a pandemic, in the midst of a Big Lie and all that we're facing. I'm grateful for everyone that has. But I wish we would just thank them for their great and VERY HARD WORK and stop making it a statement on something else
It's important work, so it probably should be hard and should be high pressure. But why is it we can write think pieces about the big resignation or how people need breaks or are quitting jobs because of the pandemic and then assume it must be different for the White House?
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