Officially, Valerie Jarrett is White House senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement.
In reality, Jarrett is Obama's "intermediary to the outside world" and his "closest friend in the White House," according to an in-depth New York Times report on Jarrett's role in the Obama administration.
Obama told The Times' Robert Draper that Jarrett has served "as my eyes and ears."
He also said Jarrett, former head of a Chicago real estate development firm, "combines the closeness of a family member with the savvy and objectivity of a professional businesswoman and public-policy expert."
And an Obama associate disclosed that there are two people Obama is "not going to say no to" — his wife Michelle, and Jarrett.
Jarrett, 52, was born of Africa-American parents in Iran, where her physician father was working with an American aid program. She earned a law degree at the University of Michigan, and was serving as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's deputy chief of staff in 1991 when she befriended a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson, and through Michelle, her fiancé, Barack Obama.
Jarrett and Obama became close friends, and she gave him guidance on the book he was writing, "Dreams of My Father."
When Obama, then a state senator, decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 2002, Jarrett originally opposed the idea. But she went along when Obama promised his wife he would quit politics if he lost the election, and Jarrett helped with his fundraising efforts.
She was again at Obama's side in 2006 when he discussed a run for the White House with political strategist David Axelrod, and again served as an important adviser during the campaign.
A few days after Obama won the presidency, Draper reported, he told his new chief of staff Rahm Emanuel: "I want her inside the White House."
When Emanuel found out in December that Jarrett had been looking at office space in the White House, "Emanuel was not happy to learn this," according to Draper. "He confronted Jarrett, and today he says, 'There was a misunderstanding . . . It wasn't a dust-up.'"
Jarrett's director of intergovernmental affairs said there is no "power struggle" between Jarrett and Emanuel. But Draper notes that when Emanuel talks about Jarrett, "it's fair to say that his words fall short of effusive."
In the administration, Jarrett now serves as Obama's conduit to the business 
community, and as "unofficial champion of minority issues," the Times report discloses.
Beyond that, a friend of advisers Jarrett and Axelrod observed that while Obama gets "brilliant political advice from David, from Valerie he gets wisdom."
When Draper asked Obama if he runs every decision past Jarrett, he answered quickly: "Absolutely."
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