Can A Guy Follow Julianna Smoot As White House Social Secretary?

Desirée Rogers, left; Julianna Smoot. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters; Tim Sloan/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRedTracker| First Lady Michelle Obama’s staff is changing faster than we can type. Pardon us for being so deployed in the muck of defending the First Lady’s Alexander McQueen dress that she wore for Chinese President Hu Jintao, that we missed the announced departure of Julianna Smoot, as White House social secretary.

Women in business who change staff this often get a very bad reputation as being impossible to please. That’s clearly not the case with our beloved First Lady. 

Ten months after her arrival, hundreds of events and two error-free state dinner, according to the Washington Post, Julianna Smoot is headed to Chicago and President Obama’s reelection campaign.

Before being hired at the $150K-a-year job at White House Social Secretary, Smoot served as the finance director for the President’s 2008 campaign and most recently had been the chief of staff to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Helene Cooper, who typically writes politics for the NY Times weighs in on the search for a new White House Social Secretary, in A Guy as Keeper of the National Guest List?

HELP WANTED: Exclusive Pennsylvania Avenue residence seeks highly motivated professional to fill job of social secretary. Qualified candidates must have a genuine commitment to hospitality, a passion for food and wine, an appetite for 22-hour workdays, and a willingness to stand outside in all temperatures with a clipboard. No prima donnas. Please do not inquire about other positions like press secretary (filled) or secretary of defense (he’s not gone yet).

*Willing to consider male candidates.