Contemporary Authors

• West Winging It: An Un-Presidential Memoir Gallery Books (New York, NY), 2018

• Miami Alumni Association - https://www.alumni.miami.edu/news-and-media/alumni-profiles/2017/patrick-cunnane/index.html

  Alumnus of UM and the White House

  We connected with Patrick Cunnane, BSC ’10, who took some time to do a Q&A before heading to Canada to shoot an episode of ABC’s Designated Survivor. He’s currently writing for the show (which premiers November 29) after spending six years in the White House working directly with President Barack Obama. How did this Philadelphia native swap Philly cheesesteaks for cafecitos? What did Larry King and Dr. Phil have to do with his decision to head south? And how did he end up working at the White House just one month after graduation? We find out below.

  Who are you?

  My name’s Pat Cunnane. I was previously the President’s Senior Writer and Deputy Director of Messaging. I worked in the West Wing for the last five years and I’m now a writer on ABC’s Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland. I’m also writing a book called “West Winging It,” (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster) that will be available in Spring 2018. It’s a lighthearted but hopefully meaningful memoir about my time in President Obama’s White House. The Mark Gordon Company is attached to develop the book for TV.

  Who or what paved the way to your accomplishments so far?

  My family, my education and a whole lot of luck.

  What did you picture for your career 10 years ago, and how does it differ from where you stand now?

  Ten years ago I was a freshman and I had no clue what I wanted to do. A few years later, toward the end of my time at UM, I started taking screenwriting courses. So, I guess I hoped that maybe my career would turn out the way it is now, though I never could have foreseen the six-year stop in the White House.

  Patrick with President ObamaWhat was your experience like working in the White House?

  It was the most remarkable time of my life. I cannot believe how lucky I was to work for President Obama for so long and in such close proximity.

  How would you describe your time here at UM?

  UM was a wonderful place to go to school. I remember my senior year of high school, I was caught between UM and Georgetown in DC. My mom was adamant that I go to Georgetown (she loved politics and DC). We almost never disagreed, but my mom and I fought like crazy over where I should go. It got so bad that she jokingly called Larry King Live when he had Dr. Phil on as a guest. To her surprise she actually got on - and to her chagrin, they agreed I should go to UM. So I did, and my parents grew to absolutely love it. My younger brother, Alex, even decided to attend UM, and he graduated in 2015. I think everything worked out pretty well. I wound up in DC anyway...

  What do you think alumni will find most interesting about your story?

  You never know where you’ll end up after graduation. Within a year of graduating from UM, I was traveling across the country and around the world with President Obama. I never would have thought that to be the case as I donned my graduation cap.

  How did UM shape your life? How did it prepare you for where you are today?

  It gave me confidence to seize the opportunities that came my way and allowed me to hone my writing, which has opened a lot of doors, both in DC and now in LA.

  Patrick and his wife, fellow alumna Stephanie Genuardi Cunnane, BSC ’10, currently live in Los Angeles. He proposed to her in the Rose Garden of the White House.

  Watch this episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with President Obama and Jerry Seinfeld, which Patrick conceptualized, managed, and co-wrote. The episode shattered the series’ viewership records and helped it garner an Emmy nomination.

Print Marked Items
Pfeiffer, Dan: YES WE (STILL) CAN
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Pfeiffer, Dan YES WE (STILL) CAN Twelve (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 6, 19 ISBN: 978-1-5387-1171-2
Another Barack Obama staffer reveals his White House experiences.
During his campaign for the presidency and his two terms in office, Obama gathered a cadre of young, articulate, and apparently tireless men and
women to serve him. In his debut memoir, Pfeiffer, now co-host of the political podcast Pod Save America, recounts his stints as Obama's
traveling secretary during the campaign and later director of communications (2009-2013) and senior adviser (until 2015). The author's warm,
affectionate portrait of Obama and revelations about pre-Trumpian politics complement recent memoirs by Alyssa Mastromonaco (deputy chief
of staff), David Litt (speechwriter), Pat Cunnane (senior writer), and David Axelrod (political adviser) in what appears to be a growing genre.
Pfeiffer, an unabashed admirer, burnishes a familiar image of Obama as focused, idealistic, pragmatic, funny, caring, shrewd, savvy, and
confidently competitive. "Obama does not like to lose at anything," writes the author, "--golf, basketball, cards, Scrabble, and most certainly
campaigns." The author disputes the notion that Obama was aloof: "He is a truly decent and empathetic human who genuinely liked being around
people (less so members of Congress angling for a photo and a pork barrel project)." He was challenged, though, by a Republican Congress
determined to thwart every effort and policy decision and from a vicious media firestorm--eagerly propagated by Fox--over his place of birth. "If
you want to know why nativism and racism are resurgent in the Republican Party," the author writes, "look to Fox News. And if you want to
know how we ended up with Trump as president, yet again just look to Fox News." Part of Pfeiffer's motivation in writing is to encourage voters-
-especially millennials--"to knock the GOP upside the head and convince them that they have to abandon not just Trump but Trumpism." The
current Republican Party is composed of "clowns, con men, and racists" and those who enable them, such as "diabolical" and "cynical" Mitch
McConnell. Pfeiffer argues that a new path requires Democrats to be "audacious, authentic, and inspirational."
A nostalgic look back and hopeful look forward.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Pfeiffer, Dan: YES WE (STILL) CAN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538293996/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=51b8a2c0. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A538293996
Cunnane, Pat: WEST WINGING IT
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Cunnane, Pat WEST WINGING IT Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 4, 17 ISBN: 978-1-5011-7829-0
The inside scoop on how a recent college graduate went from working in a warehouse to becoming a senior writer for the Barack Obama White
House.
Following memoirs by his colleagues Alyssa Mastromonoco (Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?, 2018) and David Litt (Thanks, Obama,
2017) and ahead of Dan Pfeiffer's resistance primer Yes We (Still) Can, former senior White House writer Cunnane, now a writer for the TV
show Designated Survivor, offers his fitfully funny, often earnest insider's look at the Obama era. Beginning as a media monitor, the author
stumbled through learning the ropes ("what's a POTUS?"), his first security briefing (Secret Service agent: "congratulations, you're sitting in the
cherry on top of every terrorist's dream cake"), and his first significant lesson ("fortunately, sometimes at the White House, you fail up"). It's clear
that the author has a little chip on his shoulder, earned from the affectionate teasing he endured, but overall, he offers a warm and observant
portrait of what it's like to work for the White House. Among other stories: his engagement in the Rose Garden and Obama's sneaking out to
Starbucks, where he tasked Cunnane with handling the press: "Let's test your wrangling skills." We learn that after Obama made his case at the
2013 G-20 summit, Vladimir Putin told him, "you've got some big balls." In his discussion of "disaster travel" following mass shootings,
Cunnane shows us what a real president is made of. "He was more than our consoler in chief," he writes. "Obama pushed the conversation
forward. He reminded us that though our politics are often small, these moments can lay bare the best in us, displaying our better angels and our
big hearts." When he's truly candid, Cunnane nails it. "All in all, I wrote hundreds of pages in his voice," he writes. "It was the honor of my life."
A revealing window into the fascinating aquarium of the "Obama people" and all their "hope and hard-won change."
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Cunnane, Pat: WEST WINGING IT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650778/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=aa1742c1. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650778

• Los Angeles Times
  http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obama-nostalgia-20170621-story.html
  Word count: 1293

  POLITICS
  In the Trump era, Obama nostalgia is a booming industry
  Michael A. Memoli
  By MICHAEL A. MEMOLI
  JUN 21, 2017 | 8:00 AM
  |

  In the Trump era, Obama nostalgia is a booming industry
  President Obama at his final news conference at the White House. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

  Pat Cunnane spent six years in the White House helping to promote Barack Obama's message. From the outside, he still does: On Tuesday, Cunnane became the latest Obama alumnus to land a contract for a book on his experiences.

  While much of the world obsesses about the more impetuous musings of President Trump — or perhaps in reaction to that obsession — a new market for Obama nostalgia is manifest in the growing number of books, podcasts and TV and film treatments by or involving young veterans from the Obama stable.

  inRead invented by Teads

  ADVERTISEMENT
  Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has signed on to publish Cunnane's recollections of his coming of age, starting at 22 years old, in the White House press office, a book tentatively called "West Winging It: An Unpresidential Memoir."

  "For six years, working in the Obama White House was all I knew. When that came to an end a few months ago, let's just say I didn't take it well," Cunnane said.

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  Writing proved cathartic. Retelling stories — of the historic moments as well as the mundane and absurd ones — "helped stave off the sadness that I felt," Cunnane said.

  Humor helped, too. Even before the news of Cunnane's Obama book, he gained a bit of fame for his Trump tweets, or, rather, his unique retweet. To make a serious and widely shared point — that the current president's tweets, however unpresidential, should be treated as official White House statements — Cunnane did just that, putting his old White House skills to work in a tweet that took off.

  "All of Trump's Tweets should be mocked up in the correct Presidential statement format," he posted. "It's telling."

  To illustrate, Cunnane provided a mock-up of an official White House statement based on one of Trump's more undiplomatic tweets, about a London terrorist attack.

  View image on Twitter
  View image on Twitter

  Pat Cunnane
  ✔
  @PatCunnane
  For context - because he's President - all of Trump's Tweets should be mocked up in the correct Presidential statement format. It's telling.

  12:15 PM - Jun 4, 2017
  23.3K
  11.3K people are talking about this
  Twitter Ads info and privacy
  The Internet being the social medium it is, Cunnane's idea was quickly realized. A Web developer, Russel Neiss, created an automated feed, @realPressSecBot, that immediately tweets out Trump's 140-character posts as if they were formal White House statements. The account attracted more than 100,000 followers within a week.

  Trump's remarks — like those against the federal investigation he calls a "witch hunt" — look all the more out of place when showcased in the official-looking way long reserved, through Republican and Democratic administrations, for sober presidential statements carefully scrutinized before publication by aides such as Cunnane.

  Donald J. Trump
  ✔
  @realDonaldTrump
  I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt

  9:07 AM - Jun 16, 2017
  146K
  108K people are talking about this
  Twitter Ads info and privacy
  View image on Twitter
  View image on Twitter

  Real Press Sec.
  @RealPressSecBot
  A statement by the President:

  9:11 AM - Jun 16, 2017
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  Cunnane is now living in Los Angeles where he is part of the writing team for ABC's "Designated Survivor," featuring Keifer Sutherland as another unexpected occupant of the Oval Office. The Mark Gordon Company, which produces "Designated Survivor," also has plans to produce the book for television.

  The deals reflect the burgeoning market for Obama-related works, beyond the Obamas' own lucrative book contracts.

  A memoir by Alyssa Mastromonaco, a close aide to Obama on his 2008 campaign and in the White House, was an unexpected bestseller this year and has been optioned for TV. David Litt, a former Obama speechwriter, began working on a book about his time in the administration last year, but, he said, it came into clearer focus after the election.

  "Once Trump won, it felt suddenly more urgent to document what happened, not because we did things perfectly — we certainly didn't do things perfectly — but because this idea that government could be animated by a sense of fundamental goodness and decency suddenly seemed like a relic from some ancient history," Litt said.

  "It became a lot easier to figure out what to write about and what to think about some of the experiences that we went through."

  His book's title, "Thanks, Obama," borrows from the wry aside that Obama expropriated from critics and often used when describing positive developments for which he seemed to get no credit, at least as he and his supporters saw it.

  "People are approaching the book as escapist literature in a way I appreciate, but didn't expect," said Litt, who now leads the Washington office of Funny or Die, the comedy video website and production company.

  There's some precedent for the left finding solace in the arts. "The West Wing" debuted on television at the end of the Clinton administration, written in part by veterans of his tenure, but it flourished as a parallel reality during George W. Bush's administration.

  The NBC drama has gotten something of a second life as liberals rediscover it on streaming platforms such as Netflix. When Hrishikesh Hirway launched a podcast in early 2016 reliving the series episode-by-episode, he expected each one might attract 25,000 downloads. The first episode was downloaded more than 600,000 times.

  Hirway said the size of the audience hasn't changed since Trump's election, though some listeners told him they had to take a break from watching the show because the contrast between the portrayal of an idealistically liberal Bartlet administration and Trump's is too jarring. To the extent the show changed, it was in how the podcasters discussed events and issues depicted in the series to compare them to real life.

  "Suddenly those questions took on a greater urgency," Hirway said.

  Cunnane views his book as something of "West Wing" meets "Veep." It will draw on the range of experiences he had in the White House, from the less glamorous duties — corralling reporters shadowing Obama's events — to the heady ones, like helping the president prepare for interviews and public appearances. He claims that he debated Jerry Seinfeld about closing punchlines for Obama's appearance on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." He lost, of course.

  "I had no idea what I was doing when I first started at the White House," Cunnane freely admits. He made an early poor impression by asking a co-worker: "What's a POTUS?" Now, of course, that once insider-y shorthand for "President of the United States" is common knowledge — certainly, at least, to any Twitter user.

  michael.memoli@latimes.com

  For more White House coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter.

• The Hill
  http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/383584-former-obama-staffer-dishes-on-white-house-life-in-west-winging
  Word count: 870

  Former Obama staffer dishes on White House life in 'West Winging It'
  BY JUDY KURTZ - 04/18/18 10:00 AM EDT 38
  188

  Former Obama staffer dishes on White House life in 'West Winging It'
  © Courtesy photo/Koury Angelo
  In a city often drunk on power, Pat Cunnane might be considered a teetotaler.

  Unlike many Washington, D.C., wannabes, who puff up their positions and boast about their access, Cunnane is a self-professed former "low-level" staffer in the Obama White House. He's just penned "West Winging It: An Un-presidential Memoir,” a “West Wing” meets “The Office”-style tell-all about working his way slightly up the professional totem pole for the former commander in chief.

  “I sort of am a guy that snuck in and stood in the back of the room and saw history unfold,” Cunnane says. “From total outsider to semi, pseudo-lucky insider.”

  In 2010, at age 22, Cunnane’s parents actually walked him to his first day on the job at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., where he snagged an internship after applying in college on a whim at his roommate’s suggestion.

  “I started as the lowest level person you could be, literally. I was a media monitor, like a professional copy and paster,” Cunnane says. “Then I moved onto press wrangler, which is a totally bizarre position where you just travel with the president everywhere he goes and you sit literally between the president and the press.”

  “Only towards the end of my time at the White House did I get to writing in the president’s voice, and plan his events, and brief him.”

  But working his way up the career ladder at the White House wasn’t without its fair share of snafus — such as his humiliation on day one.

  “I had heard this term floating around like 50 times earlier in the day and I just didn’t know it,” Cunnane recalls.

  “And I totally could’ve Googled it, but instead I wanted the staffers to know I was taking this job seriously, and I was there to learn, and I was asking good questions.”

  So Cunnane turned to a seasoned staffer and asked, “What’s a POTUS?”

  “It’s my first day working in the White House and I didn’t know what POTUS stood for,” Cunnane tells ITK. “And in that moment, I realized that stupid questions absolutely do exist.”

  “I was sort of the office punching bag. I was an easy target,” Cunnane says.

  Then there was the time that Cunnane almost caused one of President Obama’s beloved Portuguese Water dogs to kick the bucket.

  “We had these things called Chocolate Freedoms in the White House Navy Mess, which was like a really opulent chocolate dessert thing,” Cunnane says. “I had thrown one away in the trash can, and Bo got perilously close to it.”

  Fortunately, the Philadelphia area native was able to shoo Bo away in the knick of time.

  “I did not want to be the staffer to make Bo ill … or worse,” Cunnane exclaims. “I think my book would’ve been very different if I had been the one to kill Bo.”

  Despite the potential canine catastrophe, Cunnane was eventually promoted to Obama’s senior writer and deputy director of messaging at the White House. A political science major and screenwriting minor in college, Cunnane helped develop Obama’s 2015 appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”

  He’s now based in Los Angeles and, in addition to helping out with his mother’s House bid — a Pennsylvania state representative, Madeleine Dean is running as a Democrat in the Keystone State’s newly redrawn 4th District — Cunnane works as a writer on ABC’s “Designated Survivor.” He’ll be appearing at an event Friday hosted by Washington’s Politics & Prose bookstore to talk about “West Winging It” alongside former Obama press secretary Josh Earnest.

  Earlier this month, Cunnane tweeted a copy of his book, which came out Tuesday, in a faux Oval Office, on the “Designated Survivor” set. He says he hopes the current commander in chief takes a look at it in the real-life executive mansion.

  “I am going to send [President Trump] a book. I know that reading isn’t his ‘learning style,’ but I think that he could learn a thing or two from it,” Cunnane says.

  “The quote that [Obama] used to tell a lot of his staffers was, ‘You’ll never have a better opportunity to do more good for more people than you do right now.’”

  Asked if he has any advice for today’s up-and-coming staffers in the White House, the wisecracking former White House staffer suddenly gets serious.

  “I would say to try to remember every single day where you work — that most Americans will never step foot through those iron gates on Pennsylvania Avenue and it’s the greatest privilege any American could ever have. And I hope that they treat it that way.”

• Daily Mail
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5596155/Obama-aide-reveals-president-steamed-fat-butt-Michelle-remark.html
  Word count: 3363

  EXCLUSIVE: Obama aide reveals how the groupie president fawned over celebs, was steamed when a high school coach called his wife 'fat-butt Michelle' and favored extra tight sweatpants and white socks with sandals
  In West Winging It: An Un-presidential Memoir, senior writer Pat Cunnane tells how Obama's White House became 'Hollywood East' for its frequent celebrity guests
  'You never knew who you would run into on the way to the mess, or who was waiting for you to exit the restroom...we had no shortage of high profile guests at the White House,' he writes
  Cunnane reveals Obama's obsession with golf was a nightmare for press wranglers who had to block them from nabbing a photo of him playing rounds
  'A duffed chip or missed putt could draw out trite, stretched analogies to a failed policy or flawed rollout from a bored press pool,' Cunnane writes
  Obama also caused a frenzy when he left the White House for a coffee run without the press pool
  The former press wrangler told how the president's style improved over time since at times he wore' unusually tight sweatpants and sandals with white socks'
  By CAROLINE HOWE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

  PUBLISHED: 09:41 EDT, 10 April 2018 | UPDATED: 14:43 EDT, 10 April 2018

  e-mail
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  View comments
  Like the Kennedys, the Obamas often rubbed elbows with celebrities who loved to visit what came to be known as 'Hollywood East' during the president's eight-year term.

  Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney, and Leonardo DiCaprio were among many stars who came to the White House to hang out with the 'cool' president.

  When Pope Francis came to Washington and the White House in September 2015, and zipped across the South Lawn in a black Fiat, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Michael Jordan also graced the president's home.

  The White House was a celebrity hot spot during his eight years in office.

  Comedian Jerry Seinfeld came to do a segment of his show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, with Obama and the two drove on White House grounds in a 'killer' 1963 Corvette Stingray in silver blue. It won the show an Academy Award nomination and smashed all viewership records.

  Seinfeld told Obama he was the coolest guy ever to hold this office.

  Writer Pat Cunnane signed on as a White House press staffer in February 2011 and stepped inside the presidential bubble of the world's biggest superstar.

  With the frequently visiting stars, Cunnane coined the phrase, 'Got that sun in your eyes,' which means '"behaving different due to proximity to someone or something deemed cool," something that happened more than I could have imagined', he writes in his upcoming book, West Winging It: An Un-presidential Memoir, published by Gallery Books.

  The 'coolest' president: Senior writer Pat Cunnane reveales how he witnessed 'countless moments of nonsense' and the 'glorious mystery' in Obama's West Wing +14
  The 'coolest' president: Senior writer Pat Cunnane reveales how he witnessed 'countless moments of nonsense' and the 'glorious mystery' in Obama's West Wing

  Pat Cunnane (pictured outside the White House with Conan O'Brien) served as a press wrangler and later, senior writer for President Obama +14
  Pat Cunnane (pictured outside the White House with Conan O'Brien) served as a press wrangler and later, senior writer for President Obama

  'You never knew who you would run into on the way to the mess, or who was waiting for you to exit the restroom...we had no shortage of high profile guests at the White House.'

  When Cunnane moved up from being what was called a press wrangler, sorting through the latest press stories, to become senior writer - responsible for scripting speeches, interviews, even jokes and accompanying Obama on trips - it became his dream job as he got to know the president as a funnyman, a nerd, a voracious reader, orator, thinker and family man.

  It was a fascinating gig to be working in the West Wing, 'where the stress is high, days are long and everything's accelerated in the foxhole.'

  'Even more than remarkable to me than tagging alone on Air Force One, I was one of the White House staffers tasked with telling the president's story,' he writes.

  But there were some hair-raising moments.

  One of them occurred when he nearly accidentally killed First Dogs Sunny & Bo.

  The two Portuguese water dogs came foraging through the press room looking for any leftover food or treats – and there were always plenty.

  The pups were on their own and on move when the first couple was out of the White House. A groundskeeper named Dale was responsible for keeping an eye on them.

  But this one time the dogs got away from Dale and headed straight for what they knew as a lucrative food source: the press quarters.

  U.S. President Barack Obama stands on stage with rapper Jay-Z and musician Bruce Springsteen at an election campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio (Photo by Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images) +14
  Hollywood East: Obama became a favorite in Hollywood and had a slew of celebrity guests throughout both of his terms. Above he is pictured with Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen at an election campaign in Ohio

  A well-known Obama fan and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio attended a climate change discussion at the White House in 2016 +14
  A well-known Obama fan and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio attended a climate change discussion at the White House in 2016

  Pope Francis was one of the big-name figures to visit Obama at the White House. Above they are pictured at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland in 2015 +14
  Pope Francis was one of the big-name figures to visit Obama at the White House. Above they are pictured at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland in 2015

  Suddenly Bo was sniffing out the remnants of a 'Chocolate Freedom', an extravagant chocolate lava cake with soft-serve vanilla ice cream in a cup.

  'I lunged for Bo the instant I saw him getting too close to the "Freedom," determined not to be the staffer responsible for killing America's First Dog,' Cunnane writes.

  But foraging for food was not the only trouble they got into. Obama had told Time Magazine that Sunny had a habit of defecating near the Lincoln Bedroom.

  Cunnane's role allowed him to witness 'countless moments of nonsense' and the 'glorious mystery' of the West Wing.

  He even reveals how on his first day, he accidentally slammed the door on Vice President Joe Biden's face.

  Feeling lost in the West Wing, he watched as Biden approached down a narrow hall so he had turned to get out of his way and exited out a large wooden door to the lobby letting it close abruptly.

  Biden had been speaking behind him, but assuming it couldn't possibly be directed at him, he had let the door slam - right in the vice president's face.

  'What? Am I talking to a door here?' he heard Biden say.

  Over time, Cunnane got over the mortifying incident and the two often eventually ended up at a urinal next to each other in the West Wing basement lobby bathroom – 'a four-stall, two-urinal affair,' where he learned one of Biden's favorite sayings – 'Nobody is better than you, but you're better than nobody.'

  The candid memoir about life in Obama's West Wing will be released on April 17, 2018 +14
  The candid memoir about life in Obama's West Wing will be released on April 17, 2018

  Over the next five years, he would get to know the 44th president as a funnyman, a nerd, a voracious reader, orator, thinker and a family man.

  From his vantage point in the West Wing as Obama's senior writer, the author learned that 'Privacy doesn't exist in the West Wing. People talk. People write books. Secrets don't stay secrets for long'.

  One such secret that quickly got out was the president's obsession with golf. He played it throughout his two annual vacations to Hawaii and Martha's Vineyard where press photos could make it look like the President was on the links 24 hours a day.

  Back at the White House, when Obama escaped to play his now favorite sport, the company press line was that 'he just enjoyed the chance to take a walk outside'.

  'But what also is true is that the man had become somewhat obsessed with the game'.

  On weekends Obama would try to fit in a round or two at Joint Base Andrews, JBA, the US Air Force facility that housed the president's planes.

  This was a nightmare for the author as a press wrangler at the beginning of his White House years when wranglers were responsible for what the White House press pool of reporters, camera crew and photographers did or didn't see on their travels everywhere with the president.

  That included foreign trips or to the golf course for a five-hour round.

  Press wranglers tried to distract the press from shooting pictures of Obama on the links by staging the press vans more than a block away from the course.

  'A duffed chip or missed putt could draw out trite, stretched analogies to a failed policy or flawed rollout from a bored press pool', the author writes.

  Fanatic: Cunnane writes that Obama had an 'obsession' with golf and tried to fit in a round or two at Joint Base Andrews every weekend. Press wranglers tried to distract the press from shooting pictures of Obama on the links by staging the press vans more than a block away from the course +14
  Fanatic: Cunnane writes that Obama had an 'obsession' with golf and tried to fit in a round or two at Joint Base Andrews every weekend. Press wranglers tried to distract the press from shooting pictures of Obama on the links by staging the press vans more than a block away from the course

  Cunnane, as well as many other former White House aides, have described Obama as a voracious reader +14
  Obama reads briefing material in 2012 +14
  Cunnane, as well as many other former White House aides, have described Obama as a voracious reader

  If the president hit one straight down the middle, the press would write that maybe he was playing too much and had too much practice time to get so good.

  In 2014, neither the Secret Service nor press were thrilled when Obama decided to make a break from his approved path around the White House and took a coffee break at Dunkin' Donuts - or so they thought.

  They had panicked that 'The Bear is loose', and made a run for the restaurant until they spotted a big commotion up Pennsylvania Avenue.

  Obama had gone to Starbucks without his press pool and pandemonium had ensued when they arrived.

  'C'mon guys, give me some space', the president asked, holding a coffee cup.

  'The poor guy just wanted to take a walk, but it was a reminder that he couldn't,' Cunnane writes.

  Responsible for covering the president continuously shooting stills, video, recording history, the press pool is recording history and any photo of the president could be the last. They are living historians of the White House.

  'They move like a pack, and when it's just the men, they verge on the vulgar'.

  One older photographer had proven to be vulgar, out of frustration over too much time on the road pre-Obama days.

  'He was said to have opened a competitor's luggage during an overseas trip and relieved himself on the contents of the bag.'

  Not-so-fashionable: Cunnane notes Obama's style had improved over the years and reveals the president at times would wear sandals with socks or 'unusually tight' sweat pants +14
  Not-so-fashionable: Cunnane notes Obama's style had improved over the years and reveals the president at times would wear sandals with socks or 'unusually tight' sweat pants

  Cunnane worked in the Upper Press offices for five plus years, 30 feet from the Oval office and reporters were free to enter those offices.

  That was a buffer zone between POTUS and the press and was typically six to ten feet deep.

  It was built into every presidential event and provided photographers with the 'hero shot': a from-below portrait of the speaker.

  It was a zone that Trump didn't let reporters into during his presidential campaign 'because he was not comfortable with the way his chin looked when photographed from below.'

  Cunnane learned that he wasn't just working for a 'rhetorically gifted robot' when Obama burst into the Upper Press office one day and asked, 'What in the hell is going on?'

  He was 'pi**ed' and wanted to vent about the ongoing payroll tax cut debate -- a proposed tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million annually while Republicans preferred spending cuts for the rich.

  'I was learning that Obama was something more complicated and much more impressive'.

  Another eruption occurred when the president was furious when the Washington Post Style section ran a story titled 'Michelle Obama's Posterior Again the Subject of a Public Rant'.

  Coffee run: Obama made a break from the preapproved path around the White House in 2014 when he snuck out for a Starbucks run without his press pool +14
  Coffee run: Obama made a break from the preapproved path around the White House in 2014 when he snuck out for a Starbucks run without his press pool

  Obama asked reporters to give him 'some space' after he went on a coffee run on his own +14
  Obama asked reporters to give him 'some space' after he went on a coffee run on his own

  'Totally disrespectful', Obama steamed.

  A high school football coach in Alabama had been secretly recorded saying, 'Fat butt Michelle Obama.'

  Coach Bob Grisham had been caught while ranting about the first lady's efforts to promote low-calorie school lunches and the federal government meddling in local business. He later apologized --- after being suspended.

  Reporters who came to the White House daily often brought treats and food – cupcakes, donuts, rum cake, cookies and chocolates.

  The Russian reporter brought vodka and one time showed up with a bottle with Obama's face on it.

  One wrangler asked if it should be swept for listening devices.

  'Where would they hide a bug in vodka?' one reporter who'd worked for Time magazine in Russia laughingly asked.

  'This was a few years before we realized just how active the Russians aimed to be at our highest levels of government', writes the author.

  Liquor was always free flowing at the White House that brewed its own beer, a honey ale and honey porter.

  It was considered delicious and stock was passed out to local Iowans while Obama was campaigning for his second term.

  Cunnane recalls how the president was furious when the Washington Post Style section ran a story titled 'Michelle Obama's Posterior Again the Subject of a Public Rant' +14
  Cunnane recalls how the president was furious when the Washington Post Style section ran a story titled 'Michelle Obama's Posterior Again the Subject of a Public Rant'

  During the marathon of holiday receptions, the infamous boozy eggnog got the better of guests and staffers. The recipe called for melting ice cream before pouring in multiple types of alcohol.

  The Office of Presidential Correspondence, which began during the Eisenhower administration, read through all incoming letters and emails to learn the voice of the people.

  One of the Cunnane's jobs was to include ten letters every night in the president's briefing book so the president was made aware of what mattered most to the American people.

  The most common words to come out of the daily correspondence: Guns, police, abortion, and help.

  It took 50 staffers, dozens of interns and hundreds of volunteers to read those letters and emails.

  When Clinton was president, women sent in their panties.

  The former aide told how he could've nearly killed First Dogs Bo (pictured) after he found the pup sniffing out the remnants of a chocolate lava cake +14
  The former aide told how he could've nearly killed First Dogs Bo (pictured) after he found the pup sniffing out the remnants of a chocolate lava cake

  'We've got another pair!' someone would call out. 'The amount of sexual stuff that came in for Bill Clinton cannot be overstated', Cunnane learned.

  Foreign trips were grueling – but the elegance of Air Force One made it less so.

  On long flights, the author noticed that Obama was becoming more stylish with more shirt buttons undone.

  But he wasn't always so fashionable in the early years.

  On overnight flights, his flight-casual gear might be 'an athletic zip-up sweatshirt (okay), unusually tight sweatpants (not okay) and sandals – with white socks (really not okay),' Cunnane writes.

  'It was a disconcerting vision of our very cool POTUS. But it seemed to keep him loose, because he kept it real on those flights'.

  On one flight late in the administration and on learning of 'Trump's plans, or lack thereof, to adequately address cybersecurity in the wake of the 2016 elections, 'That sh*t cray', Obama said, coming out of the conference room on AF1.

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  Cunnane did countless domestic trips with the president and nearly 20 foreign visits – travelling on AF1.

  On board the luxurious plane, O read briefing books, played spades with trusted aides, scrolled through his IPAD, played the game Words with friends, read the New York Times and books. He voraciously read books.

  After the G20 international economic summit in 2013 in St. Petersburg where global leaders debated what to do in the wake of a chemical attack in Syria and came to no agreement, President Putin told Obama, 'You've got some big b*lls'.

  'It was O's confidence wedded to his genuine humility that I witnessed connect in place after place, person after person, of every geography and station in life'.

  When administrations changed and Cunnane's assignment ended, he knew he would miss those days working in the White House.

  He didn't view it as humbling. 'It is not'.

  'It fortifies your focus and lifts your purpose' and 'there is no bigger ego boost than strolling through security, past the press, and toward the West Wing, feeling like maybe you belong'.

  Even 'countless moments of nonsense didn't replace the glorious mystery of the place --- they resided alongside my highest hopes and dreams'.

  West Winging It: An Un-Presidential Memoir is available for pre-order at Amazon

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  Read more:
  West Winging It | Book by Pat Cunnane | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster
  Amazon.com: West Winging It: An Un-presidential Memoir (9781501178290): Pat Cunnane: Books
  Share or comment on this article: Obama aide reveals president used to rub elbows with celebrities