"What Obama really looked forward to, said his friends, was the period that followed the presidency"

Consider this passage: “What Obama really looked forward to, said his friends, was the period that followed the presidency, whenever it arrived,” Kantor writes. The president’s close friend, Eric Whittaker, says Mr. Obama talks about going back to walking in the streets and wandering around bookstores. Another close Obama friend, Marty Nesbitt, says the president has told him he will be able to accomplish a lot after leaving office “because he would finally be free of politics,” Kantor writes…

In an interview for the book, Mr. Gibbs is highly critical of Ms. Jarrett, saying “her viewpoint in advising the president is that she has to be up and the rest of the White House has to be down.”

The comments could make for awkward campaign strategy meetings, as Ms. Jarrett and Mr. Gibbs are expected to have key roles on Mr. Obama’s re-election effort, as they did in 2008.