Washington (CNN) -- Valerie Jarrett does not like to talk about herself.



I know this because we've sat down on numerous occasions for interviews, going back to the early days of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. But this one was perhaps the most challenging because the focus was on her.



She is fiercely loyal to Obama, as one of his closest friends. But she also advises him as president, with the title of Senior Adviser and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison.



The ultimate insider does not spill the beans. But doing a series on the power players inside the White House would not be complete without looking at Jarrett's role.



She has called her relationship with the president a "mind meld."



"We're good friends who have known each other for a long time," Jarrett says. "Eighteen years, you get a pretty good sense of him."



Her first sense of him came in 1991 when Obama was a young law professor in Chicago, Illinois.



Jarrett was interviewing his fiancée, the future first lady, Michelle Robinson, for a job in Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's office. The protective partner, Obama, was making sure Jarrett was on the up and up.



Jarrett first explained the scene when I interviewed her in May 2008.



"They sat next to each other and when she was speaking he would just look at her with this adoring look,"Jarrett said with a laugh, "but he was really tough on me in the nicest possible way."



The three became fast friends. Now Obama says he runs every important decision by Jarrett, trusts her completely and considers her family.



When I bring this to her attention she accepts her role humbly.



"Well, I hope he would trust me the way any close friend does. He knows I have his best interest at heart and that I understand, because I'm part of the administration, the myriad of challenges he faces," Jarrett says. "So I hope he views me a sounding board, someone who's going to be honest, direct and candid with him at all times."



She laughs when I suggest perhaps she is his consigliere.



"You can tell I'm uncomfortable with this," she says when I try to get her to focus more on her role.



She does not like to be singled out from the rest of the White House team.



Instead she paints a picture of what it would be like if I were in an Oval Office meeting with the president.



"When everyone's done talking, if there've been a couple of people who've been quiet, he'll say, 'Well, Suzanne, what do you think of this issue?' " Jarrett says.



She describes his style in running the meetings as "accommodating."



"He reads people very well. He's extraordinarily perceptive. He can tell from the body language if someone is uncomfortable with something," Jarrett says.



But she can also read the president's body language when he's heard enough talk.



"He's not moody, but you can tell when he's ready for a conversation to end," Jarrett says. "He enjoys making sure there is robust debate, but when he's finished with debate he's finished. He's ready to move on. So I can detect when enough is enough, let's bring in the next issue."



Jarrett says newcomers to the administration have pulled her aside to get her take on how things were going.



"Particularly early on, people who didn't know the president as well as I did would come to me after a meeting and say 'What did he really mean? I know he said this, but what is he really thinking?' and I took such delight in being able to say he meant exactly what he said. That's who he is."



It's the intangibles that Jarrett sometimes brings to the table.



"People are always looking for the hidden intent, the body language,
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