President Obama’s Former 'Body Man' Reflects on Years as Aide

Reggie Love, President Barack Obama’s “body man” for more than four years, shared personal anecdotes from his time staffing the President during a speech at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Tuesday.

In an event moderated by Institute of Politics spring fellow Jay Newton-Small, Love reflected on lessons learned at Obama’s side as his personal aide, during which time he was responsible for “everything from [Obama’s] wallet to his personal device, briefing books, to making sure his luggage gets to the plane to the car to the hotel, to making sure he eats three meals a day,” Love said.

While working as a staffer, Love, a former Duke basketball player, said he developed a unique friendship with the President over the sport, even earning the nickname as the President’s “little brother.”

“What we’ll do is we’ll have the President play basketball with local firefighters and police officers in a morning game, and we’ll earn their respect and their vote,” Love said, recounting one experience of shooting hoops in New Hampshire.

Love also spoke about an episode where he lost the President’s briefcase, leaving it in Florida while on a campaign trip to South Carolina. He listed a series of mishaps and reiterated the idea of persevering through obstacles.

“I have a whole list of mistakes that were made, everything from pages of speeches being left out of binders, the teleprompter operator falling asleep, to the teleprompter glass breaking,” Love said.

One audience member asked Love how he was able to separate his personal and professional relationship with the President, while another thanked him for offering a human image of Obama.

While reflecting on the amount of media the President watches, Love recounted a particularly interesting email he received one night while working the White House.

“He consumes so much. I remember one day I got an email at one o’clock in the morning in the White House from the President of the United States and he says: what’s up with these ‘Buried Life’ guys,” Love said, referring to the television show on MTV.

A witness to many of the political accomplishments over the President’s tenure, Love emphasized the importance of remaining grounded in the community in understanding issues.

“None of these issues are won or lost on CNN,” he said. “These issues are won or lost in churches, or living rooms, town hall meetings, and places like here.”