I& #39;m not a White House ethics person, but here& #39;s a small story to show how governing & campaigning is supposed to be separate. When I was a Member of CEA, I accompanied Obama to an event on working families. Participating in a round-table event w/ POTUS was exciting! [1/x]

I briefed him in the limo, we talked policy and research along the way. He had read the background material so I was on my toes answering detail questions. The event went well & then we returned to the plane & took a quick stop for a campaign event [2/x]

At the campaign event, POTUS & political staff got off the plane. I had to stay put. Why? Because I was a policy person and the White House wanted to keep policy separate from campaigning. Even the appearance of mixing up policy making with campaigning was not okay [3/x]

I ate cake on Air Force One with one of the Air Force officers whose birthday it was and waited to go home.
We all had ethics. No federal taxpayer dollars were used inappropriately. Those boundaries sometimes seemed silly. I now understand how incredibly important they are.

I fear that people outside of DC shrug at the small ethics violations because the one seems small. But it& #39;s not the one violation, it& #39;s the whole of them, taken together, and what they mean for governing in a fair & ethical way.