Post: #1

The article is long but very interesting. A couple of excerpts that give a taste:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

Quote:At a retreat for Cabinet secretaries held at Blair House six months after Obama took office, Gates pointedly informed a White House staffer that he wouldn't do the Sunday shows unless Obama or someone high up in the West Wing made the request. “I’m going to give you 15 hours a day, but I need to spend weekends to see my family and recharge,” he said, according to a person in attendance. “If the president needs me, I’ll do it, but don’t be sending some little shit to ask me.”

Quote:The West Wing’s obsessive control of messaging drove Gates crazy, and he felt crowded by young amateurs in the White House who had much less experience and much better access to Obama—guys like McDonough and speechwriter Ben Rhodes, who would weigh in after the secretary’s SUV had departed for the Pentagon. Over the previous four decades, Gates had served in a variety of posts, from deputy director of the CIA to the upper rungs of the NSC, and had seen a gradual increase in White House influence over internal Pentagon affairs. But that trend hit warp speed under Obama. There were far more deputies’ meetings attended by too many lower-ranking aides, and Gates believed an alarming number of White House staffers were being read in on specific war plans.

Chief of Staff Denis McDonough Vs Sec State John Kerry

Quote:McDonough’s own role in the chaotic recent internal deliberations over the civil war in Syria suggests that all the coffees in the world won’t change Obama’s basic reliance on a small coterie of staff. On Aug. 30, Kerry had just delivered an impassioned argument in the State Department Treaty Room for launching an immediate missile strike on Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, when Obama invited McDonough—his most trusted national security aide before taking up the chief of staff portfolio—for a long stroll around the White House grounds. (The incident is regarded as significant enough to have its own name inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: “The Walk.”) Obama returned to tell a stunned group of aides gathered in the Oval Office that he had decided to seek congressional approval first, despite dim prospects of passage.

The author really did a good job creating a narrative. I am a bit wary that maybe the explanations are a little too simplistic as these are large organizations with a lot of other people all influencing the major players. Still, an enjoyable sunday read.

Post: #2

This generation of staffers grew up watching "The West Wing", and they think that they should all emulate Sam Seaborne/Josh Lyman.