Abstract
It is self-evident that the presidency is a collective rather than an individual institution. Media pundits and academic commentators may use terminology such as ‘the age of Roosevelt’, ‘the Johnson years’ and ‘the Reagan era’, but these are simplistic labels concealing the truth that every modern president is utterly dependent on a large White House staff. A suitably skilled and effective staff is essential if a president is to stand any chance of carrying his ‘choices through that maze of personalities and institutions called the government of the United States’.1
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Notes
Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents (New York: Free Press, 1990), p. xx.
John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power ( New York: Pocket Books, 1982 ).
John Hart, The Presidential Branch ( New York: Pergamon Press, 1987 ), p. 125.
Fred Greenstein, The Hidden Hand Presidency: Eisenhower As Leader ( New York: Basic Books, 1982 ), p. 115.
James Pfiffner, The Modern Presidency ( New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994 ), p. 116.
See also Bradley Patterson, The Ring of Power ( New York: Basic Books, 1988 ), p. 29.
Dan Quayle, Standing Firm ( New York: Harper Collins, 1994 ), pp. 99–100.
Colin Campbell and Bert Rockman (eds), The Bush Presidency: First Appraisals ( Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham House, 1991 ), p. 211
and Burt Solomon, ‘In Bush’s Image’, National Journal, 7 July 1990, p. 1642.
James Pfiffner, ‘Establishing the Bush Presidency’, Public Administration Review January/Febuary 1990, pp. 64–72.
Bernard Weinraub, ‘White House: The President has a Cabinet that is (a) runaway (b) powerful. (Choose one.)’, New York Times, 19 May 1989, p. A14.
David Hoffman and Ann Devroy, ‘The Open Oval Office Door’, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 14–20 August 1989, pp. 6–7.
Burt Solomon ‘When the Bush Cabinet Convenes… Its a Gathering of Presidential Pals’, National Journal 1 July 1989, No. 26, pp. 1704–1705.
Also Solomon, In Bush’s Image’ op. cit., and Ann Reilly Dowd, ‘How Bush Manages the Presidency’, Fortune 27 August 1990, pp. 38–43.
Lyn Ragsdale, Presidential Politics ( Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993 ), p. 223.
Panetta goes in goal’, The Economist, 2 July 1994, p. 44. For Rockman quotation see Juan Williams, ‘John Sununu, The White House Chief of Gaffe’, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 2–8 December 1991, pp. 22–23.
For other negative views of Sununu’s tenure see Michael Duffy and Dan Goodgame, Marching in Place (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), Ch. 5, Pfiffner, The Modern Presidency, op. cit., Chapter 3, and ‘The President’s Chief of Staff: Lessons Learned’, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. XXIII, No. 1, 1993, pp. 77–102.
Peter Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency: The 1988 Campaign ( New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989 ), pp. 258–262.
Kristin Clark Taylor, The First to Speak ( New York: Doubleday, 1993 ), p. 190.
At an early stage Sununu said rather revealingly to a journalist: The staff is beginning to realize that they don’t have to prepare a 15 page memo for me. They can wander in and raise an issue and I can give them a decision by the President either at 4.45 or the next morning. You get rapid feedback.’ Bernard Weinraub, ‘Sununu, the Staff Chief, Is Learning the Ropes the Hard Way’, New York Times 6 February 1989, p. Al2.
David Hoffman and Ann Devroy, ‘The White House Tough Guy’, Washington Post National Weekly Edition 5–11 Febuary 1990, pp. 6–7.
Dan Goodgame, ‘Bush’s Big Bad Cop’, Time (International Edition), 28 May 1990, p. 42.
Eleanor Randolph, ‘The Man Washington Loves to Hate’, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition 17–23 December 1990, PP. 6–7.
R. W. Apple, ‘Emotions in Check, Intellect Not, Sununu Wins Reluctant Respect in Capital’, The New York Times, 13 September 1989, p. A18.
On the ‘Air Sununu’ matter see, for example, Edwin Yoder Jr., ‘Puritan in Babylon’, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition 29 April-5 May 1991, p. 28.
Burt Solomon, ‘George Bush’s Congressional Crew Has an Oar or Two Out of Sync’, National Journal, 24 June 1989, pp. 1650–1657.
Bernard Weinraub, ‘White House Staff Makes Series of Tactical Errors’, New York Times 1 March 1989, IV, p. 4.
See, for example, John Podhoretz, Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies 1989–1993 ( New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993 ), pp. 81–82
and Charles Kolb, White House Daze: The Unmaking of Domestic Policy in the Bush Years ( New York: The Free Press, 1994 ), p. 5.
Quoted in Bernard Weinraub, ‘How the President lost his tongue, or, the Bush speechwriters leave a mess’, New York Times, 7 April 1989, p. A14.
Don Phillips and Bob Woodward, ‘An Ambitious Pragmatist Takes Over’, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 9–15 December 1991, p. 9.
Marjorie Williams, ‘An Eagle Scout Gets His Wings Clipped’, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition,15–21 June 1992, pp. 6–9.
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© 1998 David Mervin
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Mervin, D. (1998). Organizing the Presidency. In: George Bush and the Guardianship Presidency. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26719-4_4
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