BOY TOY IN CHIEF:

The Thirty Days of Barack Obama (Elizabeth Drew, 3/26/09, NY Review of Books)

As carefully as Barack Obama prepared for it, the presidency has held some surprises for him—some foreseeable, some not, and some of his own making. Seeking to avoid the mistakes of the early Clinton era, Obama concluded that, unlike Clinton, he didn't want to hold the numerous meetings that can chew up so much of the president's time. Instead, according to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, Obama's style is to drop by an aide's office—a restless man, he roams the White House corridors—or stop an aide in a hallway and ask, "How are you coming on that thing we were talking about?" Gibbs says, "The worst thing is not have an answer." Asked what happens then, Gibbs replied, "He gets that disappointed parent look, and then you better go find an answer."

Obama's publicly announced schedules have large gaps; he makes it a point to set aside time to step back and think—sometimes going for a long, solitary walk around the White House grounds—or make calls, or read. A night owl, he usually takes work home, to be studied after he's tucked his daughters into bed. Aides say he turns around paperwork fairly quickly, responding to and signing off on their memoranda. As for Obama's admission during the campaign that he can misplace papers, Gibbs told me, "It's easier now that he lives over the store."

Of Obama's approach to governing, Gibbs says, "He's not by any stretch a micromanager." According to another close observer, "The boys are running the White House"—by which he meant chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, chief campaign strategist and now senior adviser David Axelrod, and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, who was also chief of staff of the campaign.

Rather, he was haphazardly unprepared for the office.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 25, 2009 6:50 AM