Barack Obama’s Friendly-Fire Problem

Glenn Thrush reported in 2013 that Obama seemed never to take much of his Cabinet all that seriously, and didn’t make many efforts to keep them happy and feeling valued. Bush, by contrast, made loyalty the paramount value of his White House. It’s easy to see how the two approaches could have different outcomes. Or maybe it’s just about the faster pace of media and life, and an unwillingness by former secretaries with strong views to let those views go unaired during a key moment.