Obama Can Learn From Cheney's Management Style

Barack Obama's “template” for exercising executive authority should draw from Dick Cheney, the most influential figure in the Bush administration, Steve Clemons writes in the Huffington Post. Cheney finessed followers “beholden to him” into positions throughout the vast intelligence and national-security bureaucracies, spreading his doctrine without needing “Rumsfeld-style ‘snow flake memos’” to explain what he wanted done.

Obama allies have suggested he will keep “a micro-focus on policy,” which could sidetrack his presidency as such tendencies did Jimmy Carter’s. Despite the ills Cheney’s done to US interests, Clemons writes, Obama must “begin to think about how you clearly convey to your team criteria for decision-making and a guide for responses to complex, unexpected challenges”—and follow Cheney’s effective example. (More Barack Obama stories.)