Rivals, or a Team? Staffing and Issue Management in the Obama Administration

Rivals, or a Team? Staffing and Issue Management in the Obama Administration

To the dismay of their authors, serious books rarely become integral to presidential discourse. But nearly fifty years after Richard E. Neustadt's Presidential Power was glimpsed in John F. Kennedy's suitcoat pocket, Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals shot to like prominence during Barack Obama's run for the White House.1 In May 2008, Obama called Goodwin's take on Abraham Lincoln's cabinet “a wonderful book,” and endorsed the management style it described as what “has to be the approach that one takes, whether it's vice president or cabinet, whoever.”2 Indeed, when asked by CBS's Katie Couric what book (besides the Bible) Obama would ...