The CEO presidency

摘要

Remember the CEO presidency? Remember all the talk about how America's first president with an MBA would set broad "strategic" goals while his loyal and leak-free "board" of seasoned businesspeople would decide how to implement them? And remember all the sneering comparisons with the chaotically unprofessional Clinton administration? Well, the chaos is back. An administration that was supposed to run as smoothly as clockwork has recently been clattering from crisis to crisis, with the FBI and CIA waging a war of leaks against each other in the press, with officials issuing endless warnings of imminent terrorist attacks, and amid a general sense that things are drifting out of control. George Bush was frequently tired and grouchy on his recent trip to Europe, hardly the best way to reassure nervous allies. Then Andrew Card, Mr Bush's chief of staff, added to the sense of gloom in the White House over the impending departure of Karen Hughes, the president's communications director, with a foolishly frank interview in Esquire magazine. One of the keys to the administration's success so far, he argued, has been the balance between the ideological Karl Rove, senior adviser to the president, and the more pragmatic Ms Hughes. Her departure could, he implied, tilt the White House in a dangerously right-wing direction.