Being “the man” behind “the man” is not so easy. Just ask any of chief of staff, who get no credit and just the blame for being the eyes and ears for the president.
“The relationship between the president and his chief of staff is both personal and professional. The president needs to have someone who can listen to him thinking out loud,” Jack Watson, former White House Chief of Staff for President Carter, said on Wednesday’s show. “One of the most important responsibilities of the chief of staff is to ensure the president hears the range of voices and the range of different opinions that he needs to hear in order to make informed decisions.”
The U.S. chief of staff has always been a man. But the first female chief of staff may arrive soon. “I think historically the circumstances have been such so far at least, that the people who were closet to the presidents, who were closets to them in their election campaigns and policy considerations and so forth have been men,” Watson said. “That’s not something that will continue indefinitely and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if in the near future a White House chief of staff is a woman.
Abby Borovitz