This is a point made repeatedly when we discuss presidential advising - they are far more likely to look to members of the White House staff when seeking advice. Obama is no different in this regard.
The larger truth is that modern presidents, with a
few exceptions, don’t need, and don’t use, Cabinet members as privy
councillors on the most important questions. They have other people for
that. Presidents do need competent, even if anonymous, executives to run
the vast machinery of the federal government, but most Cabinet
secretaries don’t really do that either—at least not in the classic
C.E.O. sense—leaving such work to their deputies and the professional
civil-service staffs. In fact, experience has shown, it is hard for
modern presidents to attract private-sector C.E.O.’s to serve in the
Cabinet because of the financial and personal sacrifices required. Hank
Paulson, George W. Bush’s Treasury secretary, once told me that if he’d
known how arduous the confirmation would be for his own
non-controversial appointment to the post he would never have left
Goldman Sachs. The Cabinet these days amounts to a kind of
demographically balanced assembly of team mascots, with increasingly
ill-defined roles. The Constitution stipulates only that the president
“may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each
of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of
their respective Offices.” Maybe Obama should ask for an occasional
postcard and leave it at that.
