Historians often write about the work habits of great leaders, heads of state, major creative artists and other extraordinary people. Some thought leaders can set schedules with no regard to others, and work in solitude. Non-democratic leaders can often bend the will of others to conform to their schedules and work habits, even if they're extreme. We've long known that Hitler worked at night and slept through most of the morning; we've learned in recent weeks that his late night music listening in the bunker at the end of the war also included prodigious amounts of cake. In the days before television coverage, when a president or a prime minister wasn't expected to be frequently visible before crowds or on television, they too could do the same; Winston Churchill, fueled by gin and cigars, famously worked through the night and often slept through the morning.
Among recent presidents, the Reagan White House was known for intrigue but generally functioned efficiently with little involvement in the day to day operations by the President himself. Bill Clinton's first years in office are typically described as shambling, unfocused seminars and late-night bull sessions, with flurries of activity, lots of games of hearts and little discipline. It was this atmosphere that led to the arrival of disciplined managers like Leon Panetta and Erskine Bowles. Since he spent so much time in undisclosed locations, little is known about the work habits of our most recent president, but the most recent guy who played president on TV wanted people around him to wear a jacket and a tie when they were on the set.
For a first draft of history on the working style of President Barack Obama, we have The Thirty Days of Barack Obama by Elizabeth Drew in the New York Review of Books:
As carefully as Barack Obama prepared for it, the presidency has held some surprises for him—some foreseeable, some not, and some of his own making. Seeking to avoid the mistakes of the early Clinton era, Obama concluded that, unlike Clinton, he didn't want to hold the numerous meetings that can chew up so much of the president's time. Instead, according to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, Obama's style is to drop by an aide's office—a restless man, he roams the White House corridors—or stop an aide in a hallway and ask, "How are you coming on that thing we were talking about?" Gibbs says, "The worst thing is not have an answer." Asked what happens then, Gibbs replied, "He gets that disappointed parent look, and then you better go find an answer."
Obama's publicly announced schedules have large gaps; he makes it a point to set aside time to step back and think—sometimes going for a long, solitary walk around the White House grounds—or make calls, or read. A night owl, he usually takes work home, to be studied after he's tucked his daughters into bed. Aides say he turns around paperwork fairly quickly, responding to and signing off on their memoranda. As for Obama's admission during the campaign that he can misplace papers, Gibbs told me, "It's easier now that he lives over the store."
Of Obama's approach to governing, Gibbs says, "He's not by any stretch a micromanager." According to another close observer, "The boys are running the White House"—by which he meant chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, chief campaign strategist and now senior adviser David Axelrod, and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, who was also chief of staff of the campaign. Gibbs is often called in for advice, because he's smart and he knows Obama's mind well. This cast of characters—Axelrod has the prized if unglamorous office adjoining the President's study—gives a strong political tone to the Obama White House. To the disappointment of a number of Obama's supporters, he also has continued the widely criticized practice of having an office of Political Affairs in the White House (headed by Patrick Gaspard, national political director of the Obama campaign and a longtime labor activist).
About two weeks into Obama's presidency, when I asked a White House aide if there was anything noticeable about Obama the president as opposed to Obama the candidate, he said:
There's a somberness and an intensity to his day that's extraordinary. I saw it occasionally in the campaign, but there were always light moments and banter; there's a funny side to him. Now he's determined and focused in a very serious way; it's a little sad.
The intensity, according to US News, is something shared by the top staff at the White House, and being directed by chief of staff Rahm Emanuel:
It happens every Saturday. That's when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel convenes a special meeting for members of President Obama's inner circle in the historic Roosevelt Room. There are no refreshments or snacks—not even a plate of doughnuts or a pot of coffee as a welcoming gesture. It's all business.
But the weekly Emanuel event is one of the most important sessions in Obama's White House. It's there that senior advisers map out the course of action for the new administration, often for weeks at a time. It's part of a master plan to seize the moment and use the current economic crisis to remake the country in some fundamental ways.
[...]
One of the participants says the sessions are held either in the late morning or early afternoon and often last for two hours. Among the attendees are senior adviser David Axelrod; public relations strategists such as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Communications Director Ellen Moran; Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Ron Klain; domestic policy aides, including Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council; scheduler Alyssa Mastromonaco; and national security advisers...
These previously undisclosed Saturday meetings show not only how long the hours are in Obamaworld but also how methodical and disciplined his inner circle has been in planning Obama's first 100 days as one of the most productive presidential beginnings in history. The hectic pace is not without costs. White House aides admit that they are already getting more than a bit tired. But they remain excited and highly motivated about their work.
Gibbs says Obama has always recognized that "the beginning of the year is the most opportune time to lay out your priorities." That's when a new president, cloaked in the aura of victory, has maximum leverage.
There is also what Obama has called "the fierce urgency of now." White House aides say Obama didn't have any choice but to move quickly with the stimulus package and the bailout of the financial industry. He realized that the economic meltdown was propelling the nation into a recession and needed to be stopped.
These are serious times, and serious times call for serious people who honor the office of President and the trust placed in them by the American people not with a dress code, but with discipline, passion and hard work.