The Gatekeepers

How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency

By: Chris Whipple

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Now with a chapter on the chaos in the Trump administration, The New York Times best-selling, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions - and inactions - have defined the course of our country.

What do Dick Cheney and Rahm Emanuel have in common? Aside from polarizing personalities, both served as chief of staff to the president of the United States - as did Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta, and a relative handful of others. The chiefs of staff, often referred to as "the gatekeepers", wield tremendous power in Washington and beyond; they decide who is allowed to see the president, negotiate with Congress to push POTUS's agenda, and - most crucially - enjoy unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks.

Through extensive, intimate interviews with 18 living chiefs (including Reince Priebus) and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, revealing to us how James Baker’s expert managing of the White House, the press, and Capitol Hill paved the way for the Reagan Revolution - and, conversely, how Watergate, the Iraq War, and even the bungled Obamacare rollout might have been prevented by a more effective chief.

Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, The Gatekeepers offers an essential portrait of the toughest job in Washington.

©2017 Chris Whipple (P)2017 Random House Audio

Great panorama in punchy moments; laugh-out-loud

This book accomplishes so many things, so many ways. It is a flyover of familiar US history through a new lens and with a new pivot:White House Chiefs of Staff. That was a wise choice, as is proven again and again. It gives us a new template or measuring stick to compare to our own times and leadership. We get the big sweep of events and re-experience those pivotal headline moments, as culled from many witnesses and memoirs. Yet, this is all done moment by moment, with a richly "you are there" feeling. Also, this is an excellent set of case studies in top-level organizational governance, good and bad. And it is a great way to spend an afternoon or a few, being enlightened and entertained.
Though there are relatively "good guys" and bad, the author is great about giving scenes more dimensions through the words of several people present, sometimes clashing. (I always found memoirs troubling on account of the hundreds of pages of self-apologia, so I appreciate this author laboring among all those pages to stitch this together.) Here, I never felt I was having my nose rubbed too heavily in one point of view. The moments and the players are each marvelously carved out and given vibrant life. Many eyewitnesses get to roll out their best lines (often causing me to break into big smiles and laughter). I saw unknown sides of many people (such as the courtly James Baker III's repeated expression, "rat-****"). The narratives as delivered here are at once sobering, yet in the very same moment, eerily, tragicomically jarring and strange at turns. Wow, this is our country. Our way of staffing our top leadership plays out in very bizarre ways, and along weird trajectories from Day One of a term. (Some, I reflect, are more surreal than others.) We do need to refresh our leadership, and have a very open field from which to choose our leaders, but this has its costs. It is not ideal for staffing. Or maybe, in some incalculable way, it is good, somewhat like the constant disruption of economic competition and progress can be good. No facile answers are offered here; just great stories.
History rhymes, right? Well, never in whole sequences, but pieces of it do. Many of these pieces bear comparison to current events. It was interesting to consider, for example, the outsider-stance and weaknesses of team formation (and overconfident perceptions) present in Jimmy Carter's administration, and the somewhat woeful results in the view of many Americans, though Carter in other ways could not be less like Donald Trump. The clarity of this book makes these thoughts easy for me to access. Likewise the crucial Nixon traits, and indeed the whole Watergate story, is worth revisiting now, dealt up in punchy vignettes here, especially through the lens of Nixon's COS H. R. Haldeman. Despite his great skills and setting a high bar in some ways, Haldeman failed to rein in the worst instincts of Watergate cowboys like Liddy. So too Reagan's seemingly offhand agreement to install COS Donald Regan seemed to lead to big fumblings on events running off the rails with a similar character, Oliver North, in Reagan's time. It is easy amid these tales to think of possibly similar characters in Trump's orbit. Management is SO important! And it is a many-faceted art, as we see here.
This is a book I got caught up in, and burned right through. That's my best compliment.

Really enjoyed it

A wonderful book about the role of the Chief of Staff. Enjoyed it start to finish. The odd fumbled sentences regarding the Oklahoma City Bombing and the strong opinion on Benghazi and Whitewater momentarily took the wind out of its sails, but it’s only a few sentences of the book. Overall, really great.

great eye opener for new chiefs of staff

Because the function of a chief of staff is difficult to define. this book provides great insight into practical aspects of the job. I loved it. Jim Baker all the way...

I have recommended this to everyone I Know

This book is so well written that it is accessible to anyone you do not need to know each person in detail. I recommended this book to a friend who does not like non-fiction and lived in England most of her life, and she loved it. Do not hesitate to get this book.

A Great Listen

This was a great book, discussing the history of a position that can determine the success or failure of an American President. America spends so much time focusing on the president that people forget that the staff has to execute the presidents agenda. Having a strong chief of staff is vital for a successful presidency. Mark Bramhall’s narration was calm, informative and entertaining. I’ve listed to it in full or in parts multiple times and will continue to do so. Highly recommended!

Great history of the Chief of Staff position

The author goes chronologically from the Nixon Administration through the Obama administration summarizing the tenures of each of the chiefs. He has excellent access to the principals and described many of the highs and lows of the administrations and how those related to the roles of the CoS. He also has good information about the personalities of each of the chiefs and how that either helped them serve their presidents or got in the way.

He makes the case over and over that the modern presidency cannot function without a strong CoS, which was attempted by Carter and Clinton. He also suggests that 'principals' -- CoS who take themselves too seriously do not function well in the job (Sununu and Regan). Finally, his stories also show that presidents are not generally well served by CoS who are too close, as that prevents them from giving bad news or tough advice to the presidents.

Extremely well researched and very interesting read, and each of his major points are generally well supported by interviews from those who were in the position.

The only loose end is that while these characteristics seem necessary, they are not enough to prevent disasters from occurring on their watch, which the author confronts most directly with Haldeman and Nixon. Not the fault of the book, but just a reflection of the fact that both people and the world of politics in Washington are very complicated.

Good

I love the book. I hope that President Trump has a good Chief Of Staff to help him

The story & the reading were fantastic!

I loved this book, and the narration was great! Mark Bramhall's voice is deep and somewhat gravely, and that came off as a little grating to my ears at first. Yet, as I continued to listen, his voice seemed to fit perfectly with the subject matter and was actually quite pleasant.
As for the story itself, I was deeply fascinated in hearing the recounting and unfolding of history. It was also quite interesting to hear events from the point of view of the Chiefs of Staff as well as aids and Cabinet members. This book shed bright light on the important, practical workings of the presidency otherwise unknown or not cared about by the public. I only wish Mr. Whipple could have spent more time on a single Administration, so we could get to know the persons involved and could really see the human effect of the job of the Chief of Staff and of the clashing of such titanic personalities. Perhaps Mr. Whipple should write a sequel with this in mind.

good but dias

the political bias of the author is evident. is telling me the accounts of the chief of staff is fascinating despite his leanings.

Riveting!

I loved this book! Couldn't put down. if you haven't already ready read it, you should.