Hillary Clinton's management style: George W. Bush in a pantsuit?

Posted 36 weeks 3 days ago by Ben

Lawmakers rarely make good executives. Oh, sure, there are exceptions. As a rule, however, the job requirements are just different. So all three current contenders for the presidency -- John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- would move into the Oval Office next January with unique handicaps. But let's take a look at Hillary Clinton, because she's in the news.

A story in today's New York Times highlights Clinton's lackluster -- the piece actually calls it "dysfunctional" -- campaign management style. One paragraph in particular cried out:

Mrs. Clinton showed a tendency toward an insular management style, relying on a coterie of aides who have worked for her for years, her aides and associates said. Her choice of lieutenants, and her insistence on staying with them even when friends urged her to shake things up, was blamed by some associates for the campaign’s woes. Again and again, the senator was portrayed as a manager who valued loyalty and familiarity over experience and expertise.

Sound familiar? See here, here, here, here, here, and -- oh, gosh, why not? -- here.

Now, here's the New York Times from last October:

Mrs. Clinton’s orbit is known by the now-clichéd “Hillaryland,” suggesting a carefree atmosphere. In fact, she presides over an office of intense and focused workaholics, protective of their patron and wary of outsiders, a trait that has drawn comparisons to the leadership team of George W. Bush. The president surrounded himself with advisers who went back to his Texas days and were similarly lauded for loyalty and criticized for insularity.

The senator herself has dismissed such comparisons. In the same Times story, we learn that "(Clinton) contrasts what she calls the 'echo chamber' around the president with her own willingness to expand her own circle, hear disputes and solicit opposing views. 'I’m very interested in how you reach and implement decisions in a very efficient way,' she said."

Sure. Sure. I guess we can take her word for it. But wasn't the Democratic standard-bearer supposed to end the trust-me presidency?