“In retrospect,” says Fallows of Carter’s White House, “there should have been some way to empower Ham as the confidant, as the trusted truth teller. And somebody else would be the one asking, ‘Okay, where should we be six months from now? Where should we be two years from now?’ Every president is destined to fail in some way, because the job involves a wider range of talents than any person has. And so, yes, every president should have a chief of staff who makes a complete whole. And few of them do.”
