Cabinet members, senior advisers—even friends—could be influential with the president, but Rumsfeld believed the chief of staff was unique. “You’ve got other people who see the president once a week, once a month, once a year,” he explains. “Even though they may have been good friends before, they don’t have the ability to pick the right moment to talk to him and tell him what he does not want to hear. Because the chief of staff is with him day in and day out, he has the ability to select moments when he can look at a president and tell him something with the bark off. He is the one person
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