John Podesta: Last Guys Standing

[babylonsister]

Last Guys Standing

By John Podesta
Thursday, August 16, 2007; Page A15


With Karl Rove's departure from the White House, the conventional wisdom says that it's all but over domestically and that the most the Bush administration can do now is manage the fallout from its failed Iraq adventure. It's as if the few remaining fans of the Bush administration are headed to the exits after the seventh-inning stretch.

As Bill Clinton's last White House chief of staff, I know reality can be far different. To be sure, we suffered through our share of "it's all over" stories, and we even found ways to laugh them off. Those of us who worked at the White House in the last years of the Clinton presidency knew something the media never seemed to get -- the American people elected Bill Clinton to do a job for them, and we were determined to help him do it.

That job was made easier by a president whose agenda was robust before, during and after the loss of Democratic control of Congress, the struggle with Ken Starr and the impeachment saga. Initiatives kept coming from the president himself, from the White House policy offices and from a Cabinet that was blessed with some of the longest-serving, most effective members in U.S. history.

So what lessons should the Bush White House take from our administration?

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081501924.html