Changes

...domestic politics had a role in the debates about national security issues that I had not previously experienced.}}

...domestic politics had a role in the debates about national security issues that I had not previously experienced.}}

Def. Sec. [[Leon Panetta]] said:

Def. Sec. [[Leon Panetta]] said:

{{Quotebox|[P]roximity is everything when you’re operating at the White House. The person that’s closest to the president has greater influence than even a cabinet member, who may be located elsewhere in a department...Staff people tried to read, 'what is it that the president wants?' And then try, through the back door, [to] influence the direction of policy. What that does is it undermines the very process that a president needs, in order to get the best discussion and information possible, to be able to make the right decisions.}}

{{Quotebox|[P]roximity is everything when you’re operating at the White House. The person that’s closest to the president has greater influence than even a cabinet member, who may be located elsewhere in a department...Staff people tried to read, 'what is it that the president wants?' And then try, through the back door, [to] influence the direction of policy. What that does is it undermines the very process...}}

{{Quotebox|[[Susan E. Rice|Ambassador Rice]] would often start with, ‘This is what the president wants.’ ... that’s the way our National Security Advisor should start a meeting with the National Security Council... there were a lot of reasons those meetings kind of descended into kind of nonsense.}}

==See also==

==See also==