I’ve been ruminating about what is missing by way of advisers in the White House. Our new president is certainly surrounded with some very smart people both in the White House itself and in the Cabinet. What I miss though is the sense that there is an old wise head whom he talks to late at night after he’s heard from those who are very close to the situation, including his political advisers (e.g., David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs). I mean someone who is not involved in day-to-day problems and politics, who probably doesn’t work for the administration, who has seen a lot of presidents come and go and has been around the block a few times. Someone, in other words, who has no ax to grind and is not looking for power and is not competing for the president’s ear. We have seen such in the past: the Washington lawyer, Bob Strauss, who has privately advised many presidents; Clark Clifford who was there for Lyndon Johnson among others; Lloyd Cutler who was brought into the White House by President Clinton to calm things down.

I feel the need, on behalf of Obama, for a pragmatist who is smart, not particularly partisan, who sees the larger picture and does not get too excited about populist outcries and the like. Paul Volker is clearly such a man but is seldom called upon, probably because Obama is relying on the people who work for him, some of whom may not be too happy at the idea of a late-night impartial adviser to the president.

Years ago, a man named Eugene V. Debs Myers was press secretary to Mayor Wagner. Debs, who died long before he should have, was overweight by at least 50 pounds and drank two or three drinks at lunch every day, was funny and popular and an outspoken pragmatist. During his tenure, there was a terrible crime wave in the subways. Subway crime stories filled the newspapers day after day and a political crisis seemed imminent. All kinds of crime experts and others were called in for advice. At the peak of the crisis, Debs went out to lunch, had a few drinks, returned, and put his head in the doorway of the mayor’s office and said, "Mayor, put more cops on the subways." The next day, the mayor’s office announced there would be a cop on every subway. Overnight there was almost zero crime on the subways and the demands for Mayor Wagner’s head ceased. 

I wish I saw a Debs Myers on the White House scene but I don’t.