The White House will be run like Chicago

Clinton brought Arkansas to Washington, and Texas followed Bush. Now, says Alexandra Starr, Obama is bringing the take-no-prisoners politics of Al Capone’s city to the Beltway

Washington may not have had an architectural makeover in more than two centuries, but the city’s political culture has shown a chameleon-like ability to change with each incoming administration. When Bill Clinton arrived from Little Rock, Arkansas 16 years ago, for example, he brought a penchant for late-night rambling discussions and a Southern disregard for keeping to schedules. Most of his underlings emulated those attributes, imbuing the town with a swing-by-the-seat-of-your-pants ethos.

President George W. Bush’s Lone Star state heritage came through in his cocksure swagger, emphasis on loyalty, and a cowboy-like disdain for memos longer than three pages. Many of his staffers also spent their formative years in Texas; even those who did not were soon priding themselves on ‘following the gut’ and scorning overt intellectualism.