The gatekeepers: how the White House Chiefs of Staff define every presidency

Introduction: "I brought my pillow and my blankie"

"The Lord High Executioner" : H.R. Haldeman and Richard Nixon

"Beware the spokes of the wheel" : Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Gerald Ford

"The smartest man in the room" : Hamilton Jordan, Jack Watson, and Jimmy Carter

"One hell of a chief of staff " : James A. Baker III and Ronald Reagan

"Don't hang up on the First Lady" : Donald Regan, Howard H. Baker Jr., Kenneth Duberstein, and Ronald Reagan

"The prime minister" : John Sununu, Samuel Skinner, James A. Baker III, and George H.W. Bush

"An iron fist in a velvet glove" : Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, Leon Panetta, Erskine Bowles, John Podesta, and Bill Clinton

"The decider" : Andrew Card, Joshua Bolten, and George W. Bush

"Between bad and worse" : Rahm Emanuel, William Daley, Jacob Lew, Denis McDonough, and Barack Obama.