A first-term White House chief of staff faces three great tasks: avoid scandal, get the president re-elected and leave without getting fired. It is remarkable how few chiefs of staff, over the past several decades, have accomplished all three. But James A. Baker managed to do so, guiding Ronald Reagan’s White House in the early 1980s and going on to powerful cabinet positions under Reagan and George H.W. In “The Man Who Ran Washington,” veteran reporters Peter Baker (no relation) and Susan Glasser, a husband-and-wife team, offer an illuminating biographical portrait of Mr. Baker, one that describes the arc of his...

Source: Wall Street Journal September 25, 2020 14:03 UTC