O'Neill Depicts a Disengaged President

Former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill says Bush was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people" in cabinet meetings.

According to the CBS material, O'Neill told Suskind that Bush was so inscrutable that administration officials had to devise White House policy on "little more than hunches about what the president might think."

Between this and Bush not reading newspapers to educate himself, it leads one to question where the check on Cabinet power is in this administration. Sure, O'Neill was fired, but only to deflect criticism away from Bush on the sagging economy and budget troubles.

The fact that Bush supposedly receives all his information about current events from Cabinet members is scary when you consider the potential consequences of such a model. The president should be engaging in a two-way dialouge with the Cabinet. From the outside looking in, it appears that's not happening either because Bush simply isn't knowledgeable about the issues or is too lazy to do so.