“People ask me if it’s like that television show The West Wing,” says Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton’s second chief. “But that doesn’t begin to capture the velocity. In an average day you would deal with Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the budget, taxation, the environment-and then you’d have lunch! And then on Friday you would say, ‘Thank God-only two more working days until Monday.”

“People ask me if it’s like that television show The West Wing,” says Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton’s second chief. “But that doesn’t begin to capture the velocity. In an average day you would deal with Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the budget, taxation, the environment-and then you’d have lunch! And then on Friday you would say, ‘Thank God-only two more working days until Monday.”

— Chris Whipple