Julian Zelizer says Obama's White House will operate much like Bush's
Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University, said Mr Obama and Mr Bush stood for very different things, but added that the Democrat "runs his campaign with the same sort of methodical efficiency and closed nature of the Bush White House".
"He's not going to have a freewheeling White House where people are free to go out on their own and do what they want and be allowed to talk to the press," Mr Zelizer said.
Senator Dick Durbin, a long-time Obama friend and fellow Illinois Democrat, said Mr Obama created a tight ship by being willing to hear things he did not like from aides while not attacking them when mistakes were made.
"There were setbacks, but there was no bloodletting," he said.
Mr Obama relies most on a small, hard-to-penetrate inner circle of aides who are expected to be both tight-lipped and tight-knit; he demands loyalty and staffers get a "no drama" speech upon hire.
He is a leader who thinks first, decides later and remains calm in a crisis. His calm temperament, often criticised as indecision by his opponents, was seen during the global economic crisis which could still dominate the early days of his presidency.
Mr Obama has not finished his first term in the US Senate yet, and before that had just eight years as a state politician, but his style as a candidate predicts a CEO-style president, one who delegates rather than micromanages.
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"He's not going to have a freewheeling White House where people are free to go out on their own and do what they want and be allowed to talk to the press," Mr Zelizer said.
Senator Dick Durbin, a long-time Obama friend and fellow Illinois Democrat, said Mr Obama created a tight ship by being willing to hear things he did not like from aides while not attacking them when mistakes were made.
"There were setbacks, but there was no bloodletting," he said.
Mr Obama relies most on a small, hard-to-penetrate inner circle of aides who are expected to be both tight-lipped and tight-knit; he demands loyalty and staffers get a "no drama" speech upon hire.
He is a leader who thinks first, decides later and remains calm in a crisis. His calm temperament, often criticised as indecision by his opponents, was seen during the global economic crisis which could still dominate the early days of his presidency.
Mr Obama has not finished his first term in the US Senate yet, and before that had just eight years as a state politician, but his style as a candidate predicts a CEO-style president, one who delegates rather than micromanages.