In Frenetic White House, A Low-Key 'Outsider'

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 7, 2009

President Obama's national security adviser, James L. Jones, looks for rare opportunities to ride his bike from his McLean home to work at the White House. On occasion, he has pedaled back across the Potomac River for lunch. He tries to end his workday at 7 p.m.

In recent weeks, Jones has been portrayed in foreign policy articles and blogs as too measured and low-key to keep pace with the hard chargers working late hours in the West Wing. Some senior White House officials questioned early on whether Jones, 65, a retired four-star Marine general who barely knew Obama before the election, would succeed among younger staffers whose relationships with the president were forged during the long and arduous campaign.

"He's not very visible," said I.M. Destler, co-author of a recent book on national security advisers. "I'm a skeptic on whether Jones has the sort of flexibility and ability" required by Obama, Destler said.

White House officials who cited early misgivings, more stylistic than substantive, insisted they have now disappeared. But Jones acknowledges that the road has not always been smooth, and he appears more comfortable than some of his administration colleagues in saying they still have some distance to travel.

(More here.)