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To be sure, there have been some intense policy disagreements in the top ranks of the administration.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has battled Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly over how to deal with the Middle East, Iraq, North Korea and other issues.

The president receives a daily intelligence briefing from CIA Director George Tenet and relies heavily on national security adviser Condoleezza Rice for information on foreign policy. Rice says she tries to give Bush the full range of opinions on various issues, along with her advice.

On some issues, the president has reached far outside the White House for advice. He consulted a host of religious leaders, scientists and medical ethicists before determining federal policy on stem-cell research, which uses cells from fetuses. But in a 2002 memo describing his White House experience, former Bush aide John DiIulio called the stem-cell decision a notable exception to the norm.

Determining how White House decisions are made is always difficult. Insider accounts can be tainted by bias, score-settling and limited knowledge of the president's contacts.

Clarke's credibility has been attacked fiercely by Bush defenders, who charge that Clarke has political motives. O'Neill, by his description, was politically naive.

"Most, if not all, presidents — and I would certainly put George W. in this category — reach out to more people than anyone appreciates," said Roger Porter, a Harvard University presidential scholar who served as an economic adviser to the first President Bush. Porter, a friend of O'Neill's, disagrees with the former treasury secretary's assessment of the president.

"There's only one person who knows who influences him," Porter said, "and that's the president."

Former White House speechwriter David Frum defended Bush's decision-making style, saying it encourages timely action and definitive judgments.

Bush himself has said he has no doubts that he's receiving good advice and an adequate range of opinion.

"I'm confident in my management style. I'm a delegator because I trust the people I've asked to join the team," he said in a television interview late last year. "I'm willing to delegate. That makes it easier to be president."

It's his management style. If you don't like the results, you wouldn't like the style regardless of what it is.

If liberals are more inclusive it is only because they enjoy rolling their eyes and winking at each other.

There are things about Bush's style that bother me but the same could be said for other candidates.