With a White House staff shake-up looming, the metaphor of the month is that all it adds up to is re-arranging the deck chairs aboard the Titanic.  Will it make any difference if Rahm Emanuel leaves to run for Mayor of Chicago?  If Robert Gibbs quits the press podium after two years of trading barbs with Fox News?

None at all.  Did it make any difference when George W. switched from Andy Card to…  I forget who.  A president — any president — gets the advisors he deserves;  that is, the advice he wants to hear.  The only chief executive I’ve ever heard of who tolerated negative vibes was Thomas E. Dewey who, after presenting an idea to his staff, insisted they point out its flaws.  Probably the reason he never made it from the Governor’s mansion in Albany to the White House.