NO, I'M SURE YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, DESPITE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY

According to the New York Times review, Robert Draper's book Dead Certain challenges one widespread assumption:

This is ... a president who Mr. Draper says doesn't defer, as widely believed, to Vice President Cheney and Mr. Rove....

That's hard for a lot of people to believe, especially with regard to Cheney -- and yet Draper isn't the first non-Bush fan to say this. Could it actually be true?

I think so. I think the explanation comes a bit later in the Times review:

The best approach to selling the ever-competitive president on an idea, aides told Mr. Draper, was to tell him, "This is going to be a really tough decision."...

Mr. Draper writes that Mr. Bush was "at root a man who craved purpose -- a sense of movement, of consequence" and that he was irresistibly drawn to Big Ideas like bringing democracy to the Middle East, Big Ideas that stood in sharp contrast to the prudent small ball played by his father, who was often accused of lacking the "vision thing."

It seems to me that Bush probably doesn't defer to Cheney per se. Instead, Cheney probably knows precisely how to frame an issue so Bush will "decide" to do just what Cheney wants -- presumably by telling him, "This is going to be a really tough decision." Set up torture prisons? Invade Iraq? Bomb Iran? Cheney is probably expert at telling Bush that everything he (Cheney) wants is visionary and consequential and definitely not small ball, and that's probably how he gets his way all the time.

Remember the line from The Washington Post's "Angler" series:

It is well known that Cheney is usually the last to speak to the president before Bush makes a decision.

I'm sure Cheney is very deferential, very polite, while getting the last word. Also very, very persuasive.