Imagine An Honest and Humble President

Quote of the season:
“We are brothers.”
--Nouri Dawoud, a Muslim living in Baghdad, talking about the customers of his Christmas-tree stand.

Quote of the day:
“You know it’s not a good wax museum when there are wicks coming out of people’s heads.”
--Rick Reynolds

Post-Christmas Factoid of the Day:
Santa started wearing red and white clothing after an ad campaign for Coca-Cola in the 1930s.

Quote of the day no.2:
“My fellow Americans, I once asked you for your prayers, and now I give you mine. May God guide this wonderful country, its people and those they have chosen to lead them.”
--Gerald Ford, in his final State of the Union address, January 12, 1977.

Much has been said and written about Gerald Ford’s presidency. And there is more to come in the days ahead. What stands out for me is the difference between Ford’s approach and what we’ve seen over the last two administrations.

Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon was very, very unpopular, and pretty much caused the end of his political career. He took this action knowing that it was unpopular, and knowing that he would face negative consequences.

His advisors were against the pardon, but Ford knew that the presidency and the nation would be preoccupied and possibly damaged by a long legal battle. He also made what turned out to be the correct decision, to put the Watergate years in the past so we all could begin again. When he did it, his rationale was simply that it was the right thing to do, for the presidency and for the country.

I’m not sure that either of our last two presidents could make such a decision, for several related reasons. First, the world of news and national politics and how they relate has changed so much. When Ford was president, news cycles were still dictated by the deadlines of newspapers and the network evening news. Now, we live in a world of constant deadline. Each tidbit of news or microscopic change in political barometric pressure is reported instantly and repeated endlessly and everywhere.

On top of this, each tiny tidbit of “news” is instantly analyzed and commented on. Trains of supposed logic rumble down the track of speculation until conclusions are pronounced with finality, 20 minutes later. All it takes is for the merest morsel of “news” to drop into the gaping maws of hundreds of well-made-up and beautifully-coifed talking heads whom we have awarded the respect that is supposed to be accorded those with genuine education, experience, perspective, and judgment.

“News” is in quotation marks because the aforementioned tidbits/morsels are most often dished out with astonishing self-interest by those whom the news is about. It could be Paris Hilton, or it could be George Bush. The level of self-interest is identical.

Example: this morning the lead item on the radio news was that President Bush met at his Crawford ranch with his various advisors. That’s it. He met with his advisors. Why would I care about that?

This “news” was released by the White House and gobbled passively yet voraciously by people who, if we lived in a more-just world, would actually be out seeking news instead of waiting around for the next official press release to be delivered to them (sometimes with refreshments). This item was deemed the most important news item because it came with the White House seal of approval.

What all this means is that, over the last 20 years or so, the Presidency has become less a vehicle for leadership and more a marketing machine. And I guess we like it this way and support it this way, or at least most of us do. We seem to be used to it.