It's time for a public president

There’s something special about a presidential campaign. The candidates are so human.

It seems that too often, after a former candidate assumes office, he becomes this out-of-touch semi-human figure that stands behind a podium every now and then and shakes someone’s hand every now and then. Sure, we’ll hear about them attending major events, visiting important countries and vetoing important bills, but how many Americans can say on a even just a week to week basis what their leader is up to?

No longer is the President of the United States the leader of the people. That man has been replaced by a distant figure that lurks behind the scenes, poking his head out every now and again to remind us all to vote for him.

Instead, we look to the media for leadership.

Now I’m not trying to bash the media – hell, I’m a member of it. But the media should never be the leader of the people. The media should be a watchdog, to make sure that leader fulfills his responsibilities.

The next president needs to change this dynamic. And it wouldn’t be hard to do. As President Bush has said, being president is “hard.” But would it be out of line to ask our elected leader to talk to the people once a month? A once a year state of the Union address is no longer sufficient in an environment of 24-hour news networks and constantly updating websites (blogs?). How can we be expected to have faith in our leader if the only time we hear him is through media summaries? What if Bush had gone on a news program once a month? Ok. I know he’s an idiot and probably would have faired rather poorly, but even so, what if he had taken an hour each month to sit down with a news reporter? And the thing is, it wouldn’t even have to be news programs. What if he and Laura had sat down on The View? Oprah? Anything. Really.

What if a president sat down and honestly and openly told the people what he was doing, why there’s a problem, what’s difficult about it or anything else? Can you imagine? An honest and open president?

That president would be a leader of the people.

But, alas, this is probably just a pipe dream.