The Casual-ty of the Presidency

It is an observation that I have noted since President Obama has taken office and I have been trying to pinpoint where it has stemmed from and who or what is to blame for it. I was going to start a list of observations, but I didn’t exactly have a mobile list to work from whenever something came to mind. For the longest time, I thought it was something that was started by members of the Republican Party. But when looking at it from a whole, others seemed to be to blame for it, including President Obama himself. And I don’t think that either party can claim being responsible for starting this first.

But since President Obama has taken office, there seems to be this “casualness” of the Presidency. A casualness where there is no longer this reverence associated with the actual person or the Office. Here are some examples:

1. I can recall very early in President Obama’s presidency when there were people who complained that President Obama was not seen wearing a tie every day at the office.
2. President Obama has made himself available to the late night talk show circuit – something that I don’t remember with any other former sitting President. I recall candidate Bill Clinton making a surprise appearance on “The Arsenio Hall Show” wearing dark sunglasses and playing “Heartbreak Hotel” on his saxophone. But this was in 1992 during his first campaign for Presidency. I just never recall seeing a President appear on talk shows or late night shows. Particular
3. A huge contributor to this viewpoint is that I have heard many people, whether from news agencies, politicians, actors/actresses, and those of the general public who refer to him as Barack Obama rather than President Obama. Worse yet was during the campaign when Republicans tried to sway voters by always including his middle name, Hussein, as if to instill fear in us.
4. And we can’t forget when Republican Congressman Joe Wilson from South Carolina yelled, “You Lie!” to President Obama during his address to Congress. If something like that was said twenty years ago, the congressman would have been run out of town. What I couldn’t believe was how partisan it became when the thought of admonishing Wilson was suggested. Republican party leaders would have suggested the same thing had it been the other way around. I even read one blogger who thought it was a double standard when the outgoing President Bush was “booed” when introduced during President Obama’s inauguration speech. Even I thought it was a bit tacky and rude considering he was finally headed out of office, but this was a “boo” that was heard from numerous people, people who were out in the sea of millions who attended the Inauguration. You can’t exactly pinpoint who was responsible.

I think the Presidency will lose its importance and the associated reverence that it has had if these habits continue. The Presidency is hard enough as it is, whether you’re Democrat or Republican, but if the job loses the respect it deserves, who would want to take on this position? And if no one wants to run for the Office, we’d get someone who mounts Alaskan moose or salmon on the walls or bear skin rugs on the floor of the Oval Office. And the President couldn’t claim to be able to see Russia from her (White) house.

Even before President Obama, I think the Presidency began to lose its “luster.” If only today’s 6 year-old children who want to be President knew what they were getting themselves into 29 years later.