On the other hand…
Considering the sorts of things they’re likely to have on their minds at any given moment, it’s amazing that Presidents can muster half a rueful smile or a short, sad chuckle, never mind make with the jokes.
The predator drones joke I was complaining about this morning was a loser in more ways than one and should have been cut, but really---Presidents can’t make jokes about their jobs and their work days the way the rest of us can. Just about every single thing they do on the job is a matter of life and death for someone somewhere.
Right now the President’s worrying about school buildings getting swept away in the floods in Tennessee, about the Gulf of Mexico and and a long stretch of the Atlantic along the southeastern coast turning into a gigantic oil slick, and about a would-be car bomber on the loose in New York, all of that added to his mental in-box in just the last week on top of the reason he has those predator drones he warned the Jonas Brothers about and that other war and the woeful state of the economy and the deficit and…and…and…and…ad infinitum.
And I’m testy and snappish and far from usual effervescent and witty self because I’m stressing out over the car needing a new muffler and I can’t find the time to take it in to Midas?
Instead of asking how he could have made the predator drone joke, maybe I should be asking how he can bring himself to make any jokes at all and how can he smile like that?
By which I don’t mean that I think the President shouldn’t make jokes. I mean, What is your secret, sir? How do you that and please keep it up.
Mom Mannion has always maintained that Jimmy Carter lost his bid for re-election two years before the first vote was cast in the first primary---when he stopped smiling.
And it’s not a coincidence that he lost to a man who almost never stopped smiling.
Our most beloved Presidents are the ones who without ever letting anyone doubt they understood the gravity of their situations or felt the weight of the burden on their shoulders kept on smiling.
Let’s hope President Obama keeps smiling. As Nancy Nall says, when the President is having fun “he looks like he’s having the most fun of all.”
Our most beloved Presidents are the ones who without ever letting anyone doubt they understood the gravity of their situations or felt the weight of the burden on their shoulders kept on smiling.
That is the trick, isn't it? On the one hand, we don't like it when they sink into pessimism (however warranted) and on the other, we hate it when they fail to grasp the gravity of the situation (hello, Bush). 'tis a narrow line to walk, that.
Posted by: Rana | Tuesday, May 04, 2010 at 12:11 AM