I also thought the questioning was pretty lame and that the President looked pretty tired...which led me to recall one of my favourite H. L. Mencken essays about the Presidency entitled "Imperial Purple" (1931) excerpts from which follow:
Most of the rewards of the Presidency, in these days, have come to be very trashy. The President continues, of course, to be an eminent man, but only in the sense that Jack Dempsey, Lindbergh, Babe Ruth and Henry Ford have been eminent men. He sees little of the really intelligent and amusing people of the country: most of them, in fact, make it a sort of point of honor to avoid him. His time is put in mainly with shabby politicians and other such designing fellows - in brief, with rogues and ignoramuses.
...
The honors that are heaped upon a President are seldom of a kind to impress and content civilized man. People send him turkeys, opossums, pieces of wood from the Constitution, goldfish, carved peach kernels, models of the state capitols of Wyoming and Arkansas, and pressed flowers from the Holy Land. Once a year some hunter in Montana or Idaho sends him 20 pounds of bear-steak, usually collect. It arrives in a high state and has to be fed to the White House dog.
...
When a President goes traveling he never goes alone, but always with a huge staff of secretaries, Secret Service agents, doctors, nurses, and newspaper reporters... The cost, to be sure, is borne by the taxpayers, but the President has to put up with the company... When the train arrives anywhere at all the town bores and scoundrels gather to greet the Chief Magistrate, and that night he has to eat a bad dinner, and to listen to three hours of bad speeches.
...
All day long the right hon. lord of us all sits listening solemnly to bores and quacks. Anon a secretary rushes in with the news that some eminent movie actor or football coach has died, and the President must seize a pen and write a telegram of condolence to the widow... Anon there comes a day of public ceremonial, and a chance to make a speech. Alas, it is discovered, at the last minute, to be made up mainly of gentlemen under indictment, or at the tomb of some statesman who escaped impeachment by a hair. Twenty million voters with IQ's below 60 have their ears glued to the radio; it takes four days' hard work to concoct a speech without a sensible word in it. Next day a dam must be opened somewhere. Four Senators get drunk and try to neck a lady politician built like an overloaded tramp steamer. The Presidential automobile runs over a dog. It rains.
In other news, life continues at its customary pace here in Juneau. Joan Kasson hosted a fun dinner party at her place last Friday - good eats and good company.
The weather S L O W L Y continues to improve - we've actually hit 40 degrees once or twice this past week. More snow tonight, however, followed by two or three days of rain. Rain. We need rain - as much as it pains me to say so...
The elders are doing OK - it was shower day for the Old Coot on Saturday and had to take him to the doc last Friday for a minor issue. He is gradually getting weaker - we had to stop to rest about three times during the short walk from the car to the doctor's office (less than 100 feet).
There has been a deer hanging around the back of the house the past week or so...nibbling on blueberry branches. The poor creature looks pretty thin although it seems otherwise healthy. We're all ready for spring!
On a brighter note, I just received my Holland America travel documents online and must now fill-out some forms and print out some stuff. I am counting the days...
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