Prologue

43 has been driven from the White House and is spending the weekend at the Camp David retreat before returning to Texas where he will spend the balance of days in obscurity, except when a reporter feels the urge to explain the shortcomings of 44's administration by pointing out just how terrible things were in the previous eight years. Beyond that, he will be permitted to work on his memoirs, ride his mountain bike and clear brush on his ranch.
The "historic" arrival of 44 in Washington occurred yesterday by special Amtrak train, taking eight hours to traverse the distance from Philidelphia to Washington. That is slower than Lance Armstrong could do with the Tour de France peleton, but not bad for a pubicly subsidized train. The entire event was covered by an intrepid CNN crew, seated outside in the freezing cold while the fortunate media types invited to ride the train were comfortably munching snacks and feeling good about the whole affair. Poor David Gergen, the token conservative on the panel, was sniffing every five seconds from an upper respiratory infection. No one offered him a facial tissue during the time I watched. The other panel members were Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Soledad O'Brien and Donna Brazille. Ms. Brazille is a current DNC bigwig and former Clinton operative. Her adversarial pedigree perhaps excuses her absolute failure to demonstrate an attitude remotely objective when it comes to the adminstration of President 44. What I couldn't figure out was why that exuberance caused her to abandon any shreds of common sense when it came to fantasizing about some of the activities to be undertaken by 44. She opined that he would take the opportunity to mingle with the citizenry of Washington in coming months, perhaps meandering over to a nearby farmers' market to buy green peppers from the vendors. She described Washington in such glowing terms that for a moment I forgot that its 2007 murder rate of 31/100,000 residents was fifth from the top of large US cities. I suspect the Secret Service might have an different opinion from Ms. Brazille regarding the wisdom of 44 walking the streets of Washington without a contingent of well-armed guards. Recall that in 1981, a deranged young man named John Hinckley was able to seriously wound President 40 and several others in front of a hotel in Washington. Despite having one of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation (although recently overturned) Washington is still a very dangerous city.
The tenor of the conversation in the group resonated with the general feelings extant in the press at large that the new administration will, just by being there, transform many of the challenges faced by the United States. Granted, a good leader can, by charismatic appeal alone, change the behavior of the citizenry and motivate them to perform at levels unobtainable by a less skilled leader. The great appeal of a leader like President 40 has been attributed to this principle. On the other hand, if the policies of a leader result in poor outcomes for a majority of the citizenry, no amount of charisma can sustain his position of influence and maintain high popularity levels. 44 begins his term with a high popularity rating in all polls conducted. One would expect that the pundits and publishers who supported his candidacy from the beginning will attempt to excuse failures on the basis of the previous administration's incompetence. Certainly those in attendance at the rooftop colliquy were of that mind. Ms. Brazille, the most highly partisan of them, can be expected to maintain her allegiance despite any evidence to the contrary. As for the rest of them, since the role of the mass media has evolved into one that amplifies any and all missteps by those in power, they will have no choice in the coming years but to climb out of the tank where they have resided as forecasters of the arrival of the chosen one, and begin to take him apart, piece by piece, until what remains will be fertilizer for historians.