Dear blog: Congress makes me so mad sometimes
What if George W. Bush had a blog? Now, I don’t mean what if he was technologically capable to create and manage his own website and blog interface–that is too much to ask–but what if he had a website or just a newsletter like a blog or a LiveJournal where he would confess his inner thoughts like a diary. It wouldn’t have to be government secrets or damaging information on his thinking about America’s relationship with China; it could just be a daily grind of domestic affairs, what he did that day or where he wants to go with the country or government–his objectives.
The reason I bring this up is because I started thinking about what it would mean for the President to have a blog in situations such as the current one with Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney catching heat for the leak incident. Would a presidential blog make America trust W more?
Nixon kept tapes during Watergate, but he never released them. What if he had made daily memo logs like a little Captain Picard throwback diary and released it to the public everyday. Would that bring the President into our daily lives? Today, it seems like Bush is locked away in his White House ice palace with no entry or exit. The gates around the White House get taller and thicker everyday. In a land of freedom, we have to break down a tremendous barrier to actually get to what the President is thinking. I mean what the President is actually thinking, not just what his speech writers have created. Personally, the whole idea of a speech writer seems untrustworthy. Someone can assist you in writing a speech but delivering a message composed by a public relations department and okayed with several different handlers just seems like lying. I want my president to be able to speak for himself and know what he is trying to get across.
Would a presidential blog make our president more honest? If we knew more of what he was thinking, his insecurities and his goals–the good and the bad–would it make for a better country or a worse one?
There are those that want to know what the President is thinking and accept his fears and his concerns with what he is doing and then there are those that don’t want to know when our president is unsure or afraid of a decision; some people just want to close their eyes and sleep at night without concern that the country is all going downhill. I think there is a happy compromise in that relationship where you could take what a president is concerned about without interpreting it as a weakness or a mistake. Our presidents have flaws just like each and everyone of us, and I don’t think it is fair to pretend like just because they run the country at the moment, they never trip over their shoelaces or fall off a couch while choking on a pretzel.
Humanity in the presidency could be a big step in building better morale in the country and maintaining a high approval rating. Granted some people don’t read blogs or look online, but those that do would probably be the most concerned about the state of the country in the first place. Politicians are proving the online community has an interest in politics because of the many viewers of political blogs online and the number of people taking part in new forms of campaign fundraising online. Candidates have had lunch with their supporters online and collected donations through the Internet. This could be the future of elections and of campaigning. What if the candidates didn’t have to travel as much–granted they would still have to visit certain places–in order to visit with their supporters?
It could be a whole different world. W, you need a blog–just ask Nixon. An open White House might not hurt you in the long run if you played your cards right.
Technorati tag: blogging, bush, whitehouse.
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