UK PM David Cameron leaves 8-year-old daughter in local pub

[happyslug]

40. I agree with tone of your whole article

US Security around the President is excessive, it is Imperial in nature. With that level of Security of an Emperor, you also end up with an out of touch leader, leaders who are controlled by the people around them, the people who can control who sees the President and what the President actually sees. Best example of this was the 1992 Presidential campaign. George Bush the elder was running for Re-election against Bill Clinton. As part of the campaign Bush wanted to show he was like a normal American and thus went "Shopping". Everything worked out, he followed the footsteps that showed him where he was to go, picked up the things he was to buy and then to the Cashier. The problem was at the Cash Register. It was an electronic scanner system and he commented that he had NEVER seen one. That made the news for the simple reason almost every large store had gone to that type of system over 10 years before. The Footsteps he followed only came up as people looked into his comments (The Footsteps could be explained away as pre-existing, thus deniable), but his comment to the Cashier could NOT be explained away, it showed how isolated he had become as Vice President and then President from 1981 till 1992.

The last President to have direct contact with the public was Harry S Truman. He was noted for going on long walks even while in the White House. They were stories of him out walking his Secret Service detail and they catch up with him, as he was talking to someone he meet on the Street. Eisenhower wanted privacy, thus he preferred to be in Air Force One where no one could get in touch with him even by Phone (He was the last President to actually use a Train for transportation as oppose to a Campaign prop but that was early in his Presidency and saw the sale of the Presidential Train in the late 1950s, sold while he was still President).

I have not heard of any good stories of Kennedy meeting strangers while President, but Lyndon Johnson was known to talk to anyone and stop anywhere to "press the flesh". Here is the story of how he became the owner of his dog "Yuki", notice LBJ's daughter had stopped at a regular gas station to get gasoline:

Yuki was a mixed breed dog found by President Johnson's daughter, Luci Nugent, at a gas station in Texas on Thanksgiving Day in 1966, while on her way to the LBJ Ranch. Luci named the dog "Yuki", which means "snow" in Japanese. At first, Yuki lived with Luci, but while visiting the White House, Yuki won the President's heart and became his faithful companion. On the President's birthday, August 27, 1967, Luci told her father that he could keep Yuki. When President Johnson left office on January 20, 1969, Yuki returned to LBJ Ranch with the President on Air Force One. After Johnson's death in January 1973, Yuki went to live with Luci Johnson Nugent and her family. Yuki died in 1979.
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/faqs/dog/doghouse.asp

Nixon was a special case, he was known to have gone to an Anti-War demonstration to "debate" with the demonstrators at the same time he was known to be both mechanically challenged (he was known to break even the simplest of things built to make life easier) AND a social introvert. Why he became a Politician people can debate for years and NOT come to a conclusion for he was NEVER a people person.

Like Kennedy I have NOT heard anything about Ford and the public, but Carter was known to like to touch the flesh, his activities since his Presidency clearly shows that. Carter started the Democratic Tradition of Walking down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration day (Followed by Clinton and Obama).

Reagan was easy to isolate by the people around him and he became more and more isolated as his Presidency came to an end (There has been speculation that the increased Security around Reagan, even refusing to go to a public meeting with other leaders of the Western World, was more to prevent the world from seeing the first signs of Alzheimer's then any real concern about Security). Clinton was another people person and known to "Press the Flesh". Bush only wanted his friends around him, thus easily isolated by those same friends.

Now, Since the attempted assassination of Truman in 1950 by Puerto Rican nationalists) and Kennedy's assassination, the trend has been to increase security around the President which has the side affect of further isolating the President. This trend increased under Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan with only minor reduction under Kennedy, Johnson and Carter.

More on the activities of Puerto Rican nationalists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_Nationalist_Party

Bush's administration adopted "Free Speech" zones, areas away from the President where protesters were isolated to. Thus Bush could never see any protest against what he was doing UNLESS the people around him wanted him to see it. Such "Free Speech" Zones have NOT been used by Obama, but no court have ever ruled them unconstitutional (The First amendment gurantees the right to "Petition" which includes asking the President question he does NOT want to address, peaceful protest is viewed as a method of "Petition" thus protected Free Speech. In public forums the "Free Speech" zones should be Clearly unconstitutional (Through if the activities are on 100% private property permitted) but no court, on appeal, has even ruled that a meeting even on Public land, is an unconstitutional restriction of the Right to Petition in addition to the right to free speech.

Just a comment on how restrictive the Security around the US President has become since the 1940s. It is so restrictive, it is isolating and that makes it bad.