Two Things The Next President Should Do...

[Lord Jim]

That have nothing to do with ideology:

1. When the President wants to address The Nation, they should do it seated in the Oval Office...

This presentation where the President (I believe it began under GWB, but it may have been Clinton) walks out from a corridor to stand in front of a skinny little lectern, where he looks like "oh gee whiz, I'm supposed to make a speech" is incredibly diminishing versus the gravitas of The Oval Office...

2. Bring back The Prime Time Press Conference

At least once every four months, the President should hold a press conference in Prime Time....(6 PM Pacific time, 9 PM Eastern time)

The last President to do this regularly was Mr. Reagan; since then, Presidents have used cable news to do their press conferences in the late morning and early afternoon, when almost no one is watching, and their spinmeisters spend the rest of the news cycle spinning what they said...

The POTUS ought to stand up on prime time network television at least three times a year to answer serious questions of the day...

If that means that Dancing With The Stars gets pre-empted once every four months, to me that looks like a small price to pay...

[oldr_n_wsr]

They can pre-empt Dancing with the Stars but not The walking Dead.


But I don't diasagree with your suggestions.

[Sue U]

That have nothing to do with ideology:

1. When the President wants to address The Nation, they should do it seated in the Oval Office...

This presentation where the President (I believe it began under GWB, but it may have been Clinton) walks out from a corridor to stand in front of a skinny little lectern, where he looks like "oh gee whiz, I'm supposed to make a speech" is incredibly diminishing versus the gravitas of The Oval Office...

This something I just don't care that much about. But for those who get all gushy about "optics," I think it depends on the nature of the message being delivered. If the President is coming out to deliver breaking news ("I just murdered Osama Bin Laden"), there's nothing wrong with doing it from a lectern in some White House vestibule. If the president is making a policy speech ("Let's review the prospective economic impact of a negotiated trade deal with zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....") the Oval Office may be a better choice. Or maybe not.

2. Bring back The Prime Time Press Conference

At least once every four months, the President should hold a press conference in Prime Time....(6 PM Pacific time, 9 PM Eastern time)

The last President to do this regularly was Mr. Reagan; since then, Presidents have used cable news to do their press conferences in the late morning and early afternoon, when almost no one is watching, and their spinmeisters spend the rest of the news cycle spinning what they said...

The POTUS ought to stand up on prime time network television at least three times a year to answer serious questions of the day...

If that means that Dancing With The Stars gets pre-empted once every four months, to me that looks like a small price to pay...

It might be a good idea, but there's a reason the networks don't carry press conferences now, let alone in prime time. Most TV-watching people simply don't want to watch that, and advertisers are not paying top dollar to have millions of eyeballs wandering away from the from previously scheduled programming.

[wesw]

1) respect the legislative branch

2) respect the judicial branch