Just spitballin' here. Run it up the flagpole. All that.
It costs however many millions to take POTUS (any POTUS) anywhere on Air Force One. But pretty much wherever POTUS is s/he has the 'Washington bubble' blocking any meaningful interaction between POTUS and average citizens. I take both statements to be fact. So what can we come up with?
Bring ordinary citizens to POTUS inside the bubble. No, seriously. Go below the squiggly and read on.
Let's say you're minding your own business today in New Brighton PA, your phone rings, and it's the White House. The staffer explains (and you vaguely recall hearing something about this somewhere) that you're being offered the option to join 14 other local Pennsylvanians to be flown (free!) to DC on Wednesday, September 23rd, put up overnight (free!), meet the next morning for 15-20 minutes (infrequently even longer) with the POTUS, and flown (free!) back home that evening. You're under no obligation to accept, the offer is not transferable, there is no guarantee that something won't come up to cancel the meeting (and there will be no "rain check" but there will be a 'consolation' backstage tour of the White House), you may not record the meeting, and you will be subject to (reasonable) security precautions. FYI: POTUS schedules (and mostly keeps) meetings just like this 6 days per week, 52 weeks per year.
So what we end up with is this: the POTUS has regular near-daily contact outside "the bubble". Many $$$ are saved by keeping AF1 in the hanger (still available, of course, in necessity). The POTUS never ever comes to your city/state in person (or hardly anyone else's). Over the course of a 4-year term, you have about a one in 15,000 chance of being invited to meet personally with the POTUS. (The details of how specific persons get selected for the invitation would need to be worked out. I do like each day's group being from the same congressional district; maybe the feds buy 3 or 4 private planes to exclusively handle this traffic or bid it out or whatever?)
Crazy? Brilliant?
A final note:
I once got brutally flamed for not hanging around replying to comments. This time I’m at least including a disclaimer:
I’m at work. I’m fitting DK into time cracks as available. I will participate as much as I am able; if the boss swoops in with a project, that could be zero. Once 5:00 arrives, I’m commuting home. Family (and supper!) takes precedence. Sometime during this evening I’ll likely carve out some computer time. Beyond that, I’m back to “lurk mode”. Just so you know.