The president strides to the beautiful and powerful machine, its engines roaring to life before the rotors begin their slow spin, the warm-up to lift-off. The young Marine is startled to find a presidential hand extended. "Oh! This isn't supposed to happen" he thinks to himself. "Oh, man! I have buddies watching me. Plus all the damn press. Come on..."
The president seems to be enjoying this as he boards Marine One.
The president takes his first trip on Air Force One, visits the press pool. Maybe he looks a little tired, a few more gray hairs, but he's young. He can take it.
The president deviates from the teleprompter, shows his steel.
I get these impressions, you know. I saw the photo of President Obama approaching Marine One, and the awesome expression on the young Marine's face. I do not see arrogance, as some (and we all know what "some" means) would call it. Maybe he's not always on time, maybe he's not really into all the protocol. But by-God, this might be a new sort of president.
He seems to keep us guessing, not quite sure what he'll do next, what he will say. He is a person. This president is a human, and he shows a human face.
But this is my opinion regarding whether he is arrogant or not. President Barack Hussein Obama is brilliant. Brilliant people can be arrogant. Arrogance to me is looking down on others...does an arrogant man offer to shake the hand of a youngster at the Presidential Chopper? Does arrogance smile at that young man? Does arrogance treat other people as, well, people?
It's Friday night and this is my diary. I am home from work, I've had my Guinness Draught, and a touch of whiskey. These are my impressions.
We are not used to this kind of thing. Actually speaking to the guard at the door of your helicopter? Shooting the crap with the reporters on your Presidential 747? Who is this guy anyway? Using terms like, "The American people expect...the American people demand..." I don't think he's arrogant, I think he's supremely confident. His mom taught him that, I think. She breathed into his soul the idea that he could achieve greatness. Many people talk about him, but few understand what greatness is. Not that I do exactly, but I think I know it when I see it. What are we about to witness?
The only time I feel supremely confident is when I'm writing. I'm good at it. The president feels confident all the time. He is comfortable in his own skin.
I wish I could tell you what I feel. I wish these impressions, their singular and potent congregating within my deepest heart...I wish I could bring these to you so you could see what I see. This really is our time. Oh, yeah, I know. We tend to second-guess, freak out a little about the appointments, their tax issues or whatever. But this is Washington, right? This is America, right? I don't like to get bogged down in the details. I'm a poet at heart, a romantic. The president says, in effect: "Quit worrying. We'll make it through this." Could we have ever imagined GW saying something like that? A different sort, alright. He is nearly re-inventing the Presidency. (That is how it feels to me, anyway).
I am not so naive as to think he waves a wand and everybody falls into place. No. But we have something here, someone here, who seems ready and willing to follow-up on what he says. But I do hold on to my romanticism. I like it on me. I believe the president has some of that, too. His wife likes it on him.
What kind of country do we want? What kind of legacy do we desire for the next generations of Americans? What gets you up morning after morning, facing another day? Does the guy in the Oval Office care? I think he does. I think he wakes up next to Michelle, who's about to transform our idea of "First Lady", and finds in his heart the strength that his mother gave him, the fierce and unbridled intelligence his father gave him...he gets dressed, and he begins. The president wants to know what kind of country we want.
President Obama is complex. We are not going to figure him out. But we can help him help us find our way out of eight years of darkness. Or has it been more than eight? Is that young Marine still thinking of a president--a man--who had the self-awareness to see him as a man, too? Mr. President, I salute your greatness.