The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency

by John Dickerson

Today, we notice when the president doesn’t show up. We demand presidential comment or action on most events in American public life. We expect the president to hasten to the scene of a natural disaster and comfort the afflicted. We expect the president to administer needle and thread when the national fabric tears, or at the very least to reach for the sewing box of unity. We hope the president will strike deals—or at least strain for bipartisan solutions—by schmoozing with opponents over medium-priced wine in the Blue Room of the White House. We assume the president will promote morality in foreign affairs based on the idea that it makes America safer, and that a country founded on human liberty is obligated to promote it and protect it elsewhere.