The President Is Missing

by Bill Clinton

Nobody has a tougher job than the White House chief of staff. She does the little things, sure—the personnel issues and the scheduling. She’s also right there with me on the big things. She has to do it all because she’s also the go-to person for members of Congress, the cabinet, the interest groups, and the press. I don’t have a better surrogate.

Makes me think of Leo from The West Wing.

“I can’t. Lester, I can’t. I’m asking you to trust me.” There was a time when that statement, from a president to a House Speaker, would be enough. Those days are long in the rearview mirror. “I can’t agree to that, Mr. President.”

Speaker Lester Rhodes cannot let it be known that he decided to trust that caricature during this important moment.

Participation in our democracy seems to be driven by the instant-gratification worlds of Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and the twenty-four-hour news cycle. We’re using modern technology to revert to primitive kinds of human relations. The media knows what sells—conflict and division.

There is a reason that the founders of our country put a civilian in charge of the military. Because it is not only about military effectiveness. It’s also about policy, about values, about what we stand for as a nation.

There are no easy solutions to problems like these, so I try to follow my own advice—understand my limitations and keep doing whatever I can to make things better.

The headline: THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING.

Cue end title credits lol