Reply #62: Boston Globe: "America has a president, not a king." [View All]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1998266&mesg_id=1998432

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> Aug-09-05 11:30 PM
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> Boston Globe: "America has a president, not a king."
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> JOAN VENNOCHI
> Mr. Bush, let's talk
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> By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist | August 9, 2005
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> http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped... /
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> AMERICA HAS a president, not a king. But just like royalty, the nation's commander in chief can keep his distance from the common man or woman.
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> Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a son who died in Iraq, is camped out in Crawford, Texas, trying to get a face-to-face meeting with the vacationing George W. Bush. She wants to tell the president that he should pull all American troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, was killed at age 24 in the Sadr City section of Baghdad on April 4, 2004.
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> Democracy in America begins with a very intimate connection between the people and those who seek to represent them. In the initial quest for votes, those running for elective office, including the presidency, will talk and meet with virtually anyone. There is no coffee hour too small to attend nor person too humble to approach. Once the vote-seeker wins office, it's a different story. The walls go up. The doors lock. The distance grows.
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Driven by personal grief, Sheehan does not accept the commonly accepted boundaries between the people and the person who occupies the Oval Office. With nothing to lose since she lost her son, she is barging into personal presidential space and posing rude questions.

How long before more Americans join her and the clamor invades the Bush castle -- and that other castle known as Congress?