Does anyone remember a President who could walk into a crowd?

With all of the security preparations for January 20, I wonder if people really realize how much our country has changed?

No vest. No bullet proof glass. No armored limo. He drives his own jeep around his home town and Havana, and is genuinely welcomed wherever he goes.


Been there, seen it.

I wasn't ready for this. Somethimes posting is like dropping a line in the water. Sometimes it opens up a new paradigm. Your answer was that for me. It was a great observation.

Therefore: Walking around without the fear of getting shot is a sort of imprisonment, depending upon who you ask.

All this 'strength', 'courage', and 'conviction' which has been attributed to him is nonsense.

To me, he'll always be Commander Bunnypants.

Since the jodi foster nut took a shot at reagan, its never been the
same, IMO. I got to see jimmi carter and even touch his hand at
a los angeles fair ground unplanned and i don't even recall seeing
any security detail... it was an enthusiastic crowd delighted to meet
the man... NO FEAR.

Waterfront Park, right in the "fishbowl" area, some 50,000 people surrounding the temporary stage, and nary a fence or "First Amendment Zone" in sight.

Bush is truly Commander Bunnypants.

venture into a crowd of ordinary Americans. He'd be scared shitless and with good reason.

and I doubt that he'll EVER be able to. People won't forget the damage he's done - I know I won't.

anyone in the media would mention this. The fact that Clinton could walk in a crowd, or could visit foreign nations and be WELCOMED. With shrub though . . . It's saddening.

It will be a bunch of evangelical, right wing, fundamentalists but the photo caption won't indicate it.

Shrub couldn't carry his pen.

he doesn`t trust anyone. he would never be in a situation that he couldn`t control. he has no desire to mix with the great unwashed. i get the feeling he`d have to take an immediate shower after any encounter with the common folk.

I only remember back to Eisenhower, but he could and he wasn't at war.

Kennedy wasn't technically a war President but he had a hand in early Vietnam, (Eisenhower too) and you know what happened to him.

Johnson, that wasn't his style unless highly scripted and he was a war President. Lots of draft age kids would have taken a pot shot at him after 66.

Nixon, absolutely not.

Carter could. Somehow he did not seem a threat to the rest of the world (especially Iran).

Reagan had Lebanon and the Iran Contra and got shot.

Bush the first would have been shot if Iraq had succeeded after Iraq round One.

Clinton had Kosovo but we were more peace keepers and really, everyone wanted to be him (for lots of reasons).

Bush the second wont ever be out in the public eye mixing with unscripted crowds again, ever.