Nothing Is Sacred Anymore

There was a time, long ago, when American presidents were automatic members of an exclusive club. This club was not meant to place presidents above the people but merely apart from them, and for good reason. As any administration has demonstrated throughout our history - through staff members - people are people, and they are prone to vanity and as such have a propensity toward the loose-lips syndrome. While the public has a right to know most things, it is best that they not know all things.

Barack Obama will be only the forty-fourth member of this club in over two hundred years. That is a staggering figure when one considers the current population of the country as well as all who have lived and perished over the course of that time span. Forty-four people. And up until the forty-third, the club was sealed up pretty tightly. None of the alumni spoke ill of a sitting president, and no newly elected member would have uttered a word to staff about the traditional meeting between himself and the outgoing member.

Just as we have seen a steady decline of basic moral principles among the citizenry of America, the normally rock-solid governing structure has begun to crumble from the tremors. Since George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the protocols that once formed the cocoon of power have nearly eroded. Nothing is sacred anymore.

Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton held no punches in projecting to the entire world their utter contempt for one of their own. Whereas presidents before and between them reserved whatever judgements they may have had for their successors and predecessors for the prospect of a unified face to the rest of the world, and also out of respect for the office, Carter and Clinton had much less regard for the "club rulebook" than was ever alleged by the guards at Guantanamo in regards to the Qur'an.

Now we have the president-elect, Barack Obama, having the details of his meeting with outgoing President Bush, being reported in the media. According to The Drudge Report, it is not pleasing to the current president:

BUSH ANGER: OBAMA AIDES LEAK CHAT DETAILS
Tue Nov 11 2008 09:28:10 ET

Just hours after President Bush and President-elect Obama met in the Oval Office of the White House, details of their confidential conversation began leaking out to the press, igniting anger from the president, sources claim.

"Senator Obama would be wise to keep close counsel," a top Bush source warned.

There may be some people who view this as a trivial matter, but consider this; if a future lame-duck president takes from this experience a reticence to aid in the transition to his successor, it could weaken the chain of steady governance and jeopardize the security of the nation. These men - and future women - need to understand that there are surrogates who are well paid to conduct partisan political attacks, but that theirs is a fraternity (sorority) that must maintain its integrity, if for nothing else than the stability of America.

With the general society in the state it's in, it is crucial that this last pillar does not crush us all.

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