The American
President (Part I)
By Mohammad Ashraf
Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
He is not a monarch, but he is the closest thing
we have to a monarch, says Cormac O’Brien
in his book, “Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents”.
He is, the “Chief Executive, Commander-in-Chief,
Leader of the free world; … a figure who
encapsulates elements of celebrity and patriarchy
all at once.” Most people view him as the
most powerful and influential man on earth. And
who would dare denying it! He is addressed as
Mr. President, (the only exemptions being the
Presidents, 9, 21, and the 23, namely, William
H. Harrison, Chester A. Arthur and Benjamin Harrison
respectively). When he smiles, the world blossoms;
when he frowns, the world mews. American people
hate monarchy, but they love to see the man they
choose in the Monarch’s Robes.
The Congress may create a legislation, but it
is his signature that makes it a law. If he chooses,
he can veto a bill, and if he feels necessary,
he may pass as many Executive Orders as he deems
proper. People choose him for a four-year term
to lead them, and inspire them. History tells
us that in the last 216 years, since George Washington
became the first President of the United States
of America in 1789, there have been a total of
43 of them. These (39 dead, 3 former and 1 serving),
individuals have impacted and shaped the world
far more dramatically than all the erstwhile Caesars
and Sultans; Emperors and Emirs combined. Whether
the world lives in peace and in prosperity; or
it slides into the vale of death and destruction,
much depends on who sits in the Oval Office, the
man known to the world as the President of the
United States of America.
Accumulation of so much powers in one mortal is
what makes this office so important, and so inconceivably
powerful that even the occupant himself feels
compelled to need a honeymoon time to convince
himself that it is all real. This also, however,
in turn, makes this job the world’s hardest
assignment. The world may like it or not, but
the ground reality is that it, the world, now
virtually is like the spokes tied to this wheel
of power, to borrow a Shakespearean analogy for
a leader; if he (the president) bends, the spokes
break automatically.
George Washington was the first to occupy this
office, after winning his people their independence.
In addition to the gift of Independence, he gave
his grateful nation three more gifts: the principle
of civil rule over the military.(He practically
lived this rule as he resigned his Commission,
and refused to accept the offer for a life-time
term of C-in-C) second, his gift of a two-term
presidency.(Once again he applied the rule on
himself first and refused a third-term in that
office); and third his principle of neutrality,
not isolation, when dealing with the world. All
he wished in life was to get back to Mount Vernon,
sit by the fire and drink Madeira and grow tobacco.
Some contend that since he didn’t sire any
children, therefore, he didn’t aspire to
create kingship. Wrong! Leaders with a vision
see very far into the future. Who cares if he
was short-tempered; what matters most is the quality
of his leadership, his vision for a new nation
and his self-less devotion to his people.
Abraham Lincoln with this Trust of power was able
to keep the nation united when it stood so widely
divided; Franklin Roosevelt in this office managed
to steer the nation through the Great Depression,
and blunted the fascist aggression; Kennedy successfully
confronted the Soviets in the Cuban Missile Crisis
through a daring though dangerous move; Nixon
took America to China, and Reagan brought the
Berlin Wall down. In our recent past, Clinton
backed by this Trust almost succeeded in defusing
the mother of all problems, the Middle East Crisis,
besides, turning the all-time deficit into a surplus.
Only a natural born, 14-year resident within the
United States, and of 35 years old American, (not
an immigrant), can be eligible to this great office.
In the words of Cormac O’Brien, “…close
contacts to big businessmen and enormous piles
of cash can make things easier… Most of
them (the past Presidents) showed consistent and
great leadership, reminding us that they were
not only presidents but also human beings, flawed,
neurotic, hapless, frightened, and sometimes depraved.
We continue to revere them for their accomplishments
or thank them for their devotion.” His book
makes an interesting study as it unravels those
hidden human sides of these great people who once
resided in this power house, the White House.
“Zachary Taylor, (12th president), dressed
himself like an old shoe; his hat and clothes
were mostly so tattered that many Americans would
mistake the president for a farmer; he never voted
before becoming president, spat tobacco juice
all over the Executive Mansion, and died from
an overdose of bad cherries. Warren Harding, (29
president), lived in fear of his wife and was
a devout believer in his own outstanding incompetence;
William Taft, (27th president), was too big, 325
pounds, to fit in an ordinary bathtub; Johnson
(36th President), drank Scotch out of a paper
cup while driving; Gerald Ford (38th president)
who died recently had gas problem and farted a
lot. Ulysses S Grant (19th president) whose generalship
during the civil war led to some of the most gruesome
slaughters, he hated the sight of blood and Teddy
Roosevelt, (26th president), whose progressive
politics brought him into conflict with some of
the nation’s richest robbers, barons, he
loved the sight of blood; John Adams’ (2nd
president), wife Abigail, so frequently used the
East Room of the White House for hanging wet laundry,
that this practice , as some say, became the cause
of her husband’s grouchiness”.
“ Thomas Jefferson (3rd president) was fond
of greeting ambassadors in his pajamas, a practice
that most of them found appalling; James Madison,
(4th president) had the distinction of being the
shortest president (5’.4”) in the
US history, and the sickliest president too; James
Monroe (5th president), in the middle of a heated
argument chased his secretary of the treasury
out of the White House with a pair of fire tongs;
John Tyler, (10th president) had more children
than any other president, fifteen in all; Abraham
Lincoln, (16th president), was really a giant
of a president. When historians rank the Chief
Executives, Honest Abe almost always stands at
the head of his class; Garfield, (20th president),
spent eight days on his deathbed while a team
of experts, including Alexander Graham Bell, probed
and prodded him with unsanitary medical instruments;
Benjamin Harrison, (23rd president), was so frosty
that many referred to him as the White House Iceberg;
he even cut his own children out of his will;
Roosevelt, while boxing in the White House with
heavyweight champion, John Sullivan, received
a blow to his face that left him blind in his
left eye; Calvin Coolidge, (30th president), slept
at least 10 hours every day. He was in bed by
ten, often slept until eight, and always took
an afternoon nap; White House servants and groundskeepers
received strict orders to hide whenever president
Hoover (31st president) passed by. Those who failed
to do so risked dismissal; Harry Truman (33rd
president) set new heights in Presidential profanity,
‘Give them hell’, until Richard Nixon
came along”.
And, of course, the Americans know the rest of
the story related to the lives of the presidents
of the recent past. These amazing 43 individuals,
as we can see, were men of flesh and blood with
all the human foibles that characterize us all.
But, make no mistake. Look what a job they held,
and what wonders they worked.
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