TheMillerCircle.org

Writer William Pfaff has recently commented on seeing President Obama carry out Presidential functions by himself, when normally one sees a retinue of military personnel with the President to carry out tasks such as holding the umbrella during rainy periods and attending to him as the departs and re-embarks on Air Force One, or walks through the halls of the White House.  Pfaff refers to it as the demilitarization or de-ritualization of the American Presidency. Television coverage of GW Bush always showed a flank of attendees in military uniform lining the hallway as he walked towards the podium to make an announcement and then frame him at the doorway. For Bush, a commissioned aide de camp was always nearby, whereas Obama usually walks down the Hall without military attendees and holds his own umbrella.
Part of the military trappings that surrounded Bush related to his desire to be seen as a “wartime president.” If so, it appears that Obama is trying to disabuse his Presidency of that connection and its militaristic implications. For Bush, the idea of being perceived as a War President might have had special appeal to him, given the effort he put into getting out of his National Guard commitment, where he simply stopped showing up. But when you saw Obama saluting the caskets of returning dead soldiers, he stood saluting without the expected attendees. Whereas Bush saluted military officers in uniform, Obama follows the more traditional protocol of a civilian, by nodding or smiling, but never saluting to an officer in uniform. It was actually Ronald Reagan that started Presidential saluting towards military officers in uniform and now Obama has brought the older protocol back into a more demilitarized style of recognition which contributes visually to his underplaying the role of “Commander-in-Chief.”  While Bush wanted to be viewed and remembered as a war-time President, Obama wants to distance himself from the appearance of that posture and peripheralize the military trappings of a Presidency that, since WW II,  has come to be known for its war-like solutions to international problems and its reliance on the military in both foreign and domestic policy issues, like the establishment of Northcom under Bush for example. If you look back at previous Presidents, it was Washington, a general in war, who wanted to be painted for posterity as a President in an ordinary suit, not a military uniform. Now, if Obama would only start reducing the numbers of military officers in our foreign embassies, we could start getting back to seeing visuals all around the world the way they used to be. Remember, form begets function.
RFM