WASHINGTON — The American president has always played multiple roles in the drama of the United States: commander in chief, steward of the economy, symbol of the nation, head of the party. But presidents have to be salesmen, too.
And they want him to sell Democracy, no less!
Salesmanship and democracy are intricately linked in that most presidents have had to learn how to sell difficult policies to the public in trying times. President Bush is now faced with the challenge of selling the public on his policies in Iraq, but Woodrow Wilson had to sell World War I and Franklin D. Roosevelt spent six years talking Americans into World War II. 'Roosevelt was in a sense a master salesman of what the public thought at the time were some largely unpalatable items,' said David M. Kennedy, a professor of history at Stanford. 'If anything, he faced even deeper, widespread opposition than Bush.
I'd be careful of mentioning FDR around Junior; for chrissakes, Mr Roosevelt's administration censured Dubya's Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and stripped him of his banking and shipping companies for violating the Trading With the Enemy Act during World War II. The Bushies have been a might touchy over that little fact ever since.
Whatever, it was almost exactly 60 years ago. But still, Salesman for Democracy?
