How to Be a Good President

Jonathan Freedland: It's worth remembering that the President is not a glorified Prime Minister. The job is completely different. For one thing, he's head of state. His office is meant to be above petty partisan politics. Its symbols, the White House or Air Force One, are symbols of America itself. But here's the paradox: we may call the President of the United States the "most powerful man in the world", but he can have less direct power, especially over domestic policy, that even his British counterpart. In Britain, a new Prime Minister commands a majority in the House of Commons... by definition. He has party whips to keep his MPs in line. But a new president can face hostile majorities in both Houses of Congress. Those senators and congressmen are elected separately from him. They owe him nothing. As a result, even members of the president's own party can feel no obligation to follow his lead. For Theodore Roosevelt, that meant relying on what he called the "bully pulpit", preaching his message directly to the American people. If you could get the public on side, the politicians would soon follow.