Roger wrote:
If I were to use a single term to describe Washington's presidency, it would be "rudderless."
I understand your characterization of Washington, Roger, and a president who behaved today as he did then would indeed deserve the appellation. But we have to take into account that Washington was the first president. He had only a very vague framework to guide him in his new job. There was no precedent for him to follow. If he seems ineffective in our lens of hindsight, we must remember that he was the trailblazer.
And he knew it. He was the one who decided that he would be introduced in public as "The President of the United States" without all that exalted and honorable and high-and-mighty claptrap that accompanied introductions of royalty. He was trying to be something no one else had ever been, and he wanted to make sure that he didn't run everything and force his successors to have to do the same thing. If it didn't work out as well as we (or he) would have preferred, it was surely his responsibility but not his fault. The fault lies - at least partly - with the men who allowed partisan politics to overwhelm their patriotism.
And the handshake thing? We have to remember that at that time the handshake was to their society as the Hollywood kiss is to ours. It was a familiar, almost intimate gesture, and Washington was a reserved man. He didn't shake hands with anyone who wasn't close to him. He would take his wife's hand or his children's hands when they met, and perhaps the hand of a few very close friends, but he didn't offer his hand to just anyone, be they pauper or prince. His view was that physical contact such as touching hands lost its "specialness" if given to just anyone. Just as a kiss between two Hollywood people means nothing today, Washington saw the handshake as an intimacy which lost its meaning if repeated too often. It wasn't because he thought himself "better" than other people. Remember also that the formal bow was, at this time, the socially accepted form of greeting between equals. And he rarely, if ever, failed to bow to others when meeting them, especially for the first time.
And I believe, like Roger, that Bill Clinton's presidency will eventually be recognized as one of the lesser times in our history.
