Another problem lies in the tendency of the unifying aspects of the office to separate a man from the political realities of his times. The president may not have the powers of a monarch, but he is treated like one in his personal life. This was not always the case. There was a time when President Adams could go skinny-dipping in the Potomac, and Andrew Jackson’s inauguration party turned into a brawl which left drunks in muddy boots sleeping on the White House furniture. There was a period when chief executives could emulate Harun ar-Rashid and wander alone at night to learn what people were really thinking. If any one of them tried it today, he would be leading troops of Secret Service agents through the streets of Washington and would be about as incongruous as a whale in the Reflecting Pool below the Lincoln Memorial.
