Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Senator Bernie Sanders, you'd have to admit that being the President of the United States is not an easy job.  This fact is clearly highlighted by a recent Vanity Fair article written by Michael Lewis, author of The Blind Side and Moneyball. 

President Obama, meeting recently with his national security advisors in the Oval Office. (Official White House photo.)

Lewis, one of my favorite authors, was given a great deal of intimate access to the President.  He constantly peppered President Obama with questions about the true nature of being the President.  After repeated tries, the President opened up.  Here's that passage...

"I want to play that game again,” I said. “Assume that in 30 minutes you will stop being president. I will take your place. Prepare me. Teach me how to be president.”

This was the third time I’d put the question to him, in one form or another. The first time, a month earlier in this same cabin, he’d had a lot of trouble getting his mind around the idea that I, not he, was president. He’d started by saying something he knew to be dull and expected but that—he insisted—was nevertheless perfectly true. “Here is what I would tell you,” he’d said. “I would say that your first and principal task is to think about the hopes and dreams the American people invested in you. Everything you are doing has to be viewed through this prism. And I tell you what every president … I actually think every president understands this responsibility. I don’t know George Bush well. I know Bill Clinton better. But I think they both approached the job in that spirit.” Then he added that the world thinks he spends a lot more time worrying about political angles than he actually does.

This time he covered a lot more ground and was willing to talk about the mundane details of presidential existence. “You have to exercise,” he said, for instance. “Or at some point you’ll just break down.” You also need to remove from your life the day-to-day problems that absorb most people for meaningful parts of their day. “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions. It’s why shopping is so exhausting. “You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.” The self-discipline he believes is required to do the job well comes at a high price. “You can’t wander around,” he said. “It’s much harder to be surprised. You don’t have those moments of serendipity. You don’t bump into a friend in a restaurant you haven’t seen in years. The loss of anonymity and the loss of surprise is an unnatural state. You adapt to it, but you don’t get used to it—at least I don’t.

No matter your politics, I think you'll find Lewis' piece well-written, interesting and meaningful.  I've written about that burden of decision making before, so it was interesting to see how the President has tried to deal with it.

Have a great weekend, everyone.  May your decisions be light, and your company be merry.