The torch is passed

One of the most eloquent photos I’ve seen lately is that of five US presidents — past, present and future, from rival parties, and smiling from ear to ear — standing together.

It speaks a thousand good words of a system that works, of a system not subjugated by one person’s desire to hold on to power, of a system that upholds free elections and the regularity with which they are held.

The recent photo of Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, taken in the office that is a symbol of their might, is a poster for democracy. It should be framed in every office of every politician in every country that aspires to be called a democracy.

That means five presidents (Carter became president in 1977) in three decades. It makes one admire not only democracy, but also the American people. No one tinkers with the Constitution to allow a president, no matter how good or seemingly indispensable, to stay a day longer in power than is mandated by the Charter.

And since we need visual images to reinforce our convictions, the sight of five men symbolizing the peaceful transition of power inherent in a democratic system turns our convictions into granite.

* * *

I watched George W. Bush’s last press conference as president, and many things he said struck me. Maybe as he exits from the presidency, I will become a fan of some things he did (and I’m not just talking about his hiring a Filipina chef).

His open declaration that his time on center stage was up was a lesson in humility. It is a lesson on detachment and a reminder that whether it is power or life itself you are talking about, all good things must and will come to an end.

 “When I get out of here, I’m getting off the stage,” Bush said at his last press conference as president. “I believe there ought to be, you know, one person in the klieg lights at a time, and I’ve had my time in the klieg lights.”

He didn’t rule out giving some unsolicited opinion as private citizen Bush in the months to come, but he wished Obama, “all the best.”

“He’ll get in the Oval Office and there will be a lot of people that are real critical and harsh, and he’ll be disappointed at times by the tone of the rhetoric. And he’s going to have to do what he thinks is right. And if you don’t, then I don’t see how you can live with yourself. I don’t see how I can get back home in Texas and look in the mirror and be proud of what I see if I allowed the loud voices, the loud critics, to prevent me from doing what I thought was necessary to protect this country,” Bush said.

Obama himself was gracious toward his unpopular predecessor, and called him, a “good man.”

“You know, I think if you would look at my — if you look at my statements throughout the campaign, I always thought he was a good guy. I mean, I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country. And I think he made the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances. It does not detract from my assessment that over the last several years we have made a series of bad choices and we are now going to be inheriting the consequences of a lot of those bad choices. That does not mean that I think he’s not a good person,” Obama told CNN’s John King.

* * *

Bush, in his ultimate press conference at the White House, also said it was not always lonely at the top. He even called the burdens of the office, “overstated.” He also said it was “pathetic” to engage in self-pity when things went wrong.

“I have never felt isolated and I don’t think he (Obama) will. One reason he won’t feel isolated is because he’s got a fabulous family and he cares a lot about his family. That’s evident from my discussions with him. He’ll be — he’s a 45-second commute away from a great wife and two little girls that love him dearly.

“I believe this — the phrase ‘burdens of the office’ is overstated. You know, it’s kind of like, why me? Oh, the burdens, you know. Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch? It’s just — it’s pathetic, isn’t it, self-pity. And I don’t believe that President-elect Obama will be full of self-pity.

“He will find — you know — the people that don’t like you, the critics, they’re pretty predictable. Sometimes the biggest disappointments will come from your so-called friends. And there will be disappointments, I promise you. He’ll be disappointed. On the other hand, the job is so exciting and so profound that the disappointments will be clearly, you know, a minor irritant...”

Obama himself refuses to be isolated. When asked by John King if his Blackberry will now be just an exhibit in his future presidential library, Obama says he may just keep it.

“I think we’re going to be able to hang onto one of these. Now, my working assumption, and this is not new, is that everything I write on e-mail could end up being on CNN. So I make sure to — to think before I press ‘send.’ But what this has been — what this does is — and it’s just one tool among a number of tools that I’m trying to use, to break out of the bubble. To make sure that people can still reach me. But if I’m doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, ‘What are you doing’?” Obama told King, adding, “I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and — and send me a message about what’s happening in America.”

* * *

Transitions are majestic. I remember how proud I felt when Cory Aquino formally turned over the reins of the presidency to Fidel Ramos at the Luneta in 1992. Then she quietly left “center stage” (as Bush calls it), got into her Toyota Crown as a triumphant Ramos basked in the glory of his new office. The stage was all his.

It was a beautiful sight.

The “torch is passed” (quoting JFK’s inaugural address) to Obama today. As the klieg lights shift today to Obama, and hope surges in the hearts of all those who see in him a symbol of change and equal opportunity, let us also applaud the system that has made such a historic transfer of power possible.

Bravo!

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])