The presidency represents mythical image of America

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The president of the United States stands at the podium in the American Capitol, facing us all — Congress, the Cabinet, a television audience of millions. He struggles for the right words to restore the public’s faith in his office.

A nation awaits. Will he resign? Will he implicate others? Will he act as the leader of the planet’s most powerful country should?

“There are,” he begins, “certain things you should expect from your president.”

Since the moment in 1789 when a Revolutionary War hero named George Washington recited a 35-word oath, Americans have expected certain things from their presidents. For good reason: In a society that has mythologized itself from its earliest days, the president is the high priest of the national identity.

For 219 years, the institution has become burdened with legend, and the expectations exceed the grasp of any mortal. Americans’ notions of the presidency come from cultural cues we’ve been conditioned to notice — from the traits of past presidents, from novels and TV and movies and spin artists who predate the telegraph and the photograph. From ourselves.

That president standing before Congress and telling the nation about expectations is neither Richard Nixon in 1974 nor Bill Clinton in 1999. In fact, his words were dreamed up by screenwriter, not speechwriter. He is Dave Kovic, the regular-guy doppelganger who accidentally sits in for patrician President Bill Mitchell in the 1993 movie “Dave.”

Kovic, played by Kevin Kline, continues: “I ought to care more about you than I do about me. I ought to care more about what’s right than I do about what’s popular. I ought to be willing to give up this whole thing for something I believe in. Because if I’m not, then maybe I don’t belong here in the first place.” In 2008, once again, Americans must decide who belongs in the White House. It is one of the most pivotal elections of our age. Sometimes we pick our leaders not for who they are but for who we are.