Micheal Deaver and the Presidential Advance Manual

It was interesting to note the juxtaposition last weekend of stories about the passing of former Reagan aide Michael Deaver, who was credited with creating fabulous visuals for the President's public appearances, and the release of a "Presidential Advance Manual" detailing ways to manage, not only the media's, but also the President's experience of a presidential event.

The manual deals with a lot of presidential security and communications issues -- at least, its multiple redacted pages suggest so. But the goodies we do get to read include:

• VIP seating -- the good seats "behind the podium or in the area between the stage and the main camera platform" -- is to be restricted to "members of the State Party [we need not ask which party], Local Officials, the Host of the Event, or other groups extremely supportive of the Administration." (emphasis in original)
• "Preventing Demonstrators" -- That's right, demonstrators must be prevented. Preferably, the advance team should work with the Secret Service to get local law enforcement to create a protest area, "preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route." Is Luckenbach far enough away for you?
• If by some misfortune demonstrators actually make it into the event, the advance team should have "rally squads" at the ready. "The rally squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform." In short, they're to throw themselves on top of the protest 'grenade.' God forbid the media should learn of any opposition to the Great Leader's policies!

Did Michael Deaver create this monster? Maybe not, but he was probably one of its many fathers. The idea that a presidential visit to, say, a factory has anything to do with a) the President actually learning something from the visit, or 2) the citizens (who, after all, pay for all this folderol) actually seeing and interacting with their President is ludicrous to the people who write and execute these procedures. All the world's a stage, said the Bard, and all us Americans merely props.