“Look at the declining television coverage. Look at the declining voting rate. Economics and economic news is what moves the country now, not politics.”
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Many citizens see all the leadership of these large institutions together in a conspiracy against them rather than in any adversary relationship with each other.
Every person has only so much attention to give, and politics and government takes up only a fraction of what it did 25 years ago.
Whatever he does should be seen as working at the Presidency and if he goes to Colorado for Christmas, it should be for a minimum amount of time, the family tradition and family get-together aspect emphasized, and it be seen as a working vacation.
The President's political travel is going to get blamed (and probably rightly) for a share of this downturn.