President Obama's special pile of daily mail

George Washington is said to have disdained anything as ordinary as shaking hands with common citizens; Thomas Jefferson was the first to introduce that democratic gesture.

There was even a time when presidents held weekly public sessions where petitioners of one kind or another could line up at the White House and get a few minutes of the chief executive's time. President William McKinley paid the ultimate price in a public handshake line, which elevated Teddy Roosevelt from nobody VP to Mt. Rushmore.

Many state governors insist on signing all replies to citizen letters to keep in touch with everyday concerns, even when staffers have addressed the problem. But the volume is prohibitive in the Oval Office.

Barack Obama has made several efforts to crack the isolation that a modern-day president lives in, complete with armored car and decoy helicopters. He insisted on keeping his BlackBerry, albeit a secure hybrid whose address is known to but a few. Our thanks to Swamp colleague Mark Silva for pointing out a Kenneth Walsh item over on the US News site following up a previous Jake Tapper report on ABC.

Every day, it seems, White House staff select 10 letters -- a tiny fraction of each day's 40,000 -- to put in a folder for the president to peruse as time permits. The idea being to let him get a small feel for the kinds of concerns voters share with the president.

The president has been known to make inquiries after reading some letters and to share copies with aides as the kinds of problems "out there."

Presumably the staff weeds out the Occupant mail offers for special mortgage financing and new credit cards with "Your Name Here."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: United States Postal Service