Of the People..

The president is coming to Louisville tomorrow, well, New Albany Indiana actually but that's just ten minutes across the river from Louisville. It is a private function. Not open to the public.
I understand that. It is set up by a local business organization and they have the right to have private functions. However, if you are a publicly elected official I believe you must have a public appearance for every private function. It's called public access to elected officials.
The current president, George W. Bush, is notorious for putting down any public protest of his appearances. If he does have public appearances they are extremely controlled and mostly the audience consists of hand picked people. Generally people who are in agreance with the president's policies.
An elected official cannot possibly be a strong leader if they refuse to engage in open forums. Actual open forums. Yes there should be some semblance of organization. If just for the sake of safety and in reality fairness for all who attend.
If a forum is open to all and essentially a free for all then the public doesn't get to actually engage the elected official. They end up just hearing protesters diatribe.
Now don't get me wrong. I am an avid supporter of protests. It is a shining example of our democracy. Freedom of speech. But if your free speech is infringing on my, or any body's, rights then I draw the line.
Still, the president should actively engage the public that elected him. Actually all elected officials should. They work for us not just the private groups that support them. They should allot time to visit with private organizations that have closed appearances, they are part of the public the officials work for, but they must allow for equal time to people and groups that may not have the pull or money to get these same officials to come speak.
Public access.
If a corporation or special interest group are the only groups that have access to elected officials then who exactly do you think these officials work for? It's not the general public affecting laws or governmental policy. How could they? The elected officials only pay attention to the general public when they need to be re-elected. I think it's called 'Face time'. Whatever it's called it should be at least as much time as these private groups and companies get.
On the up side it seems that many more people are getting politically involved. Overwhelming elected officials with emails, phone calls and snail mail. Thus ensuring these officials, even if they are VERY good at ignoring the public that elected them, still hear something. Plus, the more the public cries out and the more the elected officials ignore the voices of the public the more likely the public will remember and vote accordingly.
So keep it up.
We the people ARE your boss not AT&T, BP, Time Warner, etc. So you might want to listen a little more often to us than just during elections.