Fireside Chat

On Meet the Press this morning, Republican Senator John Warner recommended that President Bush use Fireside Chats (a la FDR) to deliver updates on Iraq directly to the American people.

"I think it would be to Bush's advantage," said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war.

"It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public," he said.

I have to believe that Warner made this statement off the cuff, because it doesn't seem all that well thought through. FDR's Fireside Chats were highly effective ways of communicating and calming the American public...in the early 1940's. In that day and age, Americans had three sources of news: The newspaper, news reels at the theater, and the radio. When FDR came on the radio to give a Fireside Chat, that was a major event for Americans. You didn't hear the President's voice everyday, and he was on every channel available to you. You invited the President's voice into your home. After the speech, you might get some news, or the station may return to regular programming. The next day in the newspaper, you may read about the speech, but the coverage certainly didn't go after FDR with a blood lust.

Today, the President has some sort of interaction with the media nearly everyday. He gives speeches on Iraq regularly. Seeing or hearing the President is no longer viewed as a special occasion. When he does have prime time television events, people flock to their cable channels or the internet or their iPod to avoid it. In a sense, the American people are numb to the Presidency because they are so inundated by it every single day. The audience for a Fireside Chat would be small and mostly partisan. And that leads into the next problem.

In the 1940's, FDR faced political opposition from the Republicans, but they did not attack him hard on the war. Today, attacking the President over war is a cottage industry. Putting the President on TV to give a Fireside Chat would not help inform and calm Americans, it would freak them out even more because it would give the President's opponents a spotlight from which to attack him. Does anyone actually think the President could have a Fireside Chat on the situation in Iraq and not see John Kerry come on after the speech to say Bush lied, or Ted Kennedy come on and rage about the administration? Not a chance. Part of the reason that FDR's Fireside Chats worked in the 1940's is because they could cut through the clutter and communicate ideas and messages directly to Americans. Today, a Fireside Chat by any President in anything but a national emergency would only add to the clutter.

The Fireside Chats were great for FDR's era. In a less media saturated era, they did allow the President to develop relationships with Americans. That is just not possible today. I'd love it if it were, and I'm sure most Presidents would, too. Unfortunately, Fireside Chats would just be more of the same, only with a nice throwback name.