Not the current one, this isn’t a political post. Just in general.
There has to be lots of days where the underlings can run things. Unless there is a crisis, there is nothing he can’t be briefed on tomorrow.
My mental image is the President in a coat and tie in the Oval Office at 6am every day. But I know there must be multiple days where he says to whoever “I’m not doing any Presidenting today. Knock on the door if someone invades someone else”. And then proceeds to catch up on Game of Thrones.
Well, by definition they are highly motivated people to even get to be POTUS, peeps like that are generally high functioning. So I bet they are early risers. The reason I am not POTUS is because I am a lazy slacker most days. Although I always thought ‘W’ looked lazy as heck.
I agree. These are people who want to make things happen. They probably wake up each morning and think of a hundred things they want to do that day and resent the fact that they’re only going to have enough time to do fifty of them.
And that’s why I could never be President. (Yeah, *that’s *the reason!) If I don’t get at least 7 hours regularly, my brain turns to guacamole. I don’t function well when sleep-deprived.
I don’t think you have a realistic idea of what it means to be president. Underlings can “run” things, but “running” things isn’t the president’s job. The current administration is reportedly in chaos, because the president spends very little time doing things that most presidents do.
If you skip today’s briefings, there will be twice as many briefings tomorrow. Things change fast. The only way you can just let things slide is if you genuinely don’t care.
It’s nice to think of certain important decisions being in the power of a sleep-deprived egomaniac.
And most leaders tend to egomania, since they decided they were suitable.
An acquaintance who had a career with the secret service has told me that not all presidents emerge from the residence at the crack of dawn, but for the majority, their day begins between 5 and 6 am. While they may spend this time working in the comfort of pajamas and slippers, they are definitely working. Very little changes on weekends, either, maybe a wakeup at 6 instead of 5, for example, but still early. This is why Presidents seem to take so many vacations. They do not have weekends to rest and recharge as the rest of us do. And while all their vacations are, of necessity, working vacations, there is somewhat less rigor involved in their working hours.
The problem is, when your body is accustomed to rising and getting to work so early, it is difficult to sleep in more than an extra hour or so, even if the schedule would allow for it.
This is just a guess on my part, but I imagine sleep deprivation is one of the factors that goes into the accelerated aging you see in men who have served as President.
Oh, I know, but he is one-minded, and he puts everything into what he does. Though I doubt he can pull off any trig functions. Either that or he hit the POTUS lottery. Because there he is, in the Whitehouse, probably trying to figure out another way to ruin my life. Alas.
I find it difficult to believe that George H.W. Bush could function on two hours sleep per night, at least over any sort of lengthy duration.
I’ve heard similar claims made about Margaret Thatcher though not as extreme, what isn’t mentioned is that apparently she also had an hour long nap or longer during the day.
George W. Bush actually had a reputation for having early meetings. If he slept a lot, it’s because he turned in early. It’s been reported that Obama would put in a few hours of work at night, after dinner with the family, but I believe he’d also generally start each day pretty early.
Of course, realize that the President just has to come downstairs to get to the office, so starting early is easier without a commute. It must have sucked for staff, who probably had to clear security, in addition to morning traffic, before getting to work.
Sleep deprivation can lead to dementia according to certain scientists; but in her case, someone who already had dementia whilst in office, ( according to Ken Clarke, her then Health Minister and others, were it not obvious enough ) it must surely accelerate that loathly decline.
If she went in as a fully-fledged fruitcake, she left as a pathetic basketcase.