Reaction.

• Position: Letter to the editor

This sounds like one of those cheesy space operas in which a galactic emperor with trillions of subjects somehow manages to micromanage their lives directly. Unfortunately for Obama, those don't make very good instruction manuals for government on this planet.

--reason online commenter "Doctor Whom" in response to "The Symbolic Presidency" (April)

I am all for having Obama connect with the 180 million or so registered voters, one at a time. When you figure each phone call takes a minute, he won't be done for some 340 years. I call that a solved problem.

--reason online commenter "Jacob the Barbarian" in response to "The Symbolic Presidency"

You seem to suggest a dichotomy, as if freedom really comes in two varieties: women's freedom and men's freedom. I would say that while there are...