The Malia-and-Sasha Scrum

Pictures of the Obama children's first day of school in a crowd of Secret Service agents are a reminder of how life will change for these two little girls and how hard it will be to provide them with a semblance of normality.

Michelle Obama has said they will be making their own beds in the White House, but it will take more than that for Malia and Sasha to keep some sense of the life they led up to now.

I saw this White House effect up close when Lynda Bird Johnson came to work for me right out of college in 1966, and today's scenes at Sidwell Friends School recalled her first day at work.

To avoid the media crush, we decided to smuggle her into the office, hold a press conference later and then get reporters and cameramen out of the building.

The day before, I showed the Secret Service the freight elevator, which on the ground floor opened to a parking lot obscured from the main entrance. Her agents had a plan to fake out reporters by having one of them at the main entrance on a walkie-talkie to suggest an imminent arrival there. Another was stationed the parking lot entrance. As Lynda Bird's car approached undetected he waved it in; if the press had caught on, he would have sent it to the main entrance.

It worked, but not without a touch of farce. As the car pulled up to the freight entrance, two men came out wheeling a large metal frame that got wedged in the doorway. The sight greeting the President’s daughter on her first day was the backside of her editor bending over to help the workmen carry it out.

To prevent gawking, our managing editor took Lynda Bird around and introduced her to every last soul on the staff, including secretaries and messengers. Then she went off to sign employment forms, while the personnel director explained the company pension plan.

After lunch, we went to the corporate conference room for the press conference with a human wall stretching across the room in a semi-circle three layers deep; mounted TV cameras in back, hand-held video recorders in front of them aiming over the shoulders of kneeling still photographers. Lights blazed on, and the mass of flesh, metal and glass started writhing around us, the semi-circle getting smaller. We edged to the microphones, Lynda Bird said a few words and left the room. Then I answered questions.

"Will she be treated just like any other employee?” "Yes, just like any other employee who comes to work with Secret Service agents and goes home to the White House on weekends."

The media have multiplied since then, and no matter how hard the Obamas try, it will be very hard to get their daughters treated just like any other children.

Bon Voyage to Bush

The good news is that our President will be elsewhere much of next year, giving him less time in Washington to start disastrous wars and subvert the Constitution.

The bad news: He will be abroad, winning hearts and minds for America with his wit, warmth and incomparable charm.

In early January, Bush makes his first visit to Israel with side trips to the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

In February, he goes to Africa, in April to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Romania, in June the U.S.-European summit in Slovenia followed by a July meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Japan, the summer Olympics in China and a November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru.

The US Secret Service and security people around the world will be exhausted by year's end. The Republican candidate for President should be relieved by not having to explain why the incumbent is not out there campaigning for him. And Dick Cheney could be a total wreck from overseeing all the Neo-Con mischief himself after the loss of Rove, Gonzales, Libby, Meiers and so many of the other elves.

Meanwhile, the sightseeing could do Bush some good after a year in the bunker and provide some upbeat material for the final chapter of his Presidential memoirs.

When they pack his bags, the White House staff could do the country a service by forgetting to put in the veto pens.

Busy Year Ahead for Secret Service

When a President’s daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson, was working for me, I got to know her Secret Service agents quite well. One of them almost shot me at Trader Vic’s in Manhattan.

An agent new to her detail saw me put my arms around her when we unexpectedly met and, as I later learned, was “ready to react.”

As we know from endless movies, protecting presidents is a job that calls for an unusual combination of courage, judgment and quick reflexes. In the coming year, the Secret Service will be hard-pressed to provide enough of them.

After 9/11, the Bush administration doubled the number of top officials for protection, from 26 to 54.

The agency will need 103 new agents for President Bush and his family when he leaves office in January and, for all those who want to replace him, is proposing to spend more than $100 million on campaign protection in 2008, roughly $35 million more than in 2004.

Because of undisclosed threats, the Service is already spending $44,000 a day on around-the-clock security for Barack Obama in addition to the protection provided for Hillary Clinton as a former First Lady. At some point, they will be assigned to other candidates as well.

This burden will draw some agents away from other investigations, of financial crimes and Homeland Security matters.

All in all, we are in an era when protection is a growth industry.