Photo credit: Phoenix New Times

Mr. President, politically like you I’m a conservative.  Well, most times.  Other times, also like you, I can lean liberal.  Often as I get to understand issues and their ramifications better, I’m a swinger.

So please understand where I’m coming from when I see you so beleaguered, yet still so beloved by your base.

All presidents need crisis managers to advise them as much as they need secret service to protect them.

As a crisis manager who has helped some of America’s largest companies to weather terrible storms over their brands, I believe I can help you to become a better president not just of your base and your party, but of the whole country . . . president of all of its citizens.

If you listen to my free advice, I believe much of this paralyzing polarization and dissention will subside and the entire country of which you are president will be better off.

Remember the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid.”  It’s the winning phrase James Carville coined when he was a campaign strategist behind Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign against sitting President George H. W. Bush?

Well, maybe the winning phrase today should be “It’s the country, stupid.”  Not the wall, not fake news, not the swamp and certainly not two Arizona senators McCain or Flake . . . it’s the country, Mr. President.  The country, and I drop the stupid as you’re probably the brightest president we’ve ever had, but maybe just a tiny tone deaf occasionally.

Mr. President, while your tone and theatrics entertains your base at rallies like the one in Phoenix this week, I speak to you now as a professional crisis management counselor. Because I think the world of you, I humbly advise you to rise as a president instead of stooping lower, instead of continuing to descend as if you’re still the candidate riding down that escalator at Trump Tower.

You’re too good, too important not to be and not to sound like a better president.

Allow me to offer just a couple suggestions that I believe would have made your speech in Phoenix more effective, more unifying and uplifting as have your speeches recently to audiences comprising our brave military.

Before you jabbed in Phoenix at Sen. McCain for casting the deciding vote against the healthcare bill, a few words wishing him well in his battle with brain cancer would have made you sound much more human and caring about others instead of primarily yourself and how YOU are portrayed in the press, albeit often unfairly, how YOU are misquoted, misunderstood, unappreciated.

Before you attack Sen. Flake for being weak on the border maybe you should explain why you believe his preference for fencing that can be seen through is not as sound as the opaque bricks and motor wall you are advocating.  Why not deal also with his argument for not only fencing, but more censors and border patrols as opposed to the one and only wall.

And next time when you talk about Charlottesville, PLEASE Mr. President, start by blasting those neo Nazi’s and White Supremacists before simply deploring violence on both sides and how badly your tweets and pronouncements are disparagingly covered by “fake news.”   Actually, I would argue that the phrase “fake news” is itself fake and I’d strongly advise you to drop it from your vocabulary.  It would be less incendiary and confrontational and you’d sound much wiser.  Your tone would be much more inclusive and unifying as a President should be.

Call me anytime, Mr. President, as I’m here to serve you in your mission to make America Great Again.

Mr. Madden’s book “Is there enough Brady in Trump to win the inSUPERable BOWL?” is available on Amazon.