From this post:

In this one, from October 1968, Buckley speaks about what sort of man the president should be. Quite relevant today, given the prevalence of the Obama cult of personality:

He shouldn't form too high an opinion of himself. For instance, he should recognize that America is a great deal that has nothing to do with the presidency — millions of men, women and children who deserve the opportunity to dream their dreams without any reference at all to the man who occupies the White House.

The best-run country in the world is Switzerland. And I have often amused myself while there by asking casually what is the name of the president of Switzerland. Inevitably, there is an embarrassed silence — no one can remember his name.

Certainly the idea of "cult of personality" goes way past Obama. It's not like a lot of other presidents through our whole history haven't used that gimmick.

As Pournelle says, it used to matter more who your mayor was than who the president was. Might be kind of nice to live in a country where the universe didn't seem to revolve on who was getting elected this year.