> Channel 4 in the UK recently bought The West Wing, the American political drama which is just like ER but with less blood and more paper. This has highlighted a very odd thing to do with some American shows - the Phantom Drummer. Every time the President speaks, the snare drummer in the background starts up with patriotic drum rolls and crashes. You could imagine that this will become very embarrassing in later life. For example:
>
> Aide: Would you like some coffee, Mr President?
> President: Oh, yes please.
> Drummer: Rrrum tiddly tum tum rum tum drrrrr
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> The drummer poses many questions. Is he behind the settee, waiting for the President to speak? Is he actually a computer listening for the President's voice tone? If it is a human, it could tell us much more about History, for example if we find Nixon's drummer we could find out quite a lot about Watergate. I'm not entirely sure why the President needs accompanying drums, but it could be to reassure the American people that the President is in charge and everything is fine. Any thoughts?
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> Phil-"This might have been posted before but I think it got lost inside Rinkworks; if it's been posted before then sorry"-bee

Actually, drums DO roll when the President speaks. I have a friend in the Secret Service who happens to have been Clinton's drummer. The president spends a great deal of his time talking to people about sensitive information that does not need to leave teh walls of the whitehouse. Of course, foriegn governments would give their eye teeth to get their hands on this info, and might just decide to bug the whitehouse some day. Should there be a microphone in the area, the drumming renders talking unintelligible.

The only time the drummer doesn't drum when the president is talking is when he's giving a speech that everyone's gonna hear anyway.