As some readers might know, your humble correspondent (that’s me) conducted a live interview with President Obama a few hours before the Super Bowl game began on Sunday. The chat was scheduled to last about 12 minutes and was fraught with danger — for me, not for the president.

That’s because the rules are different when it comes to interviewing the president of the United States. Since the beginning of our republic, only 44 men have held that office, and when a citizen is in the presence of the chief executive, there is strict protocol.