“Just 300? That doesn’t sound like much really. This is the government, after all.”
I agree with you. By the way they are not classified any more.
From years of experience I can say that the President will probably handle at least fifty classified documents a day. Practically all items that reach his desk from the intelligence agencies, the Department of State and the Justice Department will be classified. The CONFIDENTIAL classification is not worth the bother, as is most SECRET stuf. Much of the TopSecret codeword stuff is fluff and its classification is usually dependent on how the information was obtained rather than the importance contained within it. And much of the highly classified items are basically PYA or CYA (paper your arse or cover your arse). Finally, much highly classified stuff is quickly dated material; however the cable or report will not be declassified for years. The only President I recall who tried to limit the over-classification and utilize dated declassification of material was Jimmy Carter. And that lasted only for about three years.
No doubt each classified document has a front and back cover sheet on them and they are part of the page count even tho nothing of interest would be on them.