In Song of Myself, where is Whitman in regards to the reader?

I don't think that Whitman makes any qualms about where he
is in relation to the reader.  Whitman's "I" is a universal one that is borne out of his
own subjective experience.  From this, he hopes to broaden his experience to that of the
reader:

Apart
from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, . . . Both in and out of the game and
watching and wondering at
it.

This position of Whitman
standing outside of "the game" allows him to funnel his own experience to that of the
reader.  Whitman links his own experience to that of the reader.  He does not see his
position as any different as the reader, except that his job is to forge a connection to
the reader.  The universality that is such a part of Whitman's experience is one that he
brings to the reader, in the hope of a shared union between his voice and what the
reader internalizes.  I think that this is where Whitman is in relation to the reader. 
He sees himself as a part of what the reader undergoes in trying to understand this
universality, an experience where the reader and poet both submerge their own individual
and distinct reality into a universal conception of both self and
others.