The President vs. Barack Obama
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Clark Stooksbury’s comments below are on target. But I think there is a dimension of Obama’s speech to the schoolchildren today that is worth remarking upon: is it the president who’s addressing them, or is it Barack Obama, celebrity? That is, does Obama think he’s going to inspire young people to wash their hands and work hard because he’s the president, and they’ll respect his authority, or is he thinking that he’s personally such a remarkable individual that they’ll listen to him — rather as they might listen to Michael J. Fox or Michael Jordan?
I suspect it’s the latter. If, say, George H.W. Bush had given a national public-school address, everyone (except the president himself) would realize that little Timmy and Susie aren’t going to take the doddering principal-in-chief too seriously. It might as well be the school guidance counselor up there lecturing. But Obama is not just the president, he’s Barack Obama. He’s cool. The kids will listen to him.
During the 2008 election cycle, Obama’s celebrity and charisma eclipsed that of all the other contenders, as well as that of the sitting president. He may still view himself as the man who stands above the office. As far as I can tell, though, that mystique has worn off: the Left is disenchanted with him, moderates are skeptical, and the Right is firmly opposed. Barack Obama’s star power has actually diminished since he took office, though he apparently doesn’t know it.
Filed under: Politics
But do the kids know it?
Jeez. Is – this – what it’s come down to now?
Obama – is – the President, remember? He won with a honking great majority. Methinks that he thinks that this is something it would be really cool for the President to do, because it’s something a President – should – do.
Supposition on my part, but it clings a lot closer to actual reality as it stands than the assumptions you’re making, based on… what, exactly? Other than, you know, just being snide for the sake of it?
I like your blogging, Daniel. I do! But, George HW Bush DID do a national address to high-school students. In 1991. We’re not in the realm of hypotheticals here.
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=3450&year=1991&month=10
Thanks, Jim. I had a vague memory of an HW talk to students but I wasn’t sure if it was national — should have checked.
Did he change lives? Has Obama? Nah… it’s a waste of time for the president and the schoolkids alike. But maybe some of the youngsters did get a kick out of seeing Obama, while I can only imagine they barely recognized HW.
FWIW, my kids love Obama, esp my nine-year-old daughter. HOWEVER, that love waivered when he began talking about year-round school a couple months ago . . .
“Methinks that he thinks that this is something it would be really cool for the President to do, because it’s something a President – should – do.”
I don’t. But then again we don’t really live in a confederation of republics.
I also recall an anecdote suggesting that the elder Bush was under no illusions – in Bob Dole’s book of anecdotes there’s one about him being asked about some new “Presidential trading cards” product and saying “I don’t want to know how many hundreds of mine will get you a Michael Jordan.”
Michael Jordan was never cut from his high school basketball team – that’s a myth. Check with the home town newspaper, the Wilmington (NC) Star-News. So much for fact-checking on Wikipedia!
I’m with Tony J. In the first place to the degree Obama is a celebrity it’s *because* he came from nowhere and won the Presidency and because he avoided falling victim to the pressures to run as a “Black candidate.” And while winning over John McCain is something maybe a can of apples could have done, whacking Hillary with all her support and preparation and etc. was no mean feat.
Secondly we’ve reached the point of cynicism in this country where if Jesus Christ himself came down on a cloud and merely told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves the primary understanding our society would take from same is that he was only saying it out of ego or because there was something in it for him.
For decades now people of the non-Left persuasion have criticized so many prominent African-Americans for seeming to only tell young minorities that, in essence, the deck is staked against them unfairly and that’s why so many fail. Along comes Obama now and tells them and indeed every kid to work hard, and that he did and still fell down sometimes but still got to be President, and what’s the response? “Oh, he’s doing it out of ego!”
Nuts.
It is interesting to me how so many of these students sound so much like many of the bloggers, here, and at the Huff Post, and places like that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDEAYgm0Dv8
What the President really needs to do is hire speech writers who don’t use Wikipedia as a fact-checker.
Michael Jordan was NEVER cut from his high school basketball team. It’s a myth. Always has been.
http://www.thestate.com/sports/story/934017.html