So you think Barack Obama has done nothing yet but coddle terrorists, kill unborn babies, and shove through Congress a spending bill of gargantuan proportions? Well, think again, Buster. The Associated Press reported in passing yesterday that The One also "has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people."
Now precisely what those wonders are isn't detailed. We have to take the AP's word for it. Still, the piece titled "New e-book captures kids' hopes, dreams for Obama" is brimming with the hope and change we've come to expect in mainstream media accounts of Obama. The article begins:
NEW YORK (AP) — End war, forever. Make the planet greener. Please help my dad find work. Make it rain candy!
Thousands of kids detailed their hopes and expectations for President Barack Obama in letters and drawings as part of a worldwide project, with 150 chosen for a free e-book being released on Presidents Day.
Most had tall orders for the new guy in the White House.
Anthony Pape, 10, of DuBois, Pa., offered: "I hope that we will have no war ever again. I mean why are we fighting why can't we all be friends."
Fellow 10-year-old Sasha Townsend of Soquel, Calif., had a similar request, and then some.
"I would appreciate it if you would try to make this a greener planet and try to bring home the troops and end the war," the fifth-grader wrote. "I am very luckey because I am not part of a military family, but it saddens me to hear about all the people who die in Iraque and know that somewhere In the world people are greiving over a lost family member."
Seven-year-old Aaron Van Blerkom's letter was simpler — but no less problematic.
"Dear Mr. Obama," the Pasadena, Calif., first-grader began, "Please Make it rain candy!"
The "Dear Mr. President" project was a joint effort between the National Education Association and kidthing.com, which is putting out the book for use with its downloadable media player. A special hardcopy edition of the book will be sent to the White House for Obama, who has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people.
The letters were written in January amid Obama-mania at inauguration time as schools scrambled to bus kids to special viewing events and come up with computer screens and TVs for them to watch in classrooms and auditoriums.
And then the ending paragraphs:
"Make fires and earthquakes not exist. Make no tornadoes or any of those things that break things."
An 11-year-old boy from Ohio drew himself in tears at the side of a relative. His dream, he wrote, is that a "cure for cancer will be found" with Obama in the White House, "Because it took my aunt to a better place on father's day."
Another child drew Obama as the "new sunrise of America." One made Earth and labeled it "Obamaland," and still another created the president's face as half dark and half light skin tones with the words: "United We Are One."
Sasha's drawing is an all-green globe. Her enthusiasm for Obama and his ability to get the job done speaks volumes: "I just think he's really, really awesome."
Could such unrealistic expectations have anything to do with the fact that at inauguration time "schools scrambled to bus kids to special viewing events and come up with computer screens and TVs for them to watch in classrooms and auditoriums?" More accurately, the story would have noted that members of the ultra liberal union calling itself the National Education Association scrambled to make certain their students could be indoctrinated in the wonderfulness of The One.
Where in the world would kids possibly get the notion that an Obama administration could mean a cure for cancer, stopping fires and earthquakes, a permanent end to war, a holiday for children around the world, and a "new sunrise of America?"
Maybe they got those ideas from the same place the Associated Press did when it reports as fact that Obama "has done wonders to bring the office of the presidency to life for young people."
Let's not let facts get in the way, especially when reporting on someone who is, as Sasha in the story maintains, "really, really awesome." The mainstream media agree.
