Pirate's Cove

And, by little people, I mean kids who have been forced by teachers, the voices of authority for a good chunk of their waking day 5 days a week during school season, to worship Obama. Really bad news for a Monday, folks

Kids’ obsession with President Obama fades

At Barack Obama Elementary School in Upper Marlboro, Md., a giant mural of Obama and a glass case in the main entry filled with Obama books and photos greet students as they enter and exit.

But Tanya Moreland’s daughter Brea, in fifth grade, goes in and out every day and rarely brings up the president.

“To be honest, all the ‘hoorah’ is gone,” Moreland said while waiting outside the school in her car to pick up Brea on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

Kids are such pains in the butt: how dare they lose interest in displays and banners that the teachers and administrators surely put up and made the kids get involved.

The president’s galvanizing appeal to young people in 2008 has become the stuff of political legend, and while the polls stopped recording data at the voting age of 18, the trend by all accounts didn’t. Obama, at the height of his cultural ubiquity in his magical election run, exerted a particular charm on children. His big smile, big ears and bouncy personality made toddlers his unofficial base. In Iowa in 2007, children carved Obama pumpkins, phone-banked for Obama and pitched the candidate to their parents. The Kids for Obama blog on the campaign website linked a page describing “10 ways kids for Obama can get involved,” including holding an Obama sleepover party.

Again, how much of this was forced on the kids by teachers and parents?

Back then, conservatives fulminated that Obama was “brainwashing” the youth. Liberals speculated warmly on what it would be like to grow up under the first black president. But in interviews with kids and their parents around the country this fall, hopes have been disappointed, and concerns about brainwashing can probably be put to rest. The kids, as kids do, have moved on.

The kids probably learned that Obama has not much more experience and capability at running the executive branch than they do. That said, if you read the second page of Politico article, you see that some of the ObamaLuv and excitement is still there. They think of Obama as a rock star, and idol to worship. This begs the question, should any politician be treated in this manner? My answer is “hell no!” By placing politicians on such high pedestals, we forget that they are supposed to be there for the People, and not visa versa. If you want to worship a politician after they are gone from office, holding them in high regards, well, that would be more appropriate. While they are in office, their feet should be held to the fire, regardless of party affiliation.