June 8, 2010

The perils of using children as political scenery.

Here's a kid you might feel like laughing at, especially if you enjoy watching things go wrong for President Obama. But please note that this child is sitting where he is sitting because he's in the choir, and the speech is at night. What time is it, and what time is he rousted out of bed in the morning?

A speech, even a pretty good speech, is boring, and it's hard to sit still, whether you are a kid or not. It's terrible to be watched by a big crowd when all you have to do is listen to somebody go on and on in a solemn oration. Here's a boy who participates in choir and probably didn't ask to be placed within the camera frame behind the President of the United States.

The poor kid is now an internet meme. Lots of LOLs. I just want to give him an internet hug and tell all the the adults to stop using kids as political props.

81 comments:

kent said...

and tell all the the adults to stop using kids as political props.

... as in, for instance, claiming that one's daughter improbably asked: "Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy...?"

Anonymous said...

On the plus side of the ledger, Obama was not checking out his ass.

SFC B said...

"and tell all the the adults to stop using kids as political props."

Comments about Sarah Palin incoming in 5...

Lincolntf said...

What should stop? Obama using the kids as props or web commentators commenting on the kids he uses as props?
I think it's a funny pic and that's about it.

Unknown said...

I'm not convinced they were political scenery.

I've seen several other graduation ceremonies where the choir and/or band is seated behind the speaker and the other profs on the stage.

lemondog said...

I just want to give him an internet hug and tell all the the adults to stop using kids as political props.

Also remind him the OBAMA is boooooooooooring. Wake up Larry Summers and ask him.

Hoosier Daddy said...

A speech, even a pretty good speech, is boring, and it's hard to sit still, whether you are a kid or not.

That's funny cause that wasn't the impression I got during the campaign when Obama's speeches were being likened to Cicero oratory with the weaker sex getting the vapors followed by a growing chorus of YES WE CAN!!!
Ah but now almost 2 years into Carter Deux and even His speeches are now boring and dull.
Ah how quickly the worm turns does it not?

Hagar said...

So, what are graduation ceremonies other than political theater?

Hoosier Daddy said...

I'm not convinced they were political scenery.

My dear danielle, everything you see behind the President, any President, when he is giving a speech is scenery.

AllenS said...

I remember young ladies passing out when Obama gave speeches. Now, not so much.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Hey, this kid should be happy he isn't Elian Gonzalez having to sit through a Castro speech. I mean Castro's are a lot longer ;-)

paul a'barge said...

Yeah. Kids are off limits.

Just ask the Bush twins, when a manager at Chuy's Restaurant in Austin Texas decided to call the police in an attempt to have them arrested ... because the manager did not like GWB.

Or ask Obama, who parades his daughters about in front of the cameras every chance he gets for Obama's political gain.

I too wish they would leave this kid alone but come on. Bashing other people's children is the number one game of sport for Democrats.

Let's be consistent.

Lynne said...

All this reminds me of a story I once read about Winston Churchill. Seems Churchill was inspecting a new ship and of course everybody was all spit-and-polish and anxious to impress. Except for one sailor.
When Churchill was introduced to the Ship's Cat, he leaned down to give it a pat. The cat promptly gave a huge yawn and went back to sleep.
Churchill took it well.
I wonder how Obama will take this?

Hoosier Daddy said...

Capt. Jenson: What are you doing there, soldier?

Soldier:Trying to get some sleep sir.

Patton: Well, get back down there, son. You're the only son of a bitch in this headquarters who knows what he's trying to do.

Patton, 1970

kent said...

I too wish they would leave this kid alone but come on. Bashing other people's children is the number one game of sport for Democrats.


Don't forget the foulest and most flagrant example of them all, however: Sarah Palin being relentlessly hounded by world renowned forensic gynecologist and increasingly delusional schizophrenic, Andrew Sullivan

Lincolntf said...

Everything Obama was supposed to be has been proven false over and over again.
He was supposed to be an efficient manager, and all he's done with the BP spill is run around looking for someone to blame.
He was supposed to usher in a new era of sophisticated politics and an elevated intellectual level, instead we get a snarling President and a proudly clueless spokesman.
He was supposed to be the President for the Age of Technology, yet last month he was yammering about not knowing how to work an IPhone or an IPad.
He was supposed to present a "new face" to the world which would redeem the U.S. in the eyes of the "international community", instead he's getting kicked around by China, mocked by Russia, and ignored by Europe.

In an ironic twist, I think the only real thing about the guy IS his birth certificate.

Adam said...

I'm hoping Obama will take to heart the words of his teleprompter when it said to the assembled graduates, "It's the easiest thing in the world to start looking around for someone to blame."

Lincolntf said...

Oh, I forgot, first and foremost he was supposed to be an orator for the ages. Instead he's like a third-tier cable news guy reading a teleprompter.

Chase said...

I have no interest in the public humiliation of the President, of any President of the United States, whether I voted for him/her or not.

Humiliating the Presidents of other countries - let's start with the idiot from Mexico - I have absolutely no problem with.

MadisonMan said...

Were they done singing? They could have easily been hustled off stage, and I hope someone sees this video and realizes that in the future, removing them from stage is a good idea.

I'm not sure why it's a LOL moment. Who among us hasn't fallen asleep -- or nearly done so -- during a speech at a Commencement Ceremony?

traditionalguy said...

Reading lips can be tricky , but as far as I could tell the young man was not saying "You Lie", which confirms that he was not listening.

Robert said...

This kid is obviously racist.

AllenS said...

The kid better look out. Obama wants to kick someone's ass.

Unknown said...

Looks like the kid's texting to me.

Ann Althouse said...

I just want to give him an internet hug and tell all the the adults to stop using kids as political props.

You're a good woman and a good Mom.

Fred4Pres said...

Coffee. B complex. Jolt Cola. You have to get these kids fired up for Hope and Change!

lemondog said...

Obama wants to kick someone's ass.

Obama talks tough on spill; keisters in peril

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers — so I know whose ass to kick," the president said.

Uuuuuooooo......scaaaaaary.....

KCFleming said...

Poor kid.

We may not be interested in humility, but humility is interested in us.

TWM said...

Finally someone whose ass Barry can kick. Assuming he was asleep when Barry tried.

traditionalguy said...

I think Obama is about to blame the Supreme Court again. He never lets a crisis go without taking advantage of the confusion and fear. He will probably propose an appointed Czar over the Supreme Court decisions to stop this oil spill.

Ãœber said...

AllenS said...

I remember young ladies passing out when Obama gave speeches. Now, not so much.


Now... instead of selling smelling salts at Obama events, savvy entrepreneurs will stock up on No-Doze.

It'll sell like hotcakes. Or waffles, like the President prefers.

Kensington said...

He's not bored. He fainted from the glory of being in Obama's rock star presence.

Or maybe he realized how much Obama's policies were going to cost him in future taxes and had an anxiety attack, causing him to shut down.

Either or.

Trooper York said...

I hate it when children get mixed up i.n politics. They are simple and carefree and innocent and have no idea how what they say can hurt other people or be twisted in a political argument.

That's why I was sad that everyone got mad at Garage Mahal.

Kensington said...

And how much do you want to bet that, when Obama saw this footage, he was furious rather than amused?

AllenS said...

Helen Thomas never fell asleep when Obama spoke. That's for sure.

dbp said...

Naw, Obama would just be sleepy--like everyone else who listens to his speeches.

lemondog said...

When Obama speaks

alan markus said...

"Fred4Pres said...
Coffee. B complex. Jolt Cola. You have to get these kids fired up for Hope and Change!"

Yeah, reminds of the scene where Forrest Gump drinks 15 bottles of Dr. Pepper at the reception for President Kennedy and tells him "I gotta pee!" when he walks through the reception line.
Forrest Gump JFK I Gotta Pee Scene

I think a bunch of kids hopping up and down because they have to pee, like right now, while Obama drones on, would probably be funnier than this video.

lemondog said...

And speaks and speaks and speaks

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lemondog said...

Didn't the eagle on the Presidential Seal fall asleep during a press conference?

GMay said...

He actually used "last full measure of devotion"?

His speechwriters are such hacks. No wonder his speeches sound more and more like a copy and paste Frankenstein of a mess.

Unknown said...

Related parody: Relentless Political Exploitation of Children Ruled to Violate Child Labor Laws http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/09/politicians-relentless-exploitation-of.html

Palladian said...

Oh great, we get to hear about Theo's amoral, apple-polishing demon-spawn again. Tell us again how proud you are to be raising a soulless elite-in-training, Theo! Mirabile dictu, a new generation of super-geniuses readies itself to carry on the mission of the current super-geniuses in power, just in case America happens to survive that long.

Trooper York said...

Ouch.

That's gonna leave a mark.

john said...

It works both ways. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ultimate demon-spawn.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beth said...

Despite his apparently having grown up to be something of a jerk, I really enjoyed Rudy Guiliani's little red-headed menace back in the day.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beth said...

I want to give Theo an internet hug. Thanks for a thoughtful, realistic perspective, Theo.

Beth said...

I spent much of my youth in choirs. Choral singing is as close to glorious as life comes.

lemondog said...

He actually used "last full measure of devotion"?

Attempting to fulfill his destiny

Trooper York said...

All this is well and good but I have one very important question.

Why does Beth have to show us her doggie's cootch?

Trooper York said...

I thought that all those doggies had a "Don't ask....Don't smell" thing going on?

Beth said...

Trooper, shouldn't that be gooch, not cootch? It's a boy doggie. Taint that so?

I think there was a dachshund post sometime recently, and I impulsively switched to that picture.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Kids at Phils game don't fall asleep until they have a beer or two.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/95829919.html#axzz0qI4FB2F2

Trooper York said...

Is it really?

The picture is too small for me to tell.

But I bet you cut the wiener off of your wiener dog so he really isn't a dude.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

Yeah. I would especially like to hear about the choir coach.

I hear she was a taskmaster. Or something like that there.

Lynne said...

I'd like to chime in and support Theo re: choirs.
I did the church choir thing as a kid,but the most ambitious music-making I ever participated in was the choir at our public high school. Strictly audition only; about a week-long weeding process to see who got in.
The choir director didn't merely rehearse us, she taught us music- Benjamin Britten, Vivaldi, Bach, you name it. She made sure we knew the period of each piece, the history behind it, and approached German, French and Italian lyrics with a decent accent. (She would stop a phrase, point a bony finger at someone and say:"You! What's the year this was written? What's the period?" I'll never forget her jigging about at the front of the room, shouting "Bach was a dancer! Feel the beat! Pick it up!")
Even the local garage-band wannabes vied for seats. Somehow she got all of us- punk rockers, gospel singers, the lot- to attack tone clusters like our lives depended on it!
I can still sing large swathes of the alto portion of the Hallelujah Chorus.
"and he shall reheyheyeign..."
tempo! tempo!

Anonymous said...

The kid--along with everyone else who gets within a quarter-mile of the president these days--probably had to endure 5 1/2 hours of security checks and waiting.

Anonymous said...

Lynne: "The cat promptly gave a huge yawn and went back to sleep.Churchill took it well."

Barbra Streisand, on the other hand I'm told, was hurt if she came home from work and her kitten ignored her.

Franklin said...

C'mon Barry!

All successful entertainers know never to work with children or animals.

garage mahal said...

That's why I was sad that everyone got mad at Garage Mahal.

Yes I'm sorry I brought children into an adult conversation. Shoulda known.

Anonymous said...

"That's why I was sad that everyone got mad at Garage Mahal."

When did everyone get mad at garage mahal?

Palladian said...

"When did everyone get mad at garage mahal?"

When he said how much he hated the Jews.

reader_iam said...

I can remember, so clearly, from 45+ years back, my parents--then in only their mid-/early-late 20s--singing the mnemonics suggested for use with their students, and with good senses of humor underlying. An example:

Oh my God, Oh my God
Is it Mozart?--
Yes it is; Yes it is; Yes it is.
...
...

***

They were bears about the discipline, also.

garage mahal said...

When he said how much he hated the Jews.

Usually real anti-semites also hate blacks, gays, and mexicans, too. Now if I was a real anti-semite, I wouldn't have offered to buy a piece of crap sketch from you because I felt sorry for you, after you came begging for money in a thread. And why do I find I'm one of the few sticking up for blacks and mexicans on this blog? Hmmm....

So you fail fokker, and no sale!

garage mahal said...

Palladian
Was kidding about your sketches, I like them and will still buy that one.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reader_iam said...

Oh great, we get to hear about Theo's amoral, apple-polishing demon-spawn again.

WTF?

Tell us again how proud you are to be raising a soulless elite-in-training, Theo!

Ain't that pretty. Not to mention jerky.

I may be the only person around here with some insight about kids and choirs and their use as backdrops.

No, you're not.

wv: tadjump

I kid you not. And how perfect is THAT, to say the least?

Anonymous said...

Usually real anti-semites also hate blacks, gays, and mexicans, too. Now if I was a real anti-semite, I wouldn't have offered to buy a piece of crap sketch from you because I felt sorry for you, after you came begging for money in a thread. And why do I find I'm one of the few sticking up for blacks and mexicans on this blog?, Hmmm....

So you fail fokker, and no sale!


LOL You're full of bullshit.

reader_iam said...

I'm sorry for being so quick to respond--so careless in responding--that I failed to put some sort of separation between the first two parts of my 12:28 comment and the last part.

To be clear: In the first two parts, I quoted Palladian and responded. In the last part, I quoted Lynne and responded.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reader_iam said...

For the benefit of people who demand disclosure of bias, I'm a staunch fan of both Theo and Palladian. But staunch--which, it's true, inherently includes the concept of loyalty--does not preclude sharp criticism, or at least pointing out, as needed.

I'm the spawn of musician parents, mother and father artists alike. It's what they did: privately, publicly; personally, professionally.

I am not them. But that experience is profoundly part of me. Thus I love whom and what I love. That's so no matter the contradiction. It is what it is.

(Also, I developed a severe allergy to expected black-and-white ways of judging things along the way, including, but not limited to, with regard to the Arts, artists and other brands of inherently adversarial expression--along with developing a deep, concomitant understanding of the whys behind the expectations...

...and, also, the qualities of being, for example, ornery and annoying. Especially over things the majority of people don't even care about.)

; )

: )

---

3rd wv: boxiden

Well, if that doesn't deserve an LMAO, I don't what would!!!

reader_iam said...

Please insert "developing" between "also," and "the qualities" in the last text-block of my just-previous comment. This clarifies to whom I was referring there (that is, myself).

---

wv: unsinges

Yeah, right.

Lynne said...

Um, Reader Iam- you didn't quote me at 12:28. I didn't write what you quoted.

I'm not sure who in the thread did write it, but it wasn't me.

Just clarifying.

Largo said...

@Theo,

I have mixed feelings about your comments. For some people, in some circumstances, dozing off is an involuntary act. I hate to see students punished for dozing off in class despite a perfect will to stay awake.

They can still be culpable, if for example they refused to get the night-sleep required for their duties.

Your comment makes be think of another kind of culpability. There are jobs that demand a degree of maintained alertness, and perhaps remaining alert is a skill that can be learned. Bravo for a school that trains it students in this skill. I see how, perhaps, one can be culpable for dozing off, even involuntarily, if one neglected one's duties in training that skill.

Having gotten me thinking about cases in which one may be culpable, I wonder what you think how the volitional aspect of dozing off might or should factor into the issue?

(For what it's worth, I dread the thought of anything like being placed on jury duty, and "expected" by the judge to stay fully awake during proceedings. Especially since judges have considerable discretion in how to enforce their "expectations".)

Anonymous said...

Garage Mahal

Those attacks on you are absurd. People making them ought to wash their faces, take the battery clamps off their nipples and step into the sunshine.

Palladian said...

My attack on garage mahal was just a joke.

I even tried to write it in garage mahal style!

Garage is my best frienemy!

verification word: hating (!!!)

Ann Althouse said...

I agree with Theo that it's good for kids to learn the discipline of sitting and listening respectfully. It's fine for there to be discipline. But I don't think having the whole world laugh at a child via YouTube is the appropriate mechanism of discipline. I feel for the boy. That's all. Children need more sleep than the schedules imposed on them permit, and it's especially bad when there is an evening event. Kids are made to get up very early these days, and we should respect their needs by getting them off camera by 8.

JAL said...

I think the kid in front of the Sleeper also gives a clue about the effect of Obama's speech.

It was supposed to be an honor to be behind Obama.

Oh well.