The Quote of The Day comes from President Elect Barack Obama:
If they do their business, and you’ve got some poop, you don’t just leave it there.
Was Obama talking about the Bush administration’s economic policies? Its policies involving the War in Iraq? Or about the Senate Seat For Sale Illinois Governor and the Gov’s associates?
Or is this a statement designed to embrace all three — the ultimate way to make the concept of “change” accessible?
It could be, but it isn’t. It’s actually some of what Obama told elementary school students in what Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin calls “The Real Press Conference”. This was his answer to a question about what important lessons he thinks his daughters will learn from taking care of a dog.
According to Halperin, Obama took and answered twice as many questions as he did earlier from professional reporters.
And the kids’ questions were probably more to the point, reflected what people want to know better and if given chance they would have asked tougher follow-up questions (but let’s not THINK about a follow-up question on poop..).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.