Dwight D. Eisenhower related a story that happened to him when he was a kid. He was sitting with his best friend by the creek, and his friend asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Ike replied that he wanted to be a baseball player -- a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. His friend responded that he wanted to be President of the United States. "Neither of us," Eisenhower reflected ruefully, "got our wish."
Hillary Clinton is literally using an essay Obama wrote in kindergarten, saying that he wanted to be president, against him in the primaries. I understand where she's coming from -- Obama has been jabbing at her for being too overt in her desire for the presidency. But this strike back smacks of absurdism.I know Hillary's great asset as a campaigner is that she lets no attack go unanswered. But she needs to at least train her fire more accurately -- the other anecdotes she has about Obama's early Presidential ambitions (say, the one's that date after college) are fair game. His elementary school education? Less so.
Meanwhile, I'm beginning to think my greatest qualification to become United States President is that I never wanted to be it as a kid. Not that I want it now. But if my country needs me, I guess I could be convinced to serve.
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4 comments:
Hi David. I needed a break from grading tests, and ended up at your blog. It's been a while since I've read and I am not as up to date on news as I like to be. That said, my thoughts on this post:
First, if you end up running for President at some point, can we dig up this post to be critical of your early ambition?
Second, could you explain to me why knowing what you want is a bad thing? I'm TRYING to teach my students to have goals. President could be amazing. Doing something too early because of your ambitions is an argument that at least makes some sense. Knowing and claiming your ambitions is a good thing in my book.
Thanks for the thoughts that remind me of a world beyond what I see immediately around me.
Sarah
Hey Sarah:
1) I don't want to be President. Never have and still don't. My eye is on the US Supreme Court.
2) I don't have a problem with ambition at all, and I think it's good for kids to think they can do whatever they set their mind to. But there is a meme in American society that people who are seen as wanting a high political position too badly shouldn't get it. They're seen as power-hungry and thus untrustworthy with such responsibility (remember the first HP book? You can only get the Sorcerer's Stone if you don't want to use it?).
I'm not saying I agree with it (indeed, I'm sort of mocking it by saying that I'm a great candidate to be Prez because I have no desire to do it), but the mentality is definitely present.
Philosopher's Stone.
We're Americans here, PG. That means we'll continue to use our ignorant linguistic substitutes because we find the concept of "philosophy" to be insufficiently dramatic if we want to!
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