The Department of Early Indoctrination

The authors of two recent children's picture books detailing the life Barack Obama have taken this classical Greek advice to heart, turning Hillary Clinton's classic mockery -- "Celestial choruses will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect" -- into the straight-faced official biography for the four to seven year-old set.

Here, for example, is how Jonah Winter, striking a tone in BARACK somewhere between Vladimir Lenin and action movie preview narrator, translates the presidential race for America's impressionable babes:

[O]n the horizon, at the dawn of a new age, there appeared a man who would be the embodiment of King's dream -- a presidential candidate whose very being was a bridge that joined nations.

Not to be outdone, Nikki Grimes' Son of Promise, Child of Hope describes the early years of Barack, "his mama, white as whipped cream; his daddy, black as ink," thusly:

He was there in Chicago because he cared about these people. They were his family. People in Kenya were his family. Indonesians were his family. And no matter where he was, the world was his home. And who he was could be summed up in one word: loveable.

Well, at least she doesn't say Messiah.

[not funny, in fact alarming - Recommended > ]

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