At a high school this week in Manchester, NH , Barack Obama once again confessed his sins but this time to a group of students. He had previous written about his drug use in his 1995 book, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance“. Let’s just assume that these students have not read his book. This strange confession came when an adult asked him about his time as a student. There was nothing in the question about past drug use, so why bring it up? It looked like he was waiting for an excuse to mention it. But why? What was the point of him bringing this up at this point in his campaign? He has recently been surging in the polls, gaining on Hillary. My best guess is that it has something to do with the “dirt” Hillary’s campaign denies that they have.

All conspiracy theories aside, Obama at least seems to be preparing everyone for the fact that he is imperfect for some reason. If he is not trying to pre-emptively negate any attack, then perhaps he is just sending the message that he wasted a lot of time being wasted. “Do as I say, not as I do” does not work on anyone under the age of 30. Teenagers instead hear, “You can use drugs and turn out ok. Look at me, I’m running for President. As long as you stop eventually, you’ll be just fine. Experimentation is a part of growing up. I’m sure you’ll grow out of it, everyone does it.” Yesterday, someone told my four year old daughter not to shake a can of soda, so of course the next thing she did was shake the can. This behavior continues in most people well past their teenage years as any parent can attest.

Mitt Romney calls this discussion with students a mistake. Giuliani admires his honesty. This is no surprise. Giuliani certainly has a few skeletons in his own closet and would prefer that people overlook his character flaws. Some people are more imperfect than others. I would like my President to be as close to perfect as possible and set a good example for the youth of our country. Leaders should be held to a higher standard than the people that vote for them.

Scott Allan

Labels: mitt romney, Obama, rudy giuliani