A New Orleans fourth grade, Tyren Scott was asking the unexpected question to President Barack Obama, October 15, during his first visit to hurricane-ravaged. The brave kid asked the few issue about some statement of people related to Obama’s political decisions.
“I have to say, why do people hate you? They supposed to love you. God is love,” Tyren, from Paulina, Louisiana asked.
Obama, appeared tickled by the question, saying “hey, that’s what I’m talking about,” adding “I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now… I got a whole lot of votes.” “If you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody’s just getting mad all the time. And you know, I think that you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt. Some of it is just what’s called politics, where, you know, once one party wins, then the other party kind of feels like it needs to poke you a little bit to keep you on your toes. And so you shouldn’t take it too seriously.”
He added: “And then, sometimes, as I said before, people … (are) worried about their own lives. A lot of people are losing their jobs right now. A lot of people are losing their health care or they’ve lost their homes to foreclosure, and they’re feeling frustrated. And when you’re president of the United States … you’ve got to deal with all of that … You get some of the credit when things go good. And when things are going tough, then, you know, you’re going to get some of the blame, and that’s part of the job.”
Obama closed with: “But, you know, I’m a pretty tough guy. Are you a tough guy? You look like you’re pretty tough.”
Gambit asked Tyren what he thought of Obama’s answer.
“It made me feel good about what he said,” Tyren told us.”And he gave me the right answer.”
Given that he was talking to a 9-year-old kid who feels upset by seeing his president hated, I think Obama gave him pretty much the right answer, too.
