Lord knows the Obama girls deserve a puppy, maybe a whole litter, as their reward for enduring the miseries of their dad's campaign and mom's frequent absences. (It sounds like they've got a terrific grandma , however, who will be moving to DC with them.)
I trust the family will pick an adorable and politically correct pup. (A beagle would seem especially appropriate, considering that most of them are white and black and brown.)
The White House , after all,??is an easy place to keep a dog. Plenty of backyard, good fences, scads of squirrels, and lots of staff around 24/7. (I suppose even the long-suffering White House gardeners and groundskeepers might have more difficulty with a pony on the South Lawn , though it might make the Obama kids even happier.)
And it will surely be a treat for the country to have two cute youngsters at the White House again after what seems like an awfully long spell with those post-adolescent twins .
Still, being a kid at the White House, for all the superficial glamor and appeal, is not an easy situation. Too many people will obsess overmuch about where they go to school , what they wear, how often they get to travel on Air Force One, what they eat, what books they read, what games they place, and on and on. Too many people will try to read macro-policy significance into the private decisions that the First Couple make about raising and educating their own kids, even to score political points by citing, shall we say, differences between how they raise their kids and the programs the Obama administration does or does not support for everybody. School choice enthusiasts, for example, will delight in pointing to alleged hypocrisy between the private school to which these girls will almost certainly be sent and the President-elect's likely aversion to publicly-funded vouchers for others.
Such temptations are hard to resist, but it would be good to resist them. People's public and private lives are simply not the same thing. At least not for conscientious parents. In private, they do what is best for their own children and in public they conduct themselves as they must. Chefs in fancy restaurants don't feed sous vide swordfish or foie gras terrine to their three year olds. Talk show hosts don't interrupt or challlenge their kids' every comment. Star athletes don't demand that their daughters and sons be jocks if they'd rather be artists. Race car drivers don't teach their teen-agers to speed.
Give the Obamas a break. Give these girls a break. Give them some privacy. Let them be kids. (One assumes the White House will lay down firm ground rules regarding direct media coverage.) It's hard enough to be accompanied to school and to sleepovers and to McDonalds and to soccer games by the Secret Service. Don't expect the President to govern and parent as if those are interchangeable activities. Don't demand a puppy on every doorstep.
