America’s Next President, As Predicted By Fifth Graders
The students in Mr. Dingledine’s class readied themselves for the initial vote. It was a Friday morning in November at Stoddert Elementary School in Washington, D.C., and there was a motion on the table: “President Obama will be reelected president one year from now.” Four students had prepared themselves to argue for the motion, and four against.
Out of 16 students who made up the audience, six believed Obama would get reelected. Ten did not. There were muffled cries of “Yesss!” from the opposing team, clearly with the advantage going into the showdown.
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The first two speakers allowed a cordial handshake, and then a boy named Archie started the arguments for the supporters. The crux of his team’s position was this. “He will get elected, because most of his promises he kept,” Archie said. “Things take time, so all the promises he didn’t make, he can fix them.”
(This is impressively close to the argument that Obama himself is making. “As President Obama took office, his economic program both addressed the immediate crisis and laid the foundation for a U.S. economy that can out-innovate and out-build the world,” reads his campaign website. “But there’s more work to do.”)
A few of the arguments, including the opener, for the opposing side sounded awfully wonky. (Keywords: offshore drilling, auto bailouts.) But a boy named Jacob laid out a unique offense, cleverly sidestepping squabbles about what Obama has or hasn’t achieved. “I’m not trying to put Obama down or anything. He’s a really great president,” Jacob said. “But that doesn’t really matter. He could be the best president in the world. But if people don’t think he’s the best, he won’t get elected, because people won’t vote for him.”
The first rebuttal for the supporters was made by a skinny young boy named Akiri. He stuttered, ever so endearingly, as he (inadvertently) articulated the essential difference between Republicans and Democrats. “I think that some people are really stubborn,” he said, “because they think the government is telling them what to do. And a lot people don’t really like that. But [the government is] trying to ensure for their safety.”
Akiri then moved on to an argument that TIME’s own Joe Klein has been making for the last year. “There was an increase in jobs just this morning. And I heard Jacob [another student] say, ‘Well, what if somebody doesn’t read that stuff?’ But Obama, if he’s smart, he’s going to put that in his report.” For his part, Klein has said Obama’s failure to communicate his successes to the American people has been tantamount to “political malpractice.”