Unfortunately, Karen, the president’s bizarrely controversial back-to-school remarks didn’t include any references to iPod use, so you’ll have to continue waging that battle on your own with the Swampkids. He did, however, address the issue of Facebook this morning at a visit to Wakefield High School in Arlington. In response to a question from a ninth-grader named Jesse who asked for advice on becoming president, Obama said: “Be careful what you post on Facebook.” Which is actually good job advice for pretty much anyone. (Attention potential job-seekers: We may have grown up playing Oregon Trail–look it up on wiki–but we still know how to work the interwebs.)
Obama also got off a Gandhi joke, because who doesn’t like a laugh at the expense of a martyred pacifist? When asked the classic “if you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be?” question, Obama thought for a moment before picking Gandhi, and then added: “It would probably be a really small meal.”
Meanwhile, the last remnant of people who object to the president telling kids to study hard and stay in school protested outside Wakefield High, carrying signs with messages like “Children Serve God, Not Obama.” Elsewhere today, Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler calls controversy over Obama’s speech “a national embarrassment.”