Too Cute: Obama Helps Ten-Year-Old Play Hooky

By Ginna Green, Shakesville. Posted June 12, 2009.

This story is giving me a serious case of the awwwwwwwws:

Ten-year-old Kennedy Corpus has a rock-solid excuse for missing the last day of school: a personal note to her teacher from President Barack Obama.

Her father, John Corpus of Green Bay, stood to ask Obama about health care during the president's town hall-style meeting at Southwest High School on Thursday. He told Obama that his daughter was missing school to attend the event and that he hoped she didn't get in trouble.

"Do you need me to write a note?" Obama asked. The crowd laughed, but the president was serious.

On a piece of paper, he wrote: "To Kennedy's teacher: Please excuse Kennedy's absence. She's with me. Barack Obama." He stepped off the stage to hand-deliver the note — to Kennedy's surprise.

"I thought he was joking until he started walking down," Kennedy said after the event, showing off the note in front of a bank of television cameras. "It was like the best thing ever."

There hasn't been another president in my lifetime who's as good with kids as Barack Obama. He's just absolutely lovely to (and with) them. 

[H/T to Iain.]

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Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.

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