The New York Times puts it this way:
“I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children,” President Trump marveled, surrounded in the Oval Office by the Halloween-costumed offspring of White House reporters. “How the media did this, I don’t know.”When the candy arrives, he hands it out saying: “Who likes this?And you have no weight problems. That’s the good news, right?”
The children stared vacantly. The candy had not yet arrived.
For some 180 seconds on Friday, these visitors inspired a quintessential Trump performance — part executive gripe session, part grandfatherly charm, part open-mic night for the under-12 set....
“These are beautiful, wonderful children,” he began, pausing for a beat behind his desk. “Ughhh. You going to grow up to be like your parents?”
Yeah, but how did Obama handle Halloween? I looked it up. Oh, my...
That guy could be so beautiful (in a way Trump cannot begin to emulate). I blogged that a year ago under the post title "I'm going to miss this man." Seeing a tiny boy dressed as Prince, Obama sings "Purple rain, purple rain."
By contrast, Trump saw a little girl with purple hair and said: "I like that hair. Wow. What color is that? Is that purple?" The little girl just said "Yeah." She was the daughter of a journalist, and yet she politely refrained from retorting: "I like that hair. Wow. What color is that? Is that orange?"
ADDED: Let me pick on the NYT for this:
On the girl with purple hair: “What color is that? Purple?”That makes Trump sound dumber than he is, because here's the girl in question:
It's a setup to call her "the girl with purple hair." Many girls, if asked "What color is that? Purple?" would give an elaborate answer like: "Well, it's sort of purple, but really, I would call it lilac or maybe lavender." Perhaps Trump has had conversations with his daughters about colors and thought it was giving the girl a good opportunity to say something cute or clever.
But she just said, "yeah," which is okay, but I don't think Trump should be made to look like he wasn't good at talking to kids because he just stated the obvious.
You could even say he was better than Obama, because Obama took the spotlight from the child by singing "Purple Rain," but Trump allowed himself to sound dumb when he was really giving the girl a chance to shine.
I've had many conversations with children over the years, and I think I'm kind of good at it. And I would use simple questions like "What color is that? Purple?" Or maybe I'd have said "What color is that? I've never seen that color before. Is that special color only for unicorns?" The idea is to give the child a chance to say anything and then to show interest in whatever it is and get some kind of riff going in any way that the child can do.
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107 comments:
"The little girl just said "Yeah." She was the daughter of a journalist, and yet she politely refrained from retorting: "I like that hair. Wow. What color is that? Is that orange?""
Yeah, I bet that was what she was thinking. LOL.
Obama: Great at Halloween. Sucks at everything else.
Not missing him at all.
Obama was not a beautiful man. He was a fake-charming man. He just never did it well enough to seem unrehearsed and natural. He's a robot that was trying desperately to emulate the easy charm of a naturally charming man.
I am still glad that Obama is not in the White House anymore, and THRILLED to death that it is Trump handing out candy, and NOT Crooked Hillary.
About 80 kids came through every holloween until 2001, when none came, leaving me with 80 full-sized Almond Joy bars.
So I ended the practice. Nowadays if you leave your porch light off, nobody comes; and only porches with little kids at home turn on.
The kids weren't interested in small talk, just candy.
Once a mother asked for one for her kid sick at home too. I asked if she wanted one for herself as well, and she said yes.
Apparently fun size isn't really popular with the kids.
Iowahawk has a pic of fun sized Dole salad packets somewhere.
That guy could be so beautiful
Repeal the 19th.
Ann, do you really prefer your constitution ignored and trashed by a smoothing talking mood elevator?
Does that make you feel better about what is/was happening?
We all know that the mark of a great President is how well he relates to small children. /s
Missing him, I'm dismissing that affirmative action anti-American incompetent.
Obama is also racist.
Seems to me that I was reading about racism earlier. Somewhere.
I liked Obama. Not really missing him, but I felt the country was in sane hands rather than the somewhat erratic hands of the current occupant of the White House.
Obama was passing out candy like he passed out taxpayer money in Chicago. Barf.
Maybe like Trump, others can be perceived as lacking self-awareness.
Both Barack and Michelle Obama were great with kids. It's too bad their only job was not to interact with kids.
So Althouse, do you miss the love and elegance of Obama?
Why do the kids of the journalists get to go to the White House? Trump should scrap this next year and invite kids of military families.
Enough with the "Oooh....he's so dreamy" stuff about Obama, because that's only a surface manifestation.
Cold and aloof politicians of the Chicago Way are not beautiful.
It's a cultural thing. The POTUS interacts with kids and shows that almost all of us like kids. They're funny and silly and bring out a smile even when it seems unlikely.
Obama behaved naturally there. It's OK to be a beautiful man who can sing and act a bit.
Not all charmers are devils, but the Devil is a charmer.
"I felt the country was in sane hands "
And you were fine with Crooked Hillary and her Russian friends, too.
Trump is just fine with kids. I think there's something demented about needing constant emotional affirmation from a President...
I wonder which President was the worst with children? LBJ? Andrew Johnson seemed like a shithead...
This goes on the list of "Trump's sexual assaults" along with "See how pretty this girl is? She's gonna be my girlfriend in ten years! Can you believe it?" <<- actual item from the list of Trump's "sexual assaults."
Every now and then Obama jets into Chicago to displace a few more poor people for the glory of his library (which will have no documents) and his foundation (which will have no public purpose). It is hard to miss him when he won't go away.
I felt the country was in sane hands rather than the somewhat erratic hands of the current occupant of the White House.
What was it? The deposition of Kaddafy and the flood of refugees, thousands of whom drowned in the Mediterranean as Hillary gloated? Or was it ramping up the Civil war in Syria by arming a side, also flooding Europe with refugees. So many refugees! European destabilization by it, Brexit as a result! Only a "unreasonable man" could see a dark side to that presidency!
There are two items like that on the list of his "sexual assaults" so I guess we are up to 33 now.
"...and yet she politely refrained from retorting: "I like that hair. Wow. What color is that? Is that orange?"
His hair seems considerably less orange in this video, almost yellow-white.
I sense a conspiracy.
I am Laslo.
Amadeus 48, some day in the distant future, the entire country (well, the contiguous 48) will be covered in Presidential Libraries. Our descendants will descend into sleeping in the bathrooms there, and eating the free snacks in the cafeterias. 'Twill be glorious.
Eh, I hated Obama as president but I love him with kids. I think he genuinely enjoys and relates to them, and that makes me smile. Sorry I don't hate every particle of the man.
There’s something very female about looking at a handsome charmer and falling for his schtick. Most men look at the way he set Americans at each other’s throats as a political philosophy, the mess he made of foreign policy, the pain and suffering caused by his trademark Obamacare, his terrible economic policies, and on and on, and we find nothing to like about him at all.
Oops! I’ve violated the “Althouse Rule,” haven’t I? No doubt retribution will be swift.
Obama is clearly a much more gracious person, but I only care about policy.
Obama is an abomination.
To me, this kind of stuff is pretty irrelevant. I'm sure Obama has some good qualities, but he was an awful president. Probably one of the worst ever. He had an unprecedented opportunity to do some real good, but he instead he made things worse. No doubt that Trump can be a jerk, but he's moving things in the right direction and is making a real effort to undo as much of the Obama/Clinton damage as possible. So, if he's a little awkward with the kids, I really don't care.
As much as I extremely disliked Obama and Michelle too....you could always tell that they really like children and connected well with them. They seemed like caring and loving parents.
Other than that.............:-)
Trump is a real man whereas Obama is a metrosexual.. and otherwise.
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...
"Eh, I hated Obama as president but I love him with kids."
He could've been a good school teacher.
Inspire the kids, be the cool teacher who'd shoot hoops with the kids after school, be stern when needed.
Really.
I am Laslo.
Obama was among his sycophants who covered all his sins for him. thats why he was so relaxed around the adoring fans of the press. Trump perhaps is defensive because he knows they all hate him and are his enemies. I would think that would make even the most confident people a little off.
"I like that hair. Wow. What color is that? Is that orange?"
I'm color-blind, so someone's coloring doesn't make much of an impression on me, but I always thought it was Trump's [b]skin[/b] that had an orange tint. It's his hair?
Google up some of the White House Halloweens with Hillary.....
I reject the premise, I think Trump is just fine dealing with people including children and Trump did a pretty good job with his children.
I've never understood the preoccupation with Trump's hair.
The difference is as stark as normal and abnormal.
“I reject the premise, I think Trump is just fine dealing with people including children and Trump did a pretty good job with his children.”
Low bar Presidency.
If Hillary had won these kids would have had to fork out $ 10,000 each to attend the party.
Low bar Presidency.
Just this. Determining the quality of the Presidency using the dating and husband material checklist. It's absurd and plays right into rhhardins schtick.
Finally, I know which one is an honorable man and which one is just a trendy façade.
“Finally, I know which one is an honorable man and which one is just a trendy façade.”
No, I don’t think you do.
These guys know how to do a Halloween party -
Day Of The Dead cancelled: Outbreak of the plague has forced authorities in Madagascar to warn residents not to exhume bodies of dead loved ones and dance with them
Yeah Obama was very good at carefully crafted photo-ops/setups, like a kid dressed as Prince.
"... leaving me with 80 full-sized Almond Joy bars..."
When I was a kid, I could never understand why anyone would hand out coconut bars. It seemed really perverse! Who would do this?!
"... but I always thought it was Trump's [b]skin[/b] that had an orange tint. It's his hair?"
It's the entire head. The whole thing. Hair, face... everything.
I wouldn't be shocked to find photographers playing games with saturation to make Trump more orange. That picture you posted shows a fairly conventional blond look.
From day one Obama made my skin crawl, and he still does. I grant he could be "charming" in that stage managed political way that Trump will never achieve. But they tell me that Stanley Baldwin could be very charming and reassuring in his own avuncular way that left Great Britain woefully unprepared for WWII. Let's never forget that as the Clintons and Carter made way for a nuclear North Korea, lovable Obama tried to make nice with the Iranians in a way that will enable them to join the nuclear club.
Perhaps what we need is a separation of the roles of head of government and head of state as Great Britain has with the queen. Trump could Commander-in-Chief and Obama could be Charmer-in-Chief. He's already proved he's good at bowing and scraping. There would be no more speeches, no more apology tours unless he's apologizing for the harm he did to the republic. By the way, is there a more smarmy, oleaginous, cringe inducing character flaw than apologizing for the faults of others.
Not a fan of Trump personally, but I like what he's doing in many areas. I wasn't voting for someone who could hand out the candy, I was voting for someone who would, intentionally or not, stand up for the Republic. I've said before and will continue to say as Lincoln said of those who criticized Grant, "I can't spare this man, he fights."
He could've been a good school teacher.
Inspire the kids, be the cool teacher who'd shoot hoops with the kids after school, be stern when needed.
Really.
I am Laslo.
Yes, Laslo! He missed his true calling.
Can we impeach Trump over this?
That guy could be so beautiful (in a way Trump cannot begin to emulate). I blogged that a year ago under the post title "I'm going to miss this man."
Althouse will get the opportunity to un-miss Obama quite soon, shortly after Mueller is asked who ordered him to drop the Uranium One bribery and extortion case. I doubt it was Valerie Jerrett.
When I was a kid, I could never understand why anyone would hand out coconut bars. It seemed really perverse! Who would do this?!
Leftovers. You buy too many, to be safe; and then you have to eat the rest. Buy stuff you like.
I had a gf who didn't like coconut either, which made no sense to me. Coconut is great.
Normally I gave out Planters' Big Block, but it was discontinued.
No doubt those kids all hear only good things at home when their parents discuss the President.
Nowadays I'd give out Lindt 90% cocoa chocolate bars but I'd have to include instructions.
There's 10 squares per bar.
Take one square. Break it into four pieces. Eat one piece.
It's bitter. Come back much later and eat another.
After a while you've developed a taste for it and regular chocolate is way way too sweet.
Eaglebeak
Obama was an unutterable creep. Also markedly epicene.
Give me a brash, arrogant, tough-talking, alpha male New Yorker every time.
Barack "Turns out I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters" Obama -- now THERE was a guy afflicted with incurable narcissism.
It seemed really perverse! Who would do this?!
Those who are fond of Almond Joy often assume others share their taste, the corollary of the Althouse distaste for coconut candy. Almond Joy has been in production 71 years, so it must have a considerable market — not everyone hates it or finds it "perverse." (?)
Do you want to know something really perverse? Posit a Halloween candy-giver who hands out "treats" he finds personally disgusting. Now, that's perverse. No perversity at all attaches to Almond Joy — or Mounds for that matter.
Sometimes you come across as slightly nuts, Althouse. Kinda like an Almond Joy bar
"That picture you posted shows a fairly conventional blond look."
There's a difference between strawberry blond — which he has — and a non-red blond that you might call ash blond. In between, there are honey blonds. It's pretty complex!
Also markedly epicene
Rumor has it that Obama had some private cycling lessons to reduce the obviousness of his "nancy boy" riding style.
Eaglebeak
As to the "orangeness"-- Trump has rosacea, for Pete's sake. It's an ailment that afflicts people with light skin--starts out as a tendency to blush or flush easily, and ultimately gives the skin a reddish hue.
Trump uses some kind of spray tan (or whatever) to try to mask it.
It is especially prevalent among those of Irish, Scottish, English, and German descent--well, Trump's mother was Scottish and his father German, so there you have it
I plan to go with an assortment. Some hard candies, some Butterfingers, some Snickers, etc. It was fun as a kid reaching into a bowl and picking what you liked.
I once got a bunch of dirty pennies on Halloween. Kinda gross, but one of them was from 1898. That made it cool.
Then there was that lady who gave slightly rotting apples.
I've bought Halloween candy three times already. I assume those damn kids are quietly sneaking in at night and eating it.
That guy could be so beautiful
That video still reminded me of "Waiting for Superman". Remember that movie? It was a documentary about the myriad failings of American public education, and the experience of several families waiting to see if they win the lottery that allows their children to escape into charter schools. Obama had some of the kids from that movie visit him too! More swell photo opportunities!
He also gutted the DC school voucher program. That didn't happen on camera though, so you don't have to think about it.
I plan to go with an assortment.
Long winded story about that: Stranger Things 2 came out on Netflix this week. SPOILER!: It is about a group of middle school friends set in the 1980s and in one of the early episodes the kids go trick or treating. Now, this is my era and I could have turned pro on the trick or treating circuit back then. I had all the candy maximizing strategies down: which neighborhoods, which houses to avoid, everything. Anyways, on the show one of the kids says they should go to the rich people's neighborhood to score some full size bars which brought up an interesting observation: I nor any of my peers could recall ever scoring a full size bar back in the day. Not one. Rich people either gave out the little assortment bags or let you grab a handful.
Perhaps our rich people weren't really rich...
"I had a gf who didn't like coconut either, which made no sense to me. Coconut is great."
Even the thought of coconut turns my stomach.
He could've been a good school teacher.
Inspire the kids, be the cool teacher who'd shoot hoops with the kids after school, be stern when needed.
No question he'd be as inspirational and prone to taking time to shoot hoops as a school teacher as he was as president. Unfortunately, teachers, like presidents, really ought to know some things. Obama said he couldn't help his daughter with her math homework once she reached the 7th grade. He had more trouble with subject-verb agreement than a teacher (or 7th grader) should have. I don't want children to learn history from that man. And nothing about his public persona suggests intellectualism more than that he is excruciatingly bad at sports, so gym is out.
Back when we were able to get homemade goodies from nice neighborhood ladies when trick or treating.....
There was one house that had these yummy sticky popcorn balls with peanuts embedded inside. Wrapped up in wax paper with some black and orange ribbons. There was no such thing as plastic wrap. So buttery, sticky, crunchy and great. No one had heard of peanut allergies in those days.
Another favorite was the lady who made Divinity candy with nuts and candied fruits. Delicious!
Think of all the time, energy and fun they had getting ready to make these treats for the children and the enjoyment they got when their productions were so eagerly received. How sad that we can't do this anymore. The popcorn ball and divinity candy would be trashed.
Yeah. I'm old.
Diogenes of Sinope said...
Obama is clearly a much more gracious person, but I only care about policy.
10/28/17, 8:41 AM
It's easy to be gracious when everybody is kissing your ass. If it's so important for Trump to be nice, be nice to Trump. This is so obvious that I can't understand why people don't act accordingly.
Damned, Obama was really good. Just a natural. The reaction by the "Superman" child was funny.
Ann Althouse said...
"That picture you posted shows a fairly conventional blond look."
There's a difference between strawberry blond — which he has — and a non-red blond that you might call ash blond. In between, there are honey blonds. It's pretty complex!
I'm not under any illusion that's his natural hair color, which at this point, is probably pretty gray. Older photographs of Trump often show darker shade of blond.
Everybody is observing the gender of blond/blonde
If Trump is a Cheeto, Obama is a Tootsie-Roll.
Talking to young children is a talent that a lot of adults don't have, and those that have it probably wouldn't do it well in front of a camera. Both Trump and Obama in the clips I saw referenced this morning fail miserably to do what is really necessary to engage the children because they are both playing to the camera itself. It would be interesting to see both do this without an "audience" or camera- I bet both are much better at it than you see recorded.
Coconut is best with a mild dark chocolate. I love my Mounds. Something in the recesses of my memory tells me that was a line from a commercial. Or a Laslo post.
I guess what I am saying is that both used the children as props for the camera- you can't do that and interact with them on their level. In addition, because of the media hostility, Trump is under an additional constraint in that interaction which makes it more painful to watch.
Ann Althouse said...
"... but I always thought it was Trump's [b]skin[/b] that had an orange tint. It's his hair?"
It's the entire head. The whole thing. Hair, face... everything.
That's because Media photographers and cameramen have increased the color saturation on Trump's images. Trump looks like a perfectly normal white man in images taken with cellphones and amateur cameras.
Serial killers study Obama's Halloween video to learn to mimic Social Awareness skills, including empathy. Obama acted like that with his young staffers, too. Then turned around and stabbed them in the back by saying he could do everything better than they could.
Not missing O. But then, I am a man. Not sure we'd let a dude with that kind of smile into our pickup game. Maybe just to get a little trash talk going.
What connection might there be between women missing O and women subjecting themselves to the Weinstein/Halperin treatment?
Cute kids. I suspect the parents invest time, money, and their creative abilities to outfit their kids in the best costumes. Probably a competitive substrata going on among the parents. No fat kids in cheap costumes, but I'd bet a lot of those kids aren't having happy childhoods either.
dreams said...
I've never understood the preoccupation with Trump's hair.
It is an engineering feat unequalled in modern hairstyling. One has to go back to Marie Antoinette or the powdered wigs of the Elizabethan era to find equivalents. Give the man some credit.
I could care less about Trump's hair. Now, if he was bald on top and had one of the scraggly little pony tails, that would be another thing.
It is an engineering feat unequalled in modern hairstyling.
I have to agree on the engineering feat. Trump probably started balding at an early age. Maybe even in his 30's and started doing the forward swoop to hide the receeding hairline.
Why he didn't just get a good toupee is kind of a mystery. However, perhaps back in the 80's there wasn't the quality that there is now. Nothing worse than a toupee that looks like a dead muskrat perched onto your head. Looking at you....Frank Luntz!
He could easily change his hairstyle today and look way better. Something like This one Where he looks like a basketball coach or This one More polished business man looking.
However, since he has made his hair into a signature style, it is likely too late to change.
I sure don't miss the bleating scold.
But he could throw hip WH parties.
I'm a tad encouraged that the press didn't withhold their kids as some sort of protest.
Trump should have dispensed with the jabs for the moment.
His orange hue has been much reduced since taking office.
I'll take the gruff, clownish behavior of Trump over the self-absorbed, phonier-than-thou, lecturing bullshit from Obama any day.
Oh, sure, he's great with kids at Halloween. But he crammed Obamacare down on all of us with a stream of lies. And he demonstrated contempt for Christians (get off your high horses Christians!) and middle Americans (bitterly clingers!). He lectured us about how our success in life wasn't self-earned - someone else earned that for us! He told graduates not to go into ugly selfish business and going into helping professions (who does he think pays for all that help?) And he appeased our enemies and confounded our friends.
So, pardon me if I cannot join you in missing this guy because he's 'cute' with little kids.
"Sorry I don't hate every particle of the man."
I do.
Obama is the sniveling punk who would've turned out better if he'd gotten his ass kicked in grade school a time or two.
Never actually accomplished a damn thing, yet thinks he walks on water.
I know too many people like him, and I avoid them like the plague.
If there's one thing I've learned watching politics for forty years, it's that it's impossible for any president to speak in such a way that partisan opponents cannot grossly distort it.
Yes, traditionally an adult defers to the child's moment. While a child will engage other children in wittycisms to determine who will be the tribal leader.
If there's one thing I've learned watching politics for forty years, it's that it's impossible for any president to speak in such a way that partisan opponents cannot grossly distort it.
Bingo. Even Halloween talk with children.
Not everything is politics; except for the ideologues.
Not everything is politics; except for the ideologues.
What's changed in forty years is that the mainstream media is now out and proud that they are indeed the partisan opposition.
I like Obama as a person - but I would've hated some strange adult singing to me as a kid.
I would've liked Trump better, cracking jokes and just being an adult.
As a young kid, I always disliked relatives/strangers who would go into "talking into a kid" mode. Since I knew how adults talked to each other & how my parents talked to me, I could pick up the phoniness from a mile a way.
Of course, how many men or boys - like a man singing to them?
I watched the video without the sound on, and was surprised how funny Trump can be with just his facial expressions and hand gestures.
There are two kinds of people in the world:
Those with great taste who appreciate Almond Joys
Everyone else.
Almond joys are too melty to give as Halloween treats south of about the 44th parallel.
I just adore the endearing way Trumps shits on journalists 24/7.
He was reading a TELEPROMPTER to the kid.
I would like to know which journalists brought their children to meet Trump. If they actually believe their own reporting - why would they subject their children to a modern day Hitler with a urine fetish who sexually abuses people.. Its as if they don't believe the stuff they write about Trump.
I just adore the endearing way Trumps shits on journalists 24/7.
Me too, payback's a bitch.
I wouldn't have thought anyone could overanalyze as much as Tyler Cowan. But you are definitely in the running.
I agree with Althouse's take--Obama seemed nice and outgoing but in the end it was all about Obama, stealing the scene from the kids.
Trump does not come across as smooth, and his comments on the kids' parents were uncalled for and small--but what else is new? One wonders what some of those kids overhear their parents say about Trump. Because, rest assured, they DO hear.
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