Obama Gets Hooky Player Off The Hook

I’d pay to see the exchange at Aldo Leopold Elementary School tomorrow when 10-year-old Kennedy Corpus’ teacher asks why she wasn’t in school yesterday.

The girl could say that her father took her to see the President at his Town Hall Meeting at Southwest High School.

“Did you bring a note,” the teacher might ask.

“Oh, yes,” Kennedy could say and then hand the teacher a note – not from her dad – but from President Obama.

The Commander-in-Chief actually penned an excuse for Kennedy during today’s Town Meeting.

While taking questions, Mr. Obama called on Kennedy’s father, John Corpus, who quickly introduced his kid.

“I am fortunate enough to be here with my 10-year-old daughter who is missing her last day of school for this. I hope she doesn't get in trouble,” he told the President.

Feeling concern for a fellow dad, Mr. Obama offered to intervene to get the man’s daughter off the hook for playing hooky.

“Do you need me to write a note?” asked the President.

“I'll take you up on that actually, Mr. President,” said the dad.

“All right,” said Mr Obama, “I'll start writing it now. What’s her name?” he asked.

“John Corpus,” replied the father.

“No. Her,” said the president as the rest of the audience roared with laughter and a bit of glee at the thought of what Mr. Obama was doing.

The dad still didn’t get it and started asking his health care question.

“I’m serious,” said the president. "What’s your daughter’s name?"

The man told him.

“Kennedy,” repeated Mr. Obama. “That’s a cool name.”

And with that, he ripped off a piece of paper and wrote her an excuse.

“To Kennedy’s teacher. Please excuse Kennedy’s absence. She’s with me.” And he signed it: Barack Obama.

It would be great if the teacher didn’t know that the President had come to Green Bay.

“You expect me to believe the President wrote this excuse note?” she might ask Kennedy.

“Watch it on C-SPAN,” Kennedy could tell her.

But the girl knew she wouldn’t give her teacher the actual note. That’s a rare piece of history. She said she’d frame the original and give her teacher a copy.

Smart girl.


Of course, her dad said today was the last day of school. Kennedy probably won’t need a note at all.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.