President Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, which means he just turned 51.
Here he is sitting with his daughter Sasha during a barbecue with family and friends in celebration of his 49th birthday on the South Lawn of the White House.
I turned 51 six years ago, almost seven years, really. My daughter Yarden was older at the time, so I don’t think we rolled in the grass back then. But we certainly did when she was Sasha’s age.
It’s one of the things fathers and daughters do.
Our presidents, like our kings before them, are symbols of our national condition, icons of our well being, avatars of our lives.
The president can’t really do much to, say, improve the economy. Anything substantial he would do would inevitably involve many other people and voices and opinions and influences and in the end would look nothing like what they had attempted to do in the first place.
But the president’s job in improving the economy, or the state of the union in general, is to get on his beloved horse Sparky every morning and ride down Main Street waving to the crowd and calling out: “Everything is great! Business is booming! Our country is the best in the world! Our people are the finest! Our children are the smartest! The future is bright!”
That’s really his job. That’s what he’s doing in this picture, rolling on the grass with little Sasha. His job.
Kinda’ sad, after all is said and done, don’t you think?
