Obama the Slacker
Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:07 PM by Countdown
Barack Obama gave a little glimpse into his life as a school age under achiever as he took questions at a Manchester, New Hampshire High School. When asked what his high school/college experience was like, he responded:
"I will confess to you that I was kind of a good off in high school as my mom reminded me. I went to high school in Hawaii, so there's a lot of opportunity to goof off because the weather is really good all the time. I did well in school but I didn't really apply myself. I did what I needed to, to get into college and it came fairly easily to me, but I never worked as hard as I should have. I was big on bball, I was a bball player, we were state champs. I thought I was better than I was. But I just loved the game and I played bball a lot. I thought about girls a lot. " you know I I made some bad decisions….You know, got into drinking and experimenting with drugs, there was a whole stretch of time whee I didn't apply myself. It wasn't until I got out of college - er, got out of high school, and went to college that I started realizing man I wasted a lot of time. “
He then goes on to outline how he found his calling in life, and did a 180 in college. This from the guy who is trying to separate himself generationally from Sen. Clinton and who was courting the folks on the Google Campus last week. Is Obama's candor about 'goofing off' in his youth another attemp to make inroads with younger voters? We're sure a lot of bios of the people he's trying to reach read about the same.
The full Obama text after the jump.
Question:
Give us a human side, when you went to high school what was your favorite subject, what subject did you struggle in, what clubs and rogs (??) did you belong to, did you do sports and what did you do when you were hanging out with your buddies?
Answer:
I will confess to you that I was kind of a good off in high school as my mom reminded me. I went to high school in Hawaii, so there's a lot of opportunity to goof off because the weather is really good all the time. I did well in school but I didn't really apply myself. I did what I needed to, to get into college and it came fairly easily to me, but I never worked as hard as I should have. I was big on bball, I was a bball player, we were state champs. I thought I was better than I was. But I just loved the game and I played bball a lot. I thought about girls a lot. " you know I I made some bad decisions….You know, got into drinking and experimenting with drugs, there was a whole stretch of time whee I didn't apply myself. It wasn't until I got out of college - er, got out of high school, and went to college that I started realizing man I wasted a lot of time.
When I started college I started noticing, why some places poor others rich, why is it that we spend all this money on our military but we don't spend it on our schools, why is it that women aren't always treated the same as men…a lot of questions that started bbbling up in my mind. I realized if I had spent a little more time reading, and studying that I could actually have some influence in the world, so I did a lot of catching up when I got to college. By the time I was a Junior and Senior, in college I got real serious in fact I was so serious my mother told me to lighten up. Fortunatly over time I got a little blance.
