So. The President can’t manage his time well enough to fill 17 of the top 18 positions in the Treasury Department, but will get paid half a million dollars to write a children’s book. Well, not exactly write it, per se:
The project calls for an abridged version of his book “Dreams From My Father” for middle-school-aged children, according to the disclosure.
A White House aide said that the deal had been in the works for weeks and that the publisher will abridge the book. The aide, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said the publisher will get half of the money while Mr. Obama will sign off on the final version.
Obama will get a quarter million to give his (presidential) seal of approval to a book he didn’t write, to sell to schoolchildren whose curriculums are set, in part, by the Department of Education he runs.
Well, it’s hard to deny that Obama seems a bit unseemly, or that Crown Publishing looks like it’s currying favor, or that schoolchildren everywhere won’t be subtly “encouraged” to buy the book. “Library card check,” anyone?
This stinks.