That's AWESOME.

[apocalypsos]

A little more than a month earlier, teacher Joyce Ben-KiKi had Aron and his classmates each send letters to a famous person as part of a language arts lesson. Ben-KiKi wrapped the exercise around well-known children's book character "Flat Stanley," so along with the letters, the children each tucked a Flat Stanley figure they had made into each envelope.

"I told them not to expect a letter back," Ben-KiKi said. "I told them these people are very busy and most likely will not write back."

The list of recipients was impressive: Yankee third basemen Alex Rodriguez; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz; Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain.

[Barack] Obama was the only one to write back.

Comments

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwwww that IS awesome.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Sounds like he's got good people answering letters for him. (I've done this job for politicians. I know that Obama's not doing it personally.)

[dawnmipb.livejournal.com]

No, he didn't, but he probably signed it personally, yes? And I would bet he had a look at it and approved.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

The politicians I wrote letters for didn't sign them. Some wanted the letters stamped with something resembling their signatures; others wanted me to sign them in blue ink (never black) to give the appearance of personal contact.

Most of the time, they never even saw the letters addressed to them, or the letters I composed in reply. Occasionally I would read "their" replies out loud to them as they multitasked. The rest of the time, it was "I'm sure the letter's fine, just send it out."

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

I work for a busy real estate broker and she's the kind who is always making sure that what she writes out is letter-perfect, even if I come up with the initial draft. (In fact, I was working till 11 am from home and all day today on something really important that she was bird-dogging me on almost every step of the way.)

I remember an article about Obama's speechwriters and how he definitely outlines them first and goes through them to make sure they're good before they go out. I wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't at least take a look at it.

[polaris-starz.livejournal.com]

That's fucking adorable. The bit where he talked about taking Flat Stanley around with him and practicing his speeches made me "AWW!" out loud.

[kerri]

The more I find out about this man, the more I think he's at heart a good man. He'll be a good president.

I should say that even going with the assumption that he didn't write it himself, he still hired the people who did, you know? Nobody on McCain's team saw any reason to, and that says a lot.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. He probably didn't write it, but it says a lot about the people he hires that someone did.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Awww he's just the greatest.

[supernatrlmommy.livejournal.com]

I tell you, it's stuff like this that make me more and more certain that I should vote for this man. And yes, while I agree that he likely didn't write the letter himself, the kind of staff who would write a letter like that says something about the people he surrounds himself with. I've been undecided for so long, and the more I read about this man, the more I'm taken with him as a person, much less as our next (possibly) president.

[hawklaw.livejournal.com]

I'll agree. Even if he didn't write it himself (and five'll get you ten that HIS kids have done the Flat Stanley project, so he would know what it is), it's a priority for his staff to do this kind of thing. Priorities come from the top.

And this IS the man who took time off from the campaign to see his kiddo play soccer - without turning it into a photo op.

[angry-geologist.livejournal.com]

Oh, this put such a big smile on my face...

My mom used to have her third grade kids do the Flat Stanley thing, and because we were in a poor area, there were always a few that didn't have anyone to send them to (dad run off, mom's in prison, being raised by people who don't give a shit- you get the idea). She'd always give the Flat Stanleys of those kids to me, my brother, and my dad, and we'd take pictures of them doing cool things so that the kids would have something to show. Dad would put them in the truck, David would show them in the library, I'd have one running the computer in the lab, and so on.

The fact that either he or someone he hired did something like this for a random kid speaks volumes.

[faith21.livejournal.com]

That is the most awesome thing I've ever heard.

Also, A-hole, as I affectionately refer to him as, is busy with the losing and the having affairs with Madonna. /end rant.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

At least Obama didn't pose for a photo with Flat Stanley, looking intellectually outmatched in comparison.

[ficangel.livejournal.com]

That's going to make me grin all night. It's true, what the rest of the posters say: even though he probably didn't write it himself, it's important to his campaign that it got answered.

He's such an unabashedly good man. I might be in love.

[jellicle.livejournal.com]

WOW. That was freaking awesome!

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

Okay, between this and the fact that he read every Harry Potter book to Malia, I am ...

...I'm just a pile of goo over here.

[bluesteelstars.livejournal.com]

So adorable and teh awesome! I'm so glad he's got some good peoples with him. *gush*

[xblackrose666x.livejournal.com]

God, I remember my Flat Stanley. I sent it to my mom the weekend before we were supposed to go see her and it arrived after we got there, haha. We took it to a theme park and I was so worried it was going to fly out of my mom's hand while we were on the roller coasters. Oh good times, good times.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

As someone who writes letters for activist purposes (Amnesty International - using the postal system for good since 1961), it's not that the person themselves wrote the reply that matters, it's that they gave the green light for the reply. And there are no words for how good it feels when you get a response. Even if my local MP weren't made of awesome in 1900 other ways, I'd vote for him because he does respond, which is a lot more than some of them do.

[georgiamagnolia.livejournal.com]

I was in 2nd or 3rd grade when I wrote to newly elected President Carter and he wrote back. I was suddenly a fan and still am. :) Thanks for reminding me.