Malia's Famous Question

Presidential daughters ask penetrating questions.

There was this, told by Jimmy Carter closing his 1980 debate with Ronald Reagan,

I think to close out this discussion, it would be better to put into perspective what we're talking about. I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry -- and the control of nuclear arms.

Roll the clock forward 30 years, Barack Obama, in an off-the-teleprompter moment during a White House press briefing, fed the assembled reporters this

When I woke up this morning and I’m shaving, and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she says — did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?

The reporters took away the wrong meaning, something about the BP oil spill. The President's oldest daughter, smarter than the average press person, was actually asking about matters of far greater importance to the President than that.



Smarter than an above-average fifth grader?