For those of you who are tired of listening to Wolf Blitzer and Sean Hannity and the rest blab on about the current election, I have a clip that will give you a bit of respite from the media talking heads. I’m talking about fifth grader Damon Weaver of Palm Beach, Florida, who attended a speech by Joe Biden while on assignment for his school, K.E. Cunningham / Canal Point Elementary. The clip is starting to spread on the Internet, perhaps fueled by a public who would rather trust a fifth grader’s reporting than Lou Dobbs or Keith Olbermann.
I’ll admit it’s easy to be won over by a little kid’s cuteness, but it’s not just Damon’s chubby cheeks that cracked me up. His attitude seemed to be awe at the political theater surrounding him mixed with a sort of “I’ve seen this all before” world weariness. In addition to having fun with a reporter from one of the local networks (“Tim and I chilled out for a little bit, and he even helped me with my homework”) and describing the campaign music as “tight,” Damon hung in there while Joe Biden took his sweet time answering his question. (Hey Biden, don’t you think the kid’s arm was getting tired holding that microphone?)
The best part comes at the end when Damon refers to Biden as his homeboy. Wonder if Biden even knows what that means?
Quite frankly, Damon Weaver was more entertaining that John King and his interactive map, and if he’s lucky, this little fifth grader will turn out as cute as Anderson Cooper. — Jennifer Mathieu
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2008.