Washington Post article on Barack Obama's influence as a role model

...can be seen here. It never takes long for parents to lock on to a successful figure that they can use to show to their children when convincing them that they should do their homework / not get in a fight / avoid doing (insert bad behavior here).

Sherry Jones was driving her 13-year-old son, Malcolm, to school the other morning when he mentioned something about some kid he didn't like.

Something about the kid being a jerk.

Jones told him that wasn't kind. When you speak of people, she said, always speak good of them.

"Look at Barack! . . . During the campaign, no matter what, Obama always took the high road," she told him. "During the debates when John McCain would say a dig, Barack would never react. . . . He was always positive."

Malcolm, who likes a good debate, was, for that moment, quiet.

To John McCain's credit, right after the campaign was over he mellowed right out, pledged to work with the new president, and now he looks almost a decade younger.

For proof, here's McCain in an interview in September:



and on Letterman a day or two ago:



So definite kudos to McCain for not holding a grudge and getting right back on his feet after the election loss.

For parents of course, such minutiae doesn't matter all that much if you just want to have an impressive example to show your children on what they can do when they work hard, and Obama is already turning out to be such a person. Assuming he doesn't have any major screwups during his presidency, these parents will have a nearly endless supply of Obama stories to draw on to influence (or annoy) their children.