Thanks To President Obama, My Kid Wants To Eat A Dog

My kindergartner is at that age where she’s starting to grasp that animals can be kept as pets (she wants one) or eaten (she likes pig in the form of bacon). My youngest, a few years younger, is still trying to figure out how life works. For instance, she recently told me that when she grows up, she wants to be a cat.

Anyway, we live near Washington, D.C. and that means that the neighbors are all very political. This past weekend at the playground, some parents were joking about the various dog stories that have come out of this news cycle.

If you’re one of the lucky people who’s not familiar with them, let me destroy your blissful ignorance and explain the burning issues that drive political discourse these days.

Mitt Romney‘s Dog Story:

In 1983, Mitt Romney and his family went on vacation. Romney determined that having five sons, two parents and lots of luggage in one car was enough, and decided to strap a dog carrier on the roof with the family Irish Setter, Seamus, housed inside. The plan went awry when Seamus relieved himself and Romney had to hose down the car at a truck stop.

Now, I’m not a dog person but apparently this became a huge story among fans of President Barack Obama. On his MSNBC show, Chris Hayes reported that in focus groups, the dog story “totally tanks Mitt Romney’s approval rating.” Which may have something to do with why Obama fan Gail Collins mentioned it 55 times in her New York Times column and TV appearances recently. Even Obama strategist David Axelrod got into the act, with taunting tweets about how loving President Obama is toward dogs.

Everything was going well in using this dog issue against Romney until blogger Jim Treacher found Obama’s Dog Story. It wasn’t hiding anywhere. In fact, President Obama is the source of the story:

”With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy).”

Lolo was Obama’s step-father during their time in Indonesia. But the point is, Obama ate dog when he was around 10 years old.

Now, my daughter picks up everything, so she heard everyone making jokes about this while she was tumbling down the slides and asked me about them later. I explained that different cultures have different diets and that some people keep dogs as pets while others eat them.

She’s been asking me for a dog for weeks. I keep explaining to her that we won’t be getting a dog. I think she forgot why she wanted a dog (she’s also requested, and I quote, “a squirrel”) because she saw her opening: If President Obama eats dogs and if we aren’t going to keep a dog as a pet, maybe she could get a dog for her dinner plate.

She’s asked for it twice now. The first time I laughed, the second time I realized she was serious. Can I tell her it’s against the law? Is that even true?

(Picture: Javier Brosch/Shutterstock)

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