Hooray! Daddy’s Home and He Brought Photographers!

Barack Obama gets a warm greeting by his daughters and the press is allowed to watch. But he really needs to score some sympathy points these days.

Ah, idyllic. Daddy comes home from work, his daughters fly into his arms, the dog barks and happily scurries from one pair of legs to the next. “What did you do today, daddy?” “How was math class today, sweetheart?” It’s all warm and cuddly. We’re the family that you can be, too; that’s the happy message the Obamas send out to America.

The message America is sending to President Obama, on the other hand, is somewhat grumpier: 60 percent public approval for his administration in April, 50 percent at the beginning of September. Adding to it all, the miserable scramble to get healthcare reform, ugly attacks from Republicans and a silly, out-of-control squabble between Obama and rapper Kanye West.

In a nutshell, it was about time to bring on some good vibrations, and the president’s daughters, 8-year old Sasha and 11-year old Malia, were the ones to provide them – not forgetting Bo, of course, the world’s most popular Portuguese water dog.

All three obediently appeared on the south lawn of the White House to welcome the president home from his trip to Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Not pictured were the scores of photographers who have already taken so many pictures of the family’s get-togethers that the White House could publish them all in its own coffee-table book if it chose to.