"having read about how important dads are to their daughters' self-esteem"

Please Mr. Keillor tell me more - what book/article was this?

As a 53 year old father of a 10 month old daughter I can't stand not knowing! She is my only child and I constantly worry that I might not be doing as much as can for her. Can you understand the fear bordering on paranoia of a man in my position?

Thank you,

Warren

I've always enjoyed Mr. Keillor's work, but he's seriously off his game here. Of course, Bush is an idiot. But otherwise, this piece reads like it was dashed off in an airport on his way back from that giant swimming pool in Florida. Are there any editors at Salon?

Next time, call him "Mandingo". People will just eat that up!

Of course Obama's appointees will be crestfallen, success is rare. But you should have edited yourself on that "Mr. Mambo" if it was a place filler on the way to the mot juste. Way off character & highly insulting.

who took the Mr. Mambo comment as saying Obama's elegant, coordinated and flexible (and not literal there). I found the first two paragraphs extremely funny, especially: "The happy StairMaster president is on his way to a mansionette in Dallas, to be the decider of where to put the sofa."

Brilliant!

Laura will never allow George to be the decider of where the sofa goes.

Rather than every other letter writer here stepping up to explain what Keillor meant by using this rather odd choice of a word, I would like to hear from the man himself. Keillor? WTF?

"He is one of the cheerfullest idiots you ever saw, a man who could burn down his own house and be happy that the patio was still standing."

Technically, he's like a man who burns up a condo development in which he holds only a minor stake. The thing that makes it sting is that it wasn't HIS to begin with. Yet, GWB treated the public trust like it was a piece of trash that was his. He left it more damaged and in substantially worse condition than when he inherited it. To make matters worse he never owned his mistakes, or attempted to rectify the matter.

For the uninformed and ignorant, mambo is a dance. So Mr. Mambo means that Obama is a dancer. Here's a helpful suggestion. If you don't know the meaning of a word, LOOK IT UP.

I always wonder why liberals are so excited to say Bush is 'stupid.' Yes, in the school sense, he is. How high school of you.

However, in the 'world' sense these selfsame liberals all voted for his war. They, or at least the group that was not in the 10% of Americans who NEVER approved of W, all backed him after 9/11. They even voted for his bailout not so long ago, long after they knew how 'stupid' he was. Many of them supported his policies on terrorism and Guantanamo... or at least their leading political representatives did. His representatives at the Supreme Court, the Justice Dept, the CIA/Defense Dept etc. were all supported by their political representatives.

W has enriched his oil and business cronies beyond their wildest dreams. He has looted the American treasury, continued to destroy the environment in the name of timber, mining and oil companies, killed plenty of American soldiers and others - all to make his business friends happy. And that is what his intelligence always consisted of ... serving his masters, his class, his wing of the ruling elite. And he did a wonderful intelligent job of it, far more than any timid Republican could have done.

We see, however, that cynicism even creeping in here - knowing ALREADY that Obama's crew smacks of the old crew who let all this go by. Perhaps even Keillor has learned something. Psst, they are all ... in it ... together.

This is poetry that speaks of the absurdity of society and the beauty of life. And it's alright ma.

Greeting

Garrison thanx for sharing this brightened a snowy MN day.

And no Dubya and his whole party are utterly without a clue about what happened in November

Thanx again

Who's Mister Mambo? Does Garrison Keillor mean Barack Obama?

Right now, Barack Obama should be called Mr. TCB. Does Keillor know what TCB means? Maybe he should check out that old Motown classic "Taking Care of Business." Keillor should also be informed that in Swahili, mambo means an item of business, a responsibility, a care, a concern, a worry, a problem. The plural form of mambo is jambo, and Jambo or Hujambo is a common greeting in Swahili. (P.S. I hope Keillor can recognize the lingustic efficiency of Swahili where one word does the work of a dozen English equivalents.) So perhaps Mr. Mambo isn't really a bad name for Obama, albeit it should be Mr. Jambo, or better Bwana Jambo, since even before his inaugeration, Obama is faced with a whole series "jambo."

I will not pretend that Obama is Mr. Perfect, or Bwana Safi, as you might say in Swahili. But even during his transition, he has shown a level of toughness, intelligence, organization and TCB that would put anyone else, including Carrison Keillor to shame.

YKW (you know why?) may lay drunk on a couch?

A suffa'/suffering dry heaves throughout eternity.

Maybe too insane to bathe and Remember names.

doctor soft wrote:Yeah, I thought the MAMBO thing was a little odd, but I let it pass to listen to the rest of what Garrison had to say.

Don't be so petty

I agree. I see many of Salon's denizens have been getting way to petty and also PC to the hilt lately. Makes me think that these peevish wonders don't have enough real misery in their lives to keep them productively occupied.

this was a powerful piece.

and all this hater crap is bull. i agree with 50% of the posters - get a life losers.

No, Laura will proclaim George is no simpleton.

I don't know what he is, he may be a unique case, he may really be smart, but whatever the case, he was elected, sort of, twice, and all by himself, has eviscerated the constitution, etc, ad nauseum.

Obama is promising (falsely) change. George W. Bush, with his tiny little brain, and heart of coal, has brought more change in two terms, than Obama, or anyone else, ever will.

Maybe brains is overrated.