We can guarantee the children’s book “Duck for President” has never been read before in the style Rahm Emanuel showcased for a group of kids Monday as part of the Department of Education’s “Read to the Top” program.
Seated under some trees outside the department’s building, Emanuel kicked off the book about a duck who tries to get off the farm in the hopes of becoming president by asking the kids, “Have you seen the other one? ‘Duck Runs for Congress.’ It’s a good book….I think they have the movie rights for that one.”
With every page, Emanuel threw in some jokes about elections and the White House.
After reading about how animals lined with to register to vote, Emanuel joked “It’s obviously not in Chicago.” Later, as the duck had to make decisions after becoming head of the farm, President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff editorialized that “the biggest decision is picking that Chief of Staff. That’s the most important…after that it’s uphill.” The tactics of the bird protagonist even inspired him to remark that he should “bring this [book] to the White House.”
In order to ultimately win the presidency the duck goes out on the campaign trail, kisses babies, visits small town diners and “even [plays] the saxophone on a late night talk show.” A campaign stop Emanuel added that was lost on the small kids evidenced by blank faces when Rahm asked them if they knew who did that (probably because most weren’t even born when President Bill Clinton visited “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992).
The book concludes with the duck getting out of politics and follows the move of most former-presidents – works on an autobiography.
“You think he got an advance for that?,” he joked as he closed the book, before proceeding to take questions from the young children with answers that ranged from telling how his two daughters walking Bo last week on the South Lawn to “sometimes he thinks we see him too much” in response to a girl who asked, “Do you really get to see the president?”
