Friday, August 14, 2009

A toast to Damon Weaver

This made my day when I woke up this morning. Damon Weaver, the 11-year-old student reporter from Florida, whose dream was to interview President Obama got his interview yesterday!



I first caught wind of this kid—his talent for interviewing and his charm—shortly after the election in November 2008, when he made a video message to persuade Obama to let him interview him. In it, he interviewed Dwayne Wade and another Miami Heat basketball player, asking them if they thought Obama should allow the interview and why.



After a quick search of his name, I found that he's interviewed lots of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Paula Abdul and then-Sen. Joe Biden.

With Biden's interview, the vice president became Weaver's "homeboy". In his interview with the president Thursday, Weaver asked Obama if he would now like to become Weaver's "homeboy" too, which elicited both a smile, a handshake and an "of course" from the president.

This kid has so much spirit and potential. I hope he keeps his journalistic aspirations alive, because his resume is already better than mine!

I also think something should be said about Obama for letting the interview take place. It's really inspiring to know that he believes in this kid as much as the rest of us do. Very cool move, Mr. President. I especially love how the president actually announced something during the interview—an education speech for Sept. 8—so Weaver was able to break news while he was there. The White House even posted the interview online and called it "Damon Weaver breaks news from the White House."

I wonder if Weaver met the Obama daughters?!

No comments:

Post a Comment