Obama prom photos, big hair and all: Were those the good old days?
It鈥檚 like finding out that your parents had a life before you came into the picture, or that your first-grade teacher doesn鈥檛 always wear sensible shoes and go by Mrs. Cooper.
Yes, even the leader of the free world had a life before handling economic crises and juggling overseas conflicts.
In President Obama鈥檚 case, that means embarrassing prom pictures, big hair, and a garish fashion sense (see, he鈥檚 just like us!). It鈥檚 available for our viewing pleasure thanks to of Mr. Obama in Time magazine that show the president, then a student at Punahou School in Honolulu, with his date before the prom. The pictures show a beaming 17-year-old Barack clad in a white suit jacket, blue tie, and lei, arms around the shoulders of his date, Megan Hughes. Also in the pictures are Greg Orme and his date, Kelli Allman, who offered the photos to Time (for which, we think she should be retroactively crowned prom queen).
Also published by Time was a note Obama left in Ms. Allman鈥檚 yearbook, calling her 鈥渟weet and foxy鈥� and declaring, 鈥淵ou really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes!鈥�
He might be right. After all, this was before Obama had a speechwriter, media training, and a staff at the ready to write perfectly scripted jokes for events just like this (ahem, White House Correspondents' Dinner, aka nerd prom.
鈥淚t was a really fun, happy time. We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling,鈥� Allman told the magazine.
Sure, Obama鈥檚 come a long way since his awkward high school years (and we鈥檙e primarily talking about his fashion sense), but we bet he鈥檚 pining for them right about now.
After enduring a modern-day version of the seven plagues, political edition 鈥� a grueling reelection campaign, an 11th-hour budget battle that pushed the nation off a cliff, a crushing defeat in the gun debate, excruciating attempts at bipartisanship, and most recently, a trio of scandals that鈥檚 prompted references to Watergate and 鈥渢he second-term curse鈥� 鈥� the prom photos probably come as a breath of fresh, Hawaiian air to the president, big hair, funny clothes and all.
Oh, to be 17, in Hawaii, and with nary a care in the world.
