Father knows best

Surrounded by members of the US Secret Service, Barack Obama steps off his campaign plane in Harrisburg, Pa., last week. (AFP photo/SAUL LOEB)

Memo to fifth-grade boys at Malia Obama's school: Watch yourself.

It should be warning enough to the male pupils that Malia's father, Barack Obama, is keeping close tabs on his daughter's associates as she starts the new school year. But just in case their mischievous souls don't get the message, Obama sought to remind them today of the circle he now runs in.

Obama, speaking in Ohio on education, recounted a recent conversation with a fifth-grade teacher from Indiana. He said he asked her what to expect in fifth grade. "Boys," she said.

"That wasn't the answer I was looking for," Obama said, laughing. "So I explained that one of the benefits of running for president is that we have Secret Service around her all the time. And they carry guns with them."

It's not the first time Obama has used his beefy agents as collateral. Last year, the Sports Illustrated writer S.L. Price played a little one-on-one basketball with Obama, and committed a hard foul on the Illinois senator.

"Believe me," Obama said, according to Price. "You can get shot for doing that."

We can attest that, while we try not to make sudden movements or joke about ballistics at campaign events, the Secret Service agents we've encountered have been unfailingly polite and professional. Not that we'd want to provoke them.