There's a fly in my creme bruleé

Author: Katie Hylas

"I've told the American people all I'm going to tell them…that I made mistakes…years ago. And I've learned from those mistakes." With this approach, George W. Bush managed to pacify just enough Americans to get elected and avoid the consequences of his rowdy past, which included the abuse of alcohol and, allegedly, hard drugs. Similarly, President Bill Clinton proclaimed that he tried marijuana, but never actually inhaled.

Our generation dropped the ball. None of us will be able to get elected President of the United States. Let's examine Middlebury College. Middlebury is a fine institution. It has a rigorous academic program which focuses on writing, mastering other languages and learning about other cultures. In fact, The U.S. News & World Report says this school is the fifth best in its class. So it should be cranking out oodles of fine presidential material. Right?

Au contraire, my friends! The brightest here cannot aspire to that lofty seat in the oval office. Why? Because we, and all our buddies at other top schools, are plastered on facebook.com and other social networking websites. Think about it: It's one thing to dodge a vague accusation - Bush and Clinton just barely got away with it - but how do you explain away or minimize the importance of a picture? Untagging accomplishes nothing - once it's up there, there's always a chance that someone will stumble across it years down the line.

Many wouldn't hesitate to turn in an old college picture, perhaps accidentally saved by an absentminded drag and click of a mouse, in exchange for a plump check from the press. Honestly, who's going to elect a president that they can see giving the shocker, holding a handle of vodka, grabbing their own crotch or chugging from a box of Franzia?

Bush and Clinton managed to muddle through and survive press beatings regarding their dubious pasts. Maybe by the time we are old enough to put some of our own up for office, the information overload will render everyone's social/alcohol/drug-use habits boring and irrelevant. I'll tip my hat to that. I think it's possible.

However, I'm afraid that our generation's best and most charismatic characters might be precluded from achieving certain heights for, well, being normal (yes, sadly, the aforementioned behaviors do occur amongst normal college students despite their demure performances in class). There are those among us who avoid facebook.com, despite the fact that it serves as our generation's most powerful social networking tool. There are also people who stay in their rooms and don't put themselves out there enough to get digitally snapped doing embarrassing things. I guess those kids could be our presidential candidates, but good politicians are socially deft and understand the trends at hand. Without the facebookers as candidates, we might miss out.