"Greg Oden: ‘I’m lucky, I have an amazing and strong mom, she beats me up all the time. And I also have great mentors. One of them is here today, his name is Mike Conley Senior. He is my agent and my friend and kind of a father figure’."

http://news.opb.org/article/laura-bush-speaks-portland-conference-youth/

His agent is his mentor and father figure? Eeeek. I’m not sure its called mentoring when someone takes a cut of your paycheck.

You can look at this cynically or not. I prefer not. To think Oden was being paid to endorse Obama seems ridiculous. Further, to then introduce Lara? Whatever. I’m trying not to see everything everywhere from a negative perspective.

If you want cynicism, head on over to Jack Bog’s blog.

From what I understand this was a nonpartisan thing having to do with homeless youth outreach or some such thing (as dieselboi notes), and while there’s a time and a place to tell laura that her husband’s a tool who shouldn’t be running an ice cream truck, much less the country, that probably wasn’t it. Now, if it was a $500-a-plate fundraising dinner, that’d be a different story.

As for Oden, for an 18-year-old kid who could be sitting back and counting his millions while playing XBOX and rehabbing, I think it’s pretty cool that he’s out and about in the political realm, even if it’s just dipping his giant pinkie toe out there. And if he’s outspoken about his support for Obama, then he’s bright enough for me — how many other athletes (who will never have to worry about finding their next job or health care for the kids, etc) even bother to vote, much less vote for a democrat, much less actually TELL people about it. good on ya, Greg.

**oh, and dieselboi– captions, my friend, not subtitles. a small distinction, i know, but since it’s my job and all…

And I’m not sure how introducing Laura Bush is, in and of itself, "classy."