Meet the 14-year old wunderkind of conservative US politics (Jonathan Krohn)

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/15/jonathan-krohn-republican-party

Some would like to embrace him. Others would much rather kick him. "Precocious" is one of the kinder words being used to describe Jonathan Krohn, the teenage would-be saviour of the American right.

A video of the 14-year-old firebrand lecturing a room full of conservatives old enough to be his parents has provoked a visceral reaction on the web. Krohn wears a suit and tie, and speaks with the actorly mannerisms of an elder statesman. The most recent response on the video site YouTube is: "My god, what an annoying child!"

His three-minute address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington was spookily reminiscent of the speech in which a tweed-jacketed 16-year-old William Hague told the 1977 Tory conference: "Half of you won't be here in 30 or 40 years' time." The whey-faced Hague received a standing ovation and praise from Margaret Thatcher, but the TV footage has often haunted him since.

Krohn's moment in the sun made him the darling of CNN, Fox News and countless radio stations. He was interviewed in the New York Times. Facebook groups have been set up acclaiming him - but so, too, have groups lampooning him, including one called "I Explode With Laughter Every Time I See/Hear Jonathan Krohn"

[FLAprogressive]

1. wunderturd is more like it.

[SpiralHawk]

25. Smarmy 'elitist' kid's got a wicked bad case of Krohn's disease

also known as Republicon Homelanderism - a proven pathway of Epic FAIL

[GoesTo11]

2. Born in 1995.

What's amazing isn't that this kid thinks he knows so much. It's that the whole Republican establishment is listening to him instead of, oh, Poppy Bush who fought in WWII. They find so little value in their experience that this boy is their man.

[wilt the stilt]

3. 14 year olds

should be out playing sports. that is all. get a life, kid

[Kookaburra]

4. no thanks

The more attention you give the little freak, the more apt he is to stick around.

[rug]

5. Where the hell are the bullies when you really need them.

[EmilyAnne]

8. Occasionally, the bullies need someone like this kid. There has to be one super dork in every

fraternity to write their papers and do their take home tests. The bullies are the Rush Limbaughs and George W. Bushes. This kid thinks they're cool and will be content to be their Karl Rove or Bobby Jindal.

[ecstatic]

23. LOL maybe he is homeschooled

and kept indoors.

[CAG]

6. Repub leaders: 14 yo snotnoses, Joe the unplumber, Palin the ditz, oxycontin Rush,

and that person who just exudes good christian warmth and love, Ann Coulter.

Boy do they have problems....

[Political Heretic]

17. It's like they're building a circus.

[Kookaburra]

21. Definitely a freak show,

which ordinarily I'd find fascinating (God bless the freaks), but after the past 8 years, the world has had enough of this particular flavor of freak.

[Buzz Clik]

7. Desperate times and desperate measures. Like kids holding signs at anti-abortion rallies.

I don't care what a 14-year-old thinks about politics. He hasn't the experience and knowledge base to relate anything I want to hear.

[Kingofalldems]

9. About 5 or 10 yrs ago there was another kid

just like this one. Pigboy or one of the other rw-ers had him on as a guest.

[T_i_B]

10. There was a better example in Britain in 1977

That was William Hague aged 16 addressing the British Conservative party conference and giving an excruciating speech in front of Margret Thatcher.

Hague went on to become Conservative leader in 1997, lead the Tories to a landslide defeat against Tony Blair in 2001 and is now the Conservative parties foreign affairs spokesman. To be honest I don't think he's ever lived that 1977 speech down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hague

[MADem]

15. His balls had dropped, though--this kid is fourteen and looks nine!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC8T4TPAIc0

He really IS an annoying little shit!!!!

[MADem]

11. Of course he's a dork--he has no social life.

Krohn, an only child, is educated at home by his parents Doug, a computer systems integrator, and Marla, a saleswoman and former actress who says she finds politics boring. One day a week he joins 10 students at a school where classes are taught from a Christian perspective. The family are active members of a local Baptist church.

For all the parallels with the young Hague, there are also differences, according to George Ajjan, a Republican analyst and blogger. "I imagine that, in 1977, to make a speech at a party conference, you had to be quite well read in policy and political history. Today you can watch a few video clips and read a few blogs, then make your two-minute speech and get the video posted around."

He added: "People always find a bright young person appealing. If MoveOn.org put up a 16-year-old liberal, we'd all be gooing and gaaing over it. "

If you want to get a look at him in action, here he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC8T4TPAIc0

He really IS an annoying little shit.

[T_i_B]

14. When I was 14 I had no social life either

The difference is that I preferred to spend my time listening to Metallica and Therapy? records instead. Much better way to pass time.

[WCGreen]

16. "Watch a few video clips, read a few blogs..."

that pretty much is the sum total of Conservative Ideology.

A Political Philosophy aimed at the fourteen year old mind...

[ecstatic]

26. He's like a white version of Urkel (sp?)

Was he serious with that accent? ROFLMAO

[MADem]

12. Pardon my doubleclick, but I'll say it again--he really IS an annoying little shit! NT

[marmar]

13. I thought Alex P. Keaton was just a TV character.....

n/t

[tularetom]

18. BFD somebody taught a geeky mama's boy to regurgitate right wing talking points

I could do the same thing with a parrot. And the parrot would know just as much of what he was saying as this little twit.

And it would be a whole less annoying than the kid's condescending exaggerated precise manner of pronunciation that he learned from limpballs.

[MineralMan]

19. Give him a couple of years to hit puberty,

then maybe he'll find some willing girl, get laid, and forget about all that politics crap. Right now, he's an annoying little shit.

[LiberalFighter]

20. The kid plans to follow in the footsteps of Rush Windbag.

[DailyGrind51]

22. Krohn's disease is a royal pain in the ass and can be deadly!

[mikehiggins]

24. Yeah, I know its maybe overly simplistic but IMHO he needs to get laid

Going through puberty would help with that, as well.

It is very hard to foresee how a boy will turn out before that point in his life. Right now things look clear and easy to understand. It isn't until passion and desire comes into the picture that an individual comes to grasp the underlying nature of his own self. RIght now the kid's big head dominates. We'll see what happens when that changes. Of course, we may be looking at a future Pat Robertson but we can hope not, for his sake and the world's. Don't hold his viewpoints against him until he's, like, Tucker Carlson's age.

In many ways being a kid is really great but growing up can be a lot better. This kid has a lot of learning experiences ahead of him. He really ought to be in a public school, and not homeschooled.

Being sexual gives us people like Barack and Michelle. Denying sexuality gives us people like Bates in Hitchcock's PSYCHO, or any number of Catholic priests.