Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose last big news appearance was due to plagiarism, collaborated with Disney to produce the Obama exhibit at Disney World. Not satisfied with just having kids watch Obama speak haltingly, like they do with Washington and Jefferson, Goodwin wanted more:
“Young children watch this, and you want them to feel a sense of identification with the president,†said Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential historian, who was recruited by Disney two years ago to write a Hollywood-style treatment about the presidents, which became the basis for a 20-minute documentary made for the exhibit. “This makes the president someone not so far removed from them.â€
Goodwin is always billed “a historian” when she appears on TV, sort of like Mollie Ivans was always simply billed “a columnist.” Ivans was hysterically anti-Bush to the core, and Goodwin is a Democratic liberal to her core. I’ll never forget how, in 2000 during the Democratic Convention, she kept referring to Democrats as “our guys.” Not just a historian, by any means. But I have no doubt Disney knew that when they hired her to put the spin on the Obama animatronic exhibit.