Nessun skateboarder nella stanza dei bottoni

«An Economist piece about incoming Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner explored Mr. Geither’s background in the Clinton Administration and his experience handling crises. But a number of blogs were more interested in a middle paragraph that that discusses Mr. Geithner’s youthful appearance and fondness for naughty words. It also notes that he snowboards and has tried skateboarding. The description prompted the Daily Showblog to correct an earlier post that described Mr. Geithner as “boring.”

A skateboarding Treasury secretary would indeed be something special. However, a Fed spokesman said yesterday that, in fact, Mr. Geithner doesn’t actively participate in skateboarding.

It was disappointing news, at least to this old skater — and probably a lot of others. You see, surfing and snowboarding have their government officials. Sen. John Kerry has been seen snowboarding and Hawaii State Sen.Fred Hemmings is a surfing legend. President-elect Barack Obama is known to bodysurf, which isn’t exactly surfing but surfers were still stoked .

We couldn’t find any skateboarders, at least active ones, in national office (we couldn’t find a survey). Best we could find was Tom Miller, who is indeed a ripper, as well as chief of staff for Portland, Oregon, Mayor-elect Sam Adams.

There are some theories as to why surfers and snowboarders have outdone skaters in seeking political office. Surfing and snowboarding tend to cost more, and this may act as a social filter.

Also, a lot of people start surfing and snowboarding in middle age. It’s certainly possible to pick-up skateboarding later in life, but few adults can stomach the time and pain commitment that learning skateboarding requires.

So it seems skaters will have to wait a bit longer for the first skateboarding Treasury secretary. Change can only happen so fast».

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