Louisville Courier Journal: "No Pied Piper [For POTUS Barack Obama's Speech To School Children]." I Say: Yep. Just Tin Foil Hatters.
No Pied Piper
Whew. TGIW (Thank Goodness It's Wednesday). For good measure, and given all the hullabaloo, let's check in.
Kids get home from school all right Tuesday afternoon?
No zombie eyes or mindless parroting of “helping President Obama?”
No fresh tattoos of hammers and sickles and/or swastikas? (The President's opponents can't decide if he's a communist or a fascist.)
They seem to survive “the speech” without any woozy or lasting after-effects?
Check. Check. Check. Check.
So all's right with our world?
Uh, check again.
The big stink over the President's motivational, stay-in-school speech to America's students on Tuesday would be funny — if it weren't anything but funny. It is a symptom of something that's gravely ailing us, and apparently has to do with attempt (he wasn't even born here!) after attempt (he wants to kill Granny!) by his political opponents to fuel paranoia about the “otherness” of this president. That this innocuous speech (he wants to brainwash kids!) blew into the maelstrom it did prove they will seize on anything to undermine him.
When news was announced that Mr. Obama wanted to make good on a promise to a student reporter, who asked the President to talk to kids about doing well in school, the howlers kicked into gear.
Jim Greer, party chairman of the Florida GOP, fumed about “the use of taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.” Apparently unaware that two recent GOP presidents talked to America's schoolchildren in a similar fashion (George W. Bush was at a public school when the 9/11 terrorists struck), Mr. Greer also dubbed the speech “an invasive abuse of power.” Not to be left in the dust, Steve Robertson, Kentucky's GOP honcho, called the speech “creepy.” Such trash talk ignited the boom of ill-informed chats, blogs and the ever-reliable, radio talk-show wall of sound. Even the “Christian Newswire” mass e-mailed a missive titled, “Parents Get Out of the Way — We Want Your Children.” Many parents, and gutless school administrators, knuckled under. The good news is, many others didn't.
Well, it wasn't a body snatcher moment. Pinch your kids. They're OK. All the President told them was to take personal responsibility for their educational success. Double irony, given that the personal responsibility crowd objected loudest.
The President did pick up pre-speech support from former First Lady Laura Bush, who said his words of encouragement had a place in schools. But then, she was in France at a United Nations meeting about global literacy when she gave that interview — a scenario that practically screams “socialist agenda,” no?
Whew. TGIW (Thank Goodness It's Wednesday). For good measure, and given all the hullabaloo, let's check in.
Kids get home from school all right Tuesday afternoon?
No zombie eyes or mindless parroting of “helping President Obama?”
No fresh tattoos of hammers and sickles and/or swastikas? (The President's opponents can't decide if he's a communist or a fascist.)
They seem to survive “the speech” without any woozy or lasting after-effects?
Check. Check. Check. Check.
So all's right with our world?
Uh, check again.
The big stink over the President's motivational, stay-in-school speech to America's students on Tuesday would be funny — if it weren't anything but funny. It is a symptom of something that's gravely ailing us, and apparently has to do with attempt (he wasn't even born here!) after attempt (he wants to kill Granny!) by his political opponents to fuel paranoia about the “otherness” of this president. That this innocuous speech (he wants to brainwash kids!) blew into the maelstrom it did prove they will seize on anything to undermine him.
When news was announced that Mr. Obama wanted to make good on a promise to a student reporter, who asked the President to talk to kids about doing well in school, the howlers kicked into gear.
Jim Greer, party chairman of the Florida GOP, fumed about “the use of taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.” Apparently unaware that two recent GOP presidents talked to America's schoolchildren in a similar fashion (George W. Bush was at a public school when the 9/11 terrorists struck), Mr. Greer also dubbed the speech “an invasive abuse of power.” Not to be left in the dust, Steve Robertson, Kentucky's GOP honcho, called the speech “creepy.” Such trash talk ignited the boom of ill-informed chats, blogs and the ever-reliable, radio talk-show wall of sound. Even the “Christian Newswire” mass e-mailed a missive titled, “Parents Get Out of the Way — We Want Your Children.” Many parents, and gutless school administrators, knuckled under. The good news is, many others didn't.
Well, it wasn't a body snatcher moment. Pinch your kids. They're OK. All the President told them was to take personal responsibility for their educational success. Double irony, given that the personal responsibility crowd objected loudest.
The President did pick up pre-speech support from former First Lady Laura Bush, who said his words of encouragement had a place in schools. But then, she was in France at a United Nations meeting about global literacy when she gave that interview — a scenario that practically screams “socialist agenda,” no?
Labels: Keeping them honest, POTUS Barack Obama
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:50 AM
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