Republicans don't want Obama talking to children?

[Baron Of Hell]

So I have been hearing about how Republicans don't want Obama to do his back to school speech. I guess they think he will try to convert them to democrats.

http://mediamatters.org/research/200909030013

Seems kind of crazy. Nobody said anything when Bush addressed the children. At least I don't recall this much fuss over it.

[Thor Simpson]

On CNN.com, Cafferty says some Democrats were upset when Bush 1 did it. Stupid then, stupid now. It's certainly being covered more now given how the media climate has progressed.

These complaints all seem really stupid to me. He's the President... election's over. Get over it. Obviously if he were to go on some partisan tirade it would be another story, but clearly that is not the design here. Go for it, Mr. President! Kids could use this kind of encouragement.

[wendersfan]

It's hard to imagine being so absolutely crazy that you'd deny your children an opportunity to meet the President of the United States.

[Thor Simpson]

Originally Posted by wendersfan

It's hard to imagine being so absolutely crazy that you'd deny your children an opportunity to meet the President of the United States.

Most are not actually meeting him... it's being broadcast to schools.

Maybe these parents are scared their children will find out the new president is black.

[dork]

Oddly, the following part seems to be missing from the helpful link above:

As one of the preparatory materials for teachers provided by the Department of Education, students had been asked to, "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ntroversy.html

[wendersfan]

Originally Posted by Thor Simpson

Most are not actually meeting him... it's being broadcast to schools.

That's a little different then. It's still crazy, but different.

Originally Posted by Thor Simpson

Maybe these parents are scared their children will find out the new president is black.

Since a lot of this seems to be happening in Texas you might be on to something.

[Groucho]

There's all kinds of outrage in Utah. Parents and administrators are FURIOUS about this. Of course, if George Bush wanted to read "My Pet Goat" to the kids they'd be creaming their pants at the opportunity to broadcast that.

[Pharoh]

Originally Posted by Groucho

There's all kinds of outrage in Utah. Parents and administrators are FURIOUS about this. Of course, if George Bush wanted to read "My Pet Goat" to the kids they'd be creaming their pants at the opportunity to broadcast that.

Perhaps they wouldn't be if the portion our esteemed dork presented were true about My Pet Goat as well.

Seems to me to be a bit over the line, and while I certainly don't care, (my sons are quite capable on their own), I can understand others being upset. Mayhap they go overboard in their outrage, but sentiment is not without merit.

[Ranger]

Originally Posted by dork

Oddly, the following part seems to be missing from the helpful link above:


http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ntroversy.html

Just another bad choice of words. At least they changed it.

Some of the controversy surrounding Obama's speech stems from a proposed lesson plan created by the Education Department to accompany the address. An initial version of the plan recommended that students draft letters to themselves discussing "what they can do to help the president."

The letters "would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals," the plan stated.

After pressure from conservatives, the White House said that the plan was not artfully worded, and distributed a revised version encouraging students to write letters about how they can "achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/...ols/index.html

With the revised lesson plan, I don't think I have any complaints. If it was election year, then I would have a problem.

[kvrdave]

Originally Posted by dork

Oddly, the following part seems to be missing from the helpful link above:


http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ntroversy.html

[Rockmjd23]

The letters "would be collected and redistributed"

To the poor I bet!

[General Zod]

Originally Posted by Thor Simpson

On CNN.com, Cafferty says some Democrats were upset when Bush 1 did it. Stupid then, stupid now.

Yes this isn't the first time a president has addressed children in school and yes the Democrats thew a complete fit when Bush wanted to do it in 1991. It's just stupid "The president wants to push his Democrat/Republic agenda on my children!" crap.

I think all could have been avoided if they simply sent a copy of the text to the schools so that parents could read it ahead of time. Once they saw it wasn't political and just a "Study hard. Help make this a better country.." type stuff I don't think there would have been this outrage. Instead it was very sparse on details and yes they did put in a line about Obama "telling children what they can do to help the president" and what in the world does Obama need help with right now? Healthcare? Bailouts? So that's why, I think, people freaked out about this so much.

Like I said it's silly. I don't think he would dare push any sort of agenda with the speech (If he does he's really stupid) so I say just calm down and let the guy have his 15 mins with the kiddies.

[Brack]

Democrats didn't do that with George W. I guess they learned their lesson then.

[General Zod]

Originally Posted by Brack

Democrats didn't do that with George W. I guess they learned their lesson then.

George W. didn't do it. That's why the Democrats didn't complain. I can assure they didn't learn a lesson.

[stingermck]

This was just on the local news, showing some pissed off parents. They feel its taking away time from the classroom and they should be studying instead. One parent said she would keep her child out of school that day. Yeah that makes perfect sense, let them miss a whole day of work. Morons.

[kvrdave]

Originally Posted by Brack

Democrats didn't do that with George W. I guess they learned their lesson then.

There would be no complaints about visiting a classroom and reading a book, etc. Obama plans to hold a large scale audio format/lecture for children, presumably to let them know why our race is superior, the danger of the Jews, etc. Oh wait, that was someone else.

Oh lighten up.

[Brack]

Originally Posted by General Zod

George W. didn't do it. That's why the Democrats didn't complain. I can assure they didn't learn a lesson.

I do love the "see, look, they're just as bad as we are" routine that is so common with the right. they didn't learn anything from themselves then, even worse.

Did they call Bush I a socialist?

[Brack]

I bet their parents were livid.

[Rockmjd23]

Oh I remember that, when Bush read a children's book to kindergarteners and it was simulcasted to every public school in America. Was a huge event.

[kvrdave]

Originally Posted by Brack

I do love the "see, look, they're just as bad as we are" routine that is so common with the right. they didn't learn anything from themselves then, even worse.

Yeah, that's a one way street.

[Brack]

Originally Posted by kvrdave

Yeah, that's a one way street.

It seems to be the right doing it almost every time (accusing someone else of doing the same thing), whether it be about racism, protesting, etc.

[Brack]

Originally Posted by Rockmjd23

Oh I remember that, when Bush read a children's book to kindergarteners and it was simulcasted to every public school in America. Was a huge event.

Who cares? I never said it was in the same magnitude. Why does that matter exactly? It really doesn't.

[Ky-Fi]

This is rather notable---that so many parents nationwide would be opposed to having their children hear a speech from the President of the United States. I'm not sure there's too much of a precedent for that.

I think there's just huge distrust of Obama from a lot of sources, and I think there's good reason for that. A prime example would be gay marriage. Obama has come out and said that he thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman. Does ANYONE on this forum, even JasonF, really believe that that's Obama's true feeling on the matter? I think there's a growing and not entirely inaccurate estimation of Obama as someone who's dishonest about his true positions on a lot of issues, and he does so out of an astute understanding that his positions are generally well to the left of the general population of the US, and it doesn't behoove him to be honest on a lot of issues. Sure, you can make an argument that all politicians do that to some extent, but when most of your actual positions really ARE out of the mainstream, you have to be deceitful more often.

[Rockmjd23]

Originally Posted by Brack

Who cares? I never said it was in the same magnitude. Why does that matter exactly? It really doesn't.

I don't have a problem with what Obama is doing, but it is absurd to compare it to W's photo-ops with pre-schoolers.

[kvrdave]

Originally Posted by Brack

It seems to be the right doing it almost every time (accusing someone else of doing the same thing), whether it be about racism, protesting, etc.

It is generally the ones opposing those in power that do it. So I agree. Right now it is the right. But I had to put up with the left doing it for so many years that I am loving this.