And a Word on Needless Opposition
In the spirit of The No Kool-Aid Zone, where we drink the Kool-Aid for no man, comes this thought: you know folks, if the President wants to talk to schoolkids next week about the importance of studying hard, staying in school, and the like, is it really such a big deal? C’mon, nobody will ever mistake anything I say on this site as being supportive of the big-government socialism embodied in this president, but honestly, is there anything wrong with a back-to-school pep talk from the Commander in Chief? I don’t think it’s our duty, as the loyal opposition, to oppose every move the man makes; I can sure cut him some slack on this one. And I’ll give him credit–until proven otherwise, which I suppose could happen–for having enough sense to bend over backwards not to come off as politically-partisan in his schoolroom chat. So to all the conservative types who are jumping him over this thing, let’s all just take a pill, shall we? Bush I did it, and apparently Reagan did it as well (contrary to the early reports), so let’s just suck it up and shut up on this one, how ’bout it?
Yeah, I see no reason to be upset about this, unless, as you say, he proves otherwise. Even at that, I’d hate to think I’d done such a poor job of teaching my child the values I hold dear that one speech could undo it.
If parents are so concerned about the threat of liberal propaganda in the classroom by the president, it doesn’t seem logical that they would keep their kids in the public school system to begin with. Certainly they are subjected to more indoctrination in a normal class day then anything they might hear in one short presidential speech.
Having said that, I do think the president has done and said some pretty outrageous things of late that are contributing to this backlash. The Van Jones debacle, the heathcare issue, disparaging remarks toward the opposition, the reporting of fishy websites and emails, not to mention the original idea of having school children write a letter describing what they could do to “help the president”, are all things that have made people’s blood boil and I think have contributed to the parental outrage.
I can’t disagree with you there. I promise you that this will be one of the most monitored things he’s done recently, but I’m a bit confident that he’ll know that and have the good sense not to be controversial. Also, I think that it was the DOE’s idea to have the kids write that letter, and not necessarily the President’s.