Yeah! Did Barack Obama even go to any non-madrasahs? His degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law School could be as fake as his Kenyan birth certificate, which makes his presidency of the Harvard Law Review and time as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago illegitimate! Why would any students want to listen to a guy with that kind of academic background about scholarly success? They're much better-served by listening to Ronald Reagan talk about "Negroes" and the benefits of tax cuts/massive spending increases on the deficit or George Bush, Sr. asking kids to help him implement his right-of-center ("fascist") agenda, as they are both (fully) White and Republican.

You know, Mr. Naugle, if you kept to the first part of your initial reaction, the feeling of creepiness, I'd have commended you for your burgeoning self-awareness. But no, you had to finish your - for lack of a better term - thought, and the result was even more pathetic idiocy from an unhinged wingnut.

The problem I had with the speech was not that he wanted to talk directly to the children, it was the micro-managment. Telling teachers how to prep for the speech and and the follow up lesson plan were flags--especially in this era of bigger governmental controls.
Just started listening to Liberal Facism and the similarities b/t Obama and facism would be amusing if they weren't so frightening.

They were suggested lesson plans, not mandated tests like No Child Left Behind entails, so blame Bush. Also, throw that Jonah Goldberg bullshit away now or it will make you dumber for listening to it (if possible).

brendanm,
I am not taking a tone with you, I'm genuinely curious to know the following:
1) How would you have felt in 2002 if GW had suggested lesson plans with a speech to school students? If GW had done this, what would be your reaction?
2) Are there any books you would recommend so that conservatives can have a better understanding of your brand of liberalism?

anonR,
I would be fine with George Bush speaking to school children in a completely non-partisan manner (as long as it was in the middle of a goddamn terrorist attack!). If his Department of Education had included a sloppily-worded suggestion about students "helping" the president, I and many other liberals would have objected and requested a change. We would have been savaged by the administration and their allies and enablers in the corporate media as not wanting the president to defeat al-Qaeda and unpatriotic and terrorists, etc., and there would be no real pressure to make the changes, but no head of a state Democratic party would be accusing Bush of trying to "indoctrinate" children with his fascist ideology and there would not be racial overtones to our concerns. I'm sure there'd be a few jokes about the irony of George W. Bush talking to kids about studying and working hard, as would be warranted, but there wouldn't be anything comparable to the tremendous vitriol and paranoia we are currently seeing.

As for books, I'd first suggest you read Mein Kampf and a few histories of WWII and fascism and throw anything by the contemptible idiot Goldberg in the trash. Just looking at one of the closest visible books, The Children by David Halberstam is a great one that gives a journalistic history of what I consider to be an essential component of my political morality and the soul of the movement to which I subscribe. I really like this question and would love to give a more complete answer, but I have to take care of some mowing and will come back to it later.

I don’t want ANY president speaking to school children. Their parents can decide whether or not that happens at home.

Government has no place in education, period.

If it did, we wouldn’t have a 45% literacy rate in this country with flat-to-declining graduation stats and more than 15% of American high school students would graduate as proficient in math (according to the government’s own stats @ www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/).

As recent as 2004 (same website as above), China graduated 500,000 engineers. India graduated 200,000 engineers. We graduated 70,000. Why? Because kids aren't taught to think in government schools, they're taught to "socialize" and "feel." Math has too many absolutes for the leftist political hacks at the NEA.

Get rid of the DoE (and by extension the power of the NEA), and give a portion of what is saved to truly "at risk" kids via a fricking voucher to whichever school inspires them to learn (which, btw, will also attract the brightest, best teachers who will then make what they deserve – gold!).

There, problem solved.

Yes, China is so much more effective at education because they lack the stringent government-control of American schools. I will certainly take you very seriously, Rosie, and your message of abolishing public schools will be an electoral goldmine for Republicans!

I'm sure when you meet someone you say "But forget about me, what do YOU think about me?"

LOL...seeing that my comments were not made for "you," I'm soooo upset that you, a fricking Neanderthal, won't take me seriously. Boo, hoo, hoo.