Kind Of The Point

7:27 pm EST September 8th, 2009 | News | 12 Comments

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The president’s much ballyhooed address has been the subject of right-wing hand wringing since it was announced weeks ago. Several schools refused to air it. In my home, the most stinging criticism of the speech came from my younger child, who lasted 10 minutes before pronouncing it ‘boring,’ grabbing her Hannah Montana wig and leaving the room in a huff.

Lucy, on the other hand — the child who accompanied me into a voting booth and pulled the lever last November — thought Obama seemed ‘nice and smart.’

‘He was funny at points,’ she said, ‘but he was also serious.’ He told kids to do their homework. To stay in school. That ‘you can’t let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you.’ At no point did either of my children turn to me and observe, ‘OMG, that is so Hitler.’

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12 Responses to “Kind Of The Point”

  1. White Whale says:
    September 8, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    Watched it today with 3rd graders and while it was harder for some to sit still and listen, suprisingly I had great responses to the speech. Oh, and my kids didn’t bring up Hitler once! Shocking stuff.

  2. Wilfredo says:
    September 8, 2009 at 7:36 pm

    ‘OMG, that is so Hitler.’
    Hahahahahahahaha!

  3. durablend says:
    September 8, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    I hate to think how many kids got a beating today when they got home and said “That Obama guy is COOL”.

    Poor kids :(

  4. Wiz says:
    September 8, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    -from CNN:
    “Many conservatives expressed fear over the past week
    that the president’s address would be used to push a
    partisan political agenda. Obama, however, avoided any
    mention of political initiatives. He repeatedly urged
    students to work hard and stay in school.”

    Push a partisan political agenda?? I’m still trying to figure out what the heck did they think he was going to say?

    I’ll bet if you checked the dialogue of the last 10,000 celebrities (athletes, movie stars, singers, rock stars, politicians,etc.)that visited a school, it probably went like this: STAY IN SCHOOL, STUDY HARD, YOU CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING! (most likely with a dash of ‘listen to your parents’ and ‘don’t use drugs’ sprinkled in….)

    But Obama is Satan/Hitler/Grinch incarnate, so of course his message would be somehow different…sinister..

    The conservative crowd can be such dumbasses…..

  5. Jaim says:
    September 8, 2009 at 10:18 pm

    The modern-day GOP is opposed to the president of the United States telling kids to work hard and stay in school.

    What a train-wreck of a political party.

  6. Randy Brown says:
    September 8, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    And the meme that has emerged on the right is the presence of an “original version” of the speech: TOW all the controversial socialist stuff that Obama was supposed to brainwash the children with.

    How much are you willing to bet that this “original version” will materialize out of Roger Ailes’ ass by weeks’ end?

  7. rip says:
    September 9, 2009 at 12:24 am

    I’m sure obama is keeping that “original version” in the same safe he keeps his Kenyan Birth certificate and his secret files on SCOTUS so they wouldn’t bring up his ineleigibility to be POTUS.

  8. canadian bacon says:
    September 9, 2009 at 12:43 am

    No no, the original text is not hidden in a vault, it’s buried deep in the semantic and linguistic structures of the speech itself. It was a coded socialist and Islamic message that went directly into the subconscious chasms of the children; they’ve been zapped folks, it’s too late!! Long live Hugo Chazev and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

  9. jr says:
    September 9, 2009 at 12:48 am

    “blacks shouldn’t be seen or heard”-cons

  10. Matt Osborne says:
    September 9, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    To me, this has not been a surprising development. Movement conservatives have long sought to turn American education into a moron factory, producing students who quote Bible verses they are unable to read.

  11. Quaker in a Basement says:
    September 9, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    How much are you willing to bet that this “original version” will materialize out of Roger Ailes’ ass by weeks’ end?

    With or without the “Kill Whitey” passage still intact?

  12. I'm a Hick says:
    September 9, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    I was looking thru my brother’s high school year book from the mid 60s. Apparently the school district used to have a ‘Freedom Day’ or ‘Free Market Day’ or some such, I can’t remember the exact name. But there was a picture of an ROTC cadet in dress uniform, holding a rifle and standing next to the teacher to represent what going to school in a communist country would be like.