Bold Leadership

by publius

Jake Tapper, "WH, Dept. of Education Revise Language":

In an acknowledgment that the Department of Education provided lesson plans written somewhat inartfully, surrounding the President Obama’s speech to students next Tuesday, the White House today announced that it had rewritten one of the sections in question.

NYT, "Obama Aides Aim to Simplify and Scale Back Health Bills":

To avoid some of the most heated criticism voiced in recent weeks, White House officials said they would have no objection if Congress scrapped proposals to have Medicare pay for counseling on end-of-life care.

AP, "Obama Apologizes for Not Saying 'Bless You'; Asks Forgiveness":

John Boehner sneezed today, and President Obama did not say "Bless You."  Republicans immediately denounced the poor manners.  Fearing a public backlash, the White House was forced to offer a belated apology.

Reuters, "White House on Defensive After Forgetting Chuck Grassley's Ketchup":

The White House scrambled today to contain the damage after forgetting to ask for ketchup for Senator Grassley's "Whopper with Cheese" meal.  Grassley had demanded that Obama order him a Whopper with cheese, extra onions, mayo on top bun only -- and specifically said, "Don't forget the ketchup for my fries." 

Obama, however, forgot the ketchup.  He has since apologized, and promised to drop the public option in return for his unthoughtfulness.  If Rush Limbaugh remains upset, the White House may be forced to end the estate tax.

Comments

[Justin]

Change we can believe in!

(By change I assume Obama et al were speaking of a more rapid manner of assuming the position.)

[Linkmeister]

A little disappointed/disgusted, are you?

Me too.

[IntricateHelix]

Does Obama realize the people who voted for him had zero desire to appease republicans? Everyday I am more and more disappointed. His upcoming healthcare speech should detail the extent of his selling out. God forbid the republicans call him a socialist again. Tear.

[Davebo]

This is a bit over the top for Publius.

[Patrick]

You know it's bad when you can't separate fact from fiction. So, the first two are real, and I am reasonably sure the last one is fake.

But, here's the rub: I can believe the "bless you" story, though without a link I guess it's false. Is it? Or isn't it? I'm afraid to google and find out.

[D'd'd'dave]

It's only leadership if people follow. The majority doesn't want to follow.

[John Thullen]

The minority where I live is keeping its kids home from school next Tuesday (having been given an "opt out" by the politically correct schools), calling in with the usual Nazi, Muslim, death panels horseshit.

It'll be interesting to see what the majority you speak of and apparently speak for, does, oh stuttering oracle.

Maybe they'll follow the aforementioned minority up its own ass. Or maybe the majority will just lock the doors, pull the blinds and sit quietly as the rhetorical krystallnacht rages on outside, hoping it will go away.

[Catsy]

I have to admit that this one really stunned me. I thought I was past the point of being shocked or surprised by anything wingnuts would do. I was wrong.

Seriously. Obama says, "I want to talk to your kids about how important it is to stay in school." Wingnuts respond, "Oh yeah? Well I'm keeping them home from school, so there!"

These people are goddamn lunatics. And now they're adding criminally negligent parents to that list.

They are willing to harm their children's educations so that they don't have to listen to the scary black liberal tell them to do well in school and help their communities. They should have every right to insist that their children be able to opt out of watching the address. But the ones keeping their children home should get truancy law dropped on their heads.

Seriously, do they not understand the lesson they are teaching with this tantrum of theirs? They are dramatically demonstrating to their kids that if they don't like what's being taught at school, the adult solution is to skip class. That lesson will stay with them.

I'm generally averse to getting the state involved in parenting, because it's almost inevitably a bad idea that gets out of control. But this borders on child abuse.

[chmood]

dddDave must've taken "new math" - he still thinks the voices in his head constitute an electoral majority. 'In actual fact', 30% is not a majority of anything. Okay, maybe it's most of the thugs, bullies and grade-school dropouts....

Thanks to publius - this is *much* funnier than the Scalia thing (for us non-lawyers)

[Phil]

The overlap between this group of people and the group that wants to make other people's children pray in school is probably close to 100%.

[wonkie]

There is good pollling data which shows a majority does support the public option.

Those who oppose, as tea parties make all to cdlear, do so in the abcense of fact or reason.

Obama is failing to lead.

He's getting plenty of help in this failure form the Senate Democrats and the corporate media, but that's not an excuse.

[wonkie]

too clear absence

[Marty]

"Seriously. Obama says, "I want to talk to your kids about how important it is to stay in school.""

So do a one minute public service ad for after school tv. What he really said was I want to address all of your children about how important it is to help the President. Imagine Bush asking to do that....

[Hartmut]

Worse, those are the guys that are not yet homeschoolers*. That means they are relative 'moderates'.

*Yes, I know, not all homeschoolers are right-wing. I know people** that homeschool because all schools in their area suck and/or are run by religious and/or political extremists
**not in Germany, here homeschooling is illegal (although fundies try to overturn the law)

[russell]

Yeah, Bush's schtick ran more to stories about pet goats.

This country is FUBAR.

And who let dave back in?

[cleek]

Bush I and Reagan both gave addresses to students.

[atlchm]

Catsy:

Here in our school district, the superintendent decided it was up to the individual schools to choose whether to air the President's message. I live in a VERY conservative county on the northern fringes of Atlanta, so of course my children's schools will not be broadcasting the address. I sent an email to the superintendent expressing my disappointment with his position on this issue - no response from him or his staff. I also sent an email to my daughter's middle school principal. To his credit he emailed me back with his direct office phone number, and urged me to call him this morning to talk about why he made this decision. After I spoke with him, I was even more disturbed. It seems that on the day of Obama's inauguration, fist fights broke out between white and black kids at the school. So in order not to "alienate" either group of students, he made the decision not to air. Also, none of the teachers wanted to be responsible for mistakes that might occur in making sure the kids whose parents opted them out of the viewing were actually removed from the classroom.

Our principal's wife is the principal of an elementary school in our county that is 100% black. He assured me that there was never any question whether his wife's school would be broadcasting the address. Why am I not surprised that this breaks down along racial lines?

It never fails to astound me that there is a bloc of parents out there who don't ever want their kids exposed to ideas or people they disagree with. As I was telling my daughter last night - we're using this as a teachable moment - these are the same folks who want books removed from the library. And as pointed out upthread, they're also the parents who want prayer back in public schools.

Considering that our school district has a graduation rate of 68%, I can see no harm whatsoever in airing the president's "socialist propaganda" about doing well in school, taking responsibility for your education, and staying in school until graduation.

[bc]

I have no problem with the President speaking to students about staying in school. I think a lesson plan is just silly. And bypassing the school districts was also silly. I wish he would talk as frankly to the NEA about improving education.

Harmut: "not in Germany, here homeschooling is illegal (although fundies try to overturn the law")

It wouldn't be illegal of your schools were as bad as ours. I may be conservative, but I didn't homeschool our children because of political issues, although those came up from time to time. I did it because the schools sucked. I put my kids back in and now have one going to private school (which I really cannot afford) and am thinking about pulling the others. While we have a few good teachers, it's the ones Ebaying during class and never giving a paper back the entire year that bother me.

[Catsy]

What he really said was I want to address all of your children about how important it is to help the President.

Horsesh1t. This reply tells me and everyone else reading it that you haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about or what the President is actually going to say.

All you've done is taken the words "help the President" from the previous draft of the study materials they sent out, removed them from any context whatsoever, ignored the fact that they don't even appear in the revised version which made the intent of the lesson clearer, and joined the uninformed chorus of wingnuts in bleating about it as if your complaints had any factual grounds whatsoever, instead of being entirely disconnected from reality.

Imagine Bush asking to do that....

Why imagine when there are facts available?

Sorry, but this one is a litmus test for sanity. The president is making a televised address to students about education, and the DOE helpfully supplied optional study materials that teachers can use if they want. The tantrum the right is throwing about this is completely deranged. Wrapping it in the soothing tones of concern trolling doesn't make it any less unhinged.

[Marty]

"All you've done is taken the words "help the President" from the previous draft of the study materials they sent out, removed them from any context whatsoever, ignored the fact that they don't even appear in the revised version which made the intent of the lesson clearer, and joined the uninformed chorus of wingnuts in bleating about it as if your complaints had any factual grounds whatsoever, instead of being entirely disconnected from reality."

No. In the LESSON PLAN children were to:

"Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. “

What world do you live in that the President should be imposing a lesson plan on all school children to write a letter to themselves on what they can do to help the President?

I think the whole thing is silly BECAUSE we wrote a lesson plan in the first place. You want to have the President give a nice talk about staying in school, I'm all for it. It isn't and shouldn't be a part of the curriculum.

Teachers should get the benefit of the teaching moment, if it seems reasonable.

[Catsy]

No. In the LESSON PLAN children were to:

"Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

Which as you damn well know by now:

1) was not actually said by Obama, contrary to the following claim that you made: "What he really said was I want to address all of your children about how important it is to help the President.";
2) constituted one single exercise out of a much larger optional lesson plan;
3) clearly referred to the academic aspirations Obama intended to lay out in the speech and not his political goals;
4) was revised to make 3) clearer for the sake of those with comprehension issues, after which point it
5) no longer appears in the lesson plan--and yet you and others are still bleating about it.

What world do you live in that the President should be imposing a lesson plan on all school children to write a letter to themselves on what they can do to help the President?

Had the lesson plan actually been imposed, and if the "help the President" part had not been yanked completely out of context and distorted by mendacious liars and uninformed dittoheads, you might have the beginning of an argument to make.

I think the whole thing is silly BECAUSE we wrote a lesson plan in the first place. You want to have the President give a nice talk about staying in school, I'm all for it. It isn't and shouldn't be a part of the curriculum.

Teachers should get the benefit of the teaching moment, if it seems reasonable.

Are you a teacher? I'm guessing not.

Free time does not exist for most teachers, especially in urban areas with a high student-teacher ratio. They have to spend a considerable amount of their evenings and weekends coming up with teaching material. I assure you that most teachers will enthusiastically welcome having the option of using materials that someone else has already done the work of creating, provided it meets their needs and standards.

The material that the DOE sent out is optional. It contains suggested activities and lessons that teachers may use or adapt as desired for their classroom. Your entire argument rests on the idea that this is being mandated, and falls to pieces when that is demonstrated to be false.

Indoctrination? Imposed? This is a godsend for time-strapped teachers.

[chmood]

Careful, Catsy - you may trigger another round of OMFG U GUISE THIK HE'S GAWD UR SUMMAT!!!12

When people are so filled with hate that truth, fact, accuracy, honesty an' all those y'know TRADITIONAL VALUES mean nothing to them, you get...well, you get everything the so-called "Right" has been spewing Linda-Blair-like for the last 8 months....

[The Crafty Trilobite]

I think "how can I help" is a great thing to put in a lesson plan.

As a great man once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Oh, right, but he was a liberal, so he's part of the problem.

[cleek]

sayin what oughtta be said.

awsm.

[Catsy]

This issue has proved to be a useful litmus test for differentiating between Republicans who still have their head on straight, and partisan hacks and crackpots who need not be taken seriously again.

In an alternate universe:

Obama: My fellow Americans, it is my distinct pleasure to announce that thanks to increased public funding, researchers have discovered a cure for cancer, which has been approved by the FDA. I call on Congress to fast-track legislation that will approve funds to provide this cure to every American that suffers from this cruel and indiscriminate disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people across the world every day.

Drudge: !! SOCIALISM !! President announces cancer cure, demands taxpayers pay for it

Fox & Friends: President Obama announced a cure for cancer today. Although developed at taxpayer expense, Obama demanded that Congress rush to spend even more taxpayer money to test the cure on American citizens. Can America afford this? Is this yet another step towards socialism? And what do we really know about the safety of this so-called "cure"? To talk about this we welcome our special guests Ann Coulter, Ben Stein, and Dr. Bill Frist.

AP News: President Obama announced a cure for cancer today, and asked that Congress approve legislation that subsidizes it, legislation that Republicans say will increase the already-bloated deficit and lead to socialized medicine. Some also question the safety of the vaccine, and whether it has been tested.

Limbaugh: My friends, this is how fascism starts! The Obama administration claims it has a cure for cancer, and wants our tax dollars to pay for Obama's grand socialist experiment with our lives. The FDA has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Obama cabal, meekly rubber-stamping this dangerous drug. What's next? I'll tell you what, my friends: a vaccine. And I'll guarantee you that vaccine will be mandatory, inflicted on your children whether you want it or not--and all paid for by our tax dollars.

Lou Dobbs: Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for everyone that won't die of cancer. But why is the Obama administration forcing American taxpayers to subsidize the cure for illegal immigrants?

Bill O'Reilly: What is Barack Hussein Obama's plan for helping the thousands of oncologists this will put out of work? Why do you hate doctors and senior citizens, sir?

Michael Steele: No no no, you have to understand it's not that we're opposed to curing cancer, and we don't think President Obama is part of some grand conspiracy to test dangerous drugs on Americans. That's an insane idea, nobody's saying that. But we're still in the middle of the Obama recession, and American taxpayers just can't afford this kind of outlandish spending spree. Instead, why doesn't Obama just make Medicare cover it?

Orly Taitz: I refuse to believe that there really is a cure until the Obama administration produces all of the researchers' notes--in the long form. This is actually a plot to perform tests on senior citizens and children under the guise of "cure" and "vaccination".

Michelle Malkin: Barack Obama says he wants to cure cancer, but if you look closely at the legislation he's asking Congress to pass, it establishes death panels to decide who lives and who dies. Do you want the government making deceisions about whether or not to kill your grandmother? If you have a relative in the hospital for cancer, you should encourage them to check out and live at home so that you can make your own decisions.

Michael Steele: I apologize if some of you thought I was saying that Rush Limbaugh was insane. That's not at all what I meant.

[John Thullen]

Yup, that's good, Cleek.

You don't get too much more level-headed and sane than John Harwood in what's left of journalism in the rapidly failing experiment called America.

It will be fascinating to watch the stupid people react stupidly to Harwood's statements. The font of stupidity over at RedDawn no doubt will spew first without a banning in sight.

At this point in the waning days of sane political rhetoric, as we reach the scum-line and perhaps step over that line into territory that stupid people are too stupid to realize is going to hurt them very badly, I'm going to endorse this White House enlisting schoolchildren into fighting stupidity in the classroom, on the playground, and in the streets.

At Republican townhall meetings next August, and at Texas School Board meetings throughout the next year, I want lots and lots of angry, fully indoctrinated, unruly, loud liberal children showing up and shutting it down.

I want to see frightened Charles Grassleys and ilk pulled off stages into dangerous mosh pit whirlpools of kids who think stupidity requires a good pummeling.

I want the distance between Rush Limbaugh's studio swivel chair and the door to his limosine to be more dangerous than the DMZ between North and South Korea.

I want stupid people's righteous nightmares of how they believe America will end to come true ... for their sake ..... they want it.

[efgoldman]

As usual, Thullen wins the thread.

RE Harwood: A magnificent rant. Olbermann-esque. Does Harwood still work for the WSJ? If so, I'd imagine not for long.

[Johnny Canuck]

Catsy, I'd thank you but regrettably I think your post is probably 99.997% accurate, and therefore rather depressing.

[Hartmut]

That's the long (and very good, Catsy!) version of "President walks on water, opposition decries that president can't even swim". A sad reality.
Disclaimer: I do not claim that Obama has divine powers or is infallible by any means.