Tuesday, September 08, 2009

The President Gave A Speech To Schoolchildren

The President gave a speech to schoolchildren, and what was his reward? Hearings and an investigation by the House of Representatives!

What? How could this happen, when the President's political soulmate is Speaker of the House? Well, it didn't happen today. It happened in 1991, to President Bush 41.

So if you think the rancor and partisanship we're seeing today all started on January 20th of this year, you need what we call a "wider view".

I didn't watch the speech today, but I understand that there wasn't too much objectionable in it. Joanne has a very well-thought-out post on the speech and its aftermath here.

Gotta love this from the first link above, though:

That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."

I wonder if the NEA will say the same thing about a President who cut off vouchers to the neediest children in what is among the worst school districts (DC Public Schools) in the country. I eagerly await their press release on the subject.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nail. Struck on head.

Unknown said...

The fact that the speech was harmless makes little difference. It was all the lesson plans, which, before they were changed, had students thinking of ways to "help" the President and had them making posters for the classroom. The lesson plans were highly inappropriate.