Text of Obama's speech to schoolchildren

[AtomicCEO]

See below. The paragraph is downright comical. This is coming from a guy that bashed Bush on almost every occasion. Both sides reap what they sow. Did liberals really think that after the way they treated Bush for 8 years that it would be smooth sailing for their guy? Even after Bush was gone, they taunted him and gloated because he was gone. Now we are supposed to be respectful of their guy because he is the president. And to make the statement that right wing radio has whipped people up to think Obama is a terrible person, is absolutely amazing.

 

BS. I bashed Bush's policies. I never would have kept my kid out of school for fear that one of his speeches to schoolchildren would brainwash them into becoming right-wing lunatics. That's simply the domain of the retarded.

[Duchess Jack]

It is definitely a joke. However, alot of these guys here have either very short memories or dementia..

 

True.

 

When Bush was pres - you could get escorted out of a speech by security for wearing a shirt with Bush's name and a line through it.

But now that Obama is pres - its folks constitutional right to bring assalt rifles to his speeches.

 

When Bush was pres - trying to be heard in town hall meetings by getting a little loud was facist and nazi tactics.

But now that Obama is pres - its people exercizing their first amendment rights and showing they care for the country.

 

When Bush was pres - questioning the administration was hating America

But not that Obama is pres - questioning the administration is being patriotic.

 

When Bush was pres and stocking the federal courts with conservative ideologues, Senate Republicans threatened to change the august body’s rules if any Democrat dared to try to block his choices, even the least-competent, most-radical ones

But now that Obama is pres Republican senators have fired off a etter threatening filibusters if Mr. Obama’s nominees are not to their liking.

 

I am sure folk can add to this, but you get the idea. You are right - many people do short memories or dementia.

 

 

(edited because my brain rarely communicates well with my fingers)

Edited September 8, 2009 by Duchess Jack

[cre8tiff]

True.

 

When Bush was pres - you could get escorted out of a speech by security of wearing a shirt with Bush's name and a line through it.

But now that Obama is pres - its folks constitutional right to bring assalt rifles to his speeches.

 

When Bush was pres - trying to be heard a town hall meetings by getting a little loud was facist and nazi tactics.

But now that Obama is pres - its people exercizing their first amendment rights and showing they care for the country.

 

When Bush was pres - questioning the administration was hating America

But not that Obama is pres - questioning the administration is being patriotic.

 

When Bush was pres and stocking the federal courts with conservative ideologues, Senate Republicans threatened to change the august body’s rules if any Democrat dared to try to block his choices, even the least-competent, most-radical ones

But now that Obama is pres Republican senators have fired off a etter threatening filibusters if Mr. Obama’s nominees are not to their liking.

 

I am sure folk can add to this, but you get the idea. You are right - many people do short memories or dementia.

 

 

(edited because my brain rarely communicates well with my fingers)

 

Well and accurately said.

[Perchoutofwater]

I have no problems with the text of the speech, and really had no problems with the speech in general from the onset. My problem was with the Secretary of Education' suggested lesson plan prior to and after the actual speech. I never thought Obama was dumb enough to include and overt political message in the speech. Who would have thought Obama was one of those crazy home school kids? Obama sure has learned alot in the last 8 months.

 

This from a friend of mine who is a 5th grade teacher:

 

"I could care less if Obama wants to talk to the nation's schoolchildren. He's the President, after all. A really, really, really crappy one...but, still the President. The office should still be respected even with a really, really, really ...crappy man in that office. That said, a Presidential speech from a really, really, really crappy President should be the extent of the Fed's involvement in our public classrooms.

[bpwallace49]

True.

 

When Bush was pres - you could get escorted out of a speech by security of wearing a shirt with Bush's name and a line through it.

But now that Obama is pres - its folks constitutional right to bring assalt rifles to his speeches.

 

When Bush was pres - trying to be heard a town hall meetings by getting a little loud was facist and nazi tactics.

But now that Obama is pres - its people exercizing their first amendment rights and showing they care for the country.

 

When Bush was pres - questioning the administration was hating America

But not that Obama is pres - questioning the administration is being patriotic.

 

When Bush was pres and stocking the federal courts with conservative ideologues, Senate Republicans threatened to change the august body’s rules if any Democrat dared to try to block his choices, even the least-competent, most-radical ones

But now that Obama is pres Republican senators have fired off a etter threatening filibusters if Mr. Obama’s nominees are not to their liking.

 

I am sure folk can add to this, but you get the idea. You are right - many people do short memories or dementia.

 

 

(edited because my brain rarely communicates well with my fingers)

 

 

 

Extremely well said and very accurate.

[TimC]

Just from the first two paragraphs alone....

 

Hello, everyone — how's everybody doing today? I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through 12th grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.

 

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

Edited September 8, 2009 by TimC

[i_am_the_swammi]

I am political neutral. I just read the speech and would have no objection to my children hearing it. In fact, isn't 99% of what is being said what we heard growing up and have stressed to our childern, "stay in school and get a good education."

 

But its all the subluminal messages and political rhetoric we are supposed to be upset with. After all, who is Obama to tell our youth to stay in school and work hard?

[wiegie]

I never thought Obama was dumb enough to include and overt political message in the speech.

Yep, only a complete moran would give a speech to students that was political in nature (say, such as talking about government tax policy and so forth).

[Perchoutofwater]

Just for some perspective about the somewhat overblown uproar.

 

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings

By: Byron York

Chief Political Correspondent

09/08/09 7:11 AM EDT

 

The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.

 

Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.

 

With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

 

Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."

 

Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."

 

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."

 

Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.

 

So Duchess you were saying?

[bpwallace49]

Just for some perspective about the somewhat overblown uproar.

 

 

 

So Duchess you were saying?

 

So let me get this straight . .

 

You getting upset because you say Obama is spreading "propaganda" is somehow justified by a googled report that you dragged up from way back in 1991? Glad we cleared that up!

 

[Duchess Jack]

So Duchess you were saying?

I was saying that he was correct. People do have very short term memories.

[Perchoutofwater]

So let me get this straight . .

 

You getting upset because you say Obama is spreading "propaganda" is somehow justified by a googled report that you dragged up from way back in 1991? Glad we cleared that up!

 

 

Show me where I've gotten upset with Obama spreading propaganda? I've mentioned several times the speech doesn't bother me. Now the lesson plan sent down by the Secretary of Education bothers me some, but the speech. I put the story on how the Dems over-reacted to show Duchess who you slobbered all over that both sides are do the same thing, and in this case it was the dems that over reacted the most. So as usual you are far from straight. Now shoo fly!

[WaterMan]

the real question is.......

 

can this guy give a speech without a teleprompter?

 

Softball here. He'll at least be able to read and pronounce what's on the teleprompter.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Show me where I've gotten upset with Obama spreading propaganda? I've mentioned several times the speech doesn't bother me. Now the lesson plan sent down by the Secretary of Education bothers me some, but the speech. I put the story on how the Dems over-reacted to show Duchess who you slobbered all over that both sides are do the same thing, and in this case it was the dems that over reacted the most. So as usual you are far from straight. Now shoo fly!

 

If you want to be taken seriously with your "no this doesn't bother me, really it doesn't, no I mean really already" line, perhaps it might help to lose the avatar.

[WaterMan]

And here in lies the problem. Its all about who can jam their arm further up the other sides ass and what is best for the country is secondary to many people. In your own words your side has been waiting to Bash based on the bashing Bush received. I firmly believe and nobody could tell me otherwise that there are people in the country and on these boards that are rooting for Obama to fail. Not for just his policies to fail but his actual presidency. Its sad. Its sad when both sides do it. Everybody has their cock out. When I was a kid I would have been excited to hear the president address me directly in school. The frenzy over this speech is flat out laughable and embarrasing

 

The news is reporting some parents' outrage, but they need to report on why we've become this way. But that would take some thinking and work.

[Perchoutofwater]

If you want to be taken seriously with your "no this doesn't bother me, really it doesn't, no I mean really already" line, perhaps it might help to lose the avatar.

 

Oh I have a problem with most of his policies, and if the speech contained any of these policies I would have a problem with it, but it doesn't. I don't recall you have problems with avatars portraying Bush in a less then favorable light.

[TimC]

From the speech: "I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself."

 

I guess that doesn't include large banks and insurance companies, does it Barack?

[cre8tiff]

That was amazingly inspirational and surprisingly conservative.

 

Crazy how the cons are screaming bloody murder over a speech that is telling kids to be responsible and not let thier life situation define them or use it as an excuse. But I suppose personal responsibility for the individual is something they claim ownership of.

 

I hope every kid whose idiot parents kept them from hearing this YouTube's it while said parents are busy watching NASCAR or pro rasslin' tonight.

Edited September 8, 2009 by cre8tiff

[MikesVikes]

I wonder if Dubya went through all this crap when he was talking to school kids during 9/11?

[AtomicCEO]

From the speech: "I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself."

 

I guess that doesn't include large banks and insurance companies, does it Bush, who granted the bailout before Obama took office?

 

Fixed.

 

So if George Bush took this big steamroller and parked it on the top of a hill and pushed it over the edge toward Corvette cruise night at the turnpike Arby's... and then left office when it was 3/4ths of the way down the hill , would you get pissed at Obama when it hit the cars?

[Perchoutofwater]

I wonder if Dubya went through all this crap when he was talking to school kids during 9/11?

 

Just for the sake of accuracy, I believe Shrub was reading them a book, not giving a speech. I agree it was a terrible waste of money, the cost of security and all, as well as probably putting undue strain on that particular school that day.

[detlef]

Mined from someone's facebook status...

 

If ignorance is bliss, why are all these anti-school-speech parents so freakin' angry?

[WaterMan]

Someone should hand out t-shirts to these parents that say: "Obama brainwashed my child and I got was this lousy t-shirt."

[bpwallace49]

Fixed.

 

So if George Bush took this big steamroller and parked it on the top of a hill and pushed it over the edge toward Corvette cruise night at the turnpike Arby's... and then left office when it was 3/4ths of the way down the hill , would you get pissed at Obama when it hit the cars?

 

 

You forgot the part where people start saying what a bad job he is doing trying to stop the steamroller while refusing to offer help.

[Czarina]

My children's district used the "time out of instruction" excuse to avoid showing it today. They said they would review it an show it tomorrow. Doofuses.