Today, in Arlington Virginia, Barack Obama gave a speech to school children to welcome in the new school year. The speech was much derided before hand from conservatives who believed that Obama would try to "indoctrinate" them into his agenda.
When the actual speech was delivered, there was very little controversy to go around. Obama preached the virtue of personal responsibility, and the fortitude to never give up on yourself. He mentioned several celebrities by name who overcame failure to become legends in their field, including Micheal Jordan and J.K. Rowlings. When asked who he would have dinner with, anyone, dead or alive, he answered Gandhi. "He is someone I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Martin Luther King Jr with his message of non-violence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics."
This whole debacle has proved how incoherent the right has become, and how ready they are to malign Obama over the smallest thing. How partisan has this country become when the president cannot speak to school-children with a message of "work hard and stay in school" without passing protest signs on the way? This rage started in the election, when people were yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" at McCain campaign stops, and continued with people painting Hitler mustaches on Obama signs at town halls. To be fair, the left was not shy about comparing G. W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, but anything Obama does will be seen through this xenophobic lens of the right. The question remains, will the Republicans rightfully marginalize this segment of the electorate, or will they marginalize themselves by embracing it?
1 comment:
The right thought it was fine when the speechgivers were Reagan or Bush. They aren't going to like a thing Obama does, and its mostly racism. Has the right ever been correct about any of their criticisms?
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