I’m amazed at the “controversy” – -probably fanned by a “slow news” Labor Day weekend — over President Obama’s plan to address schoolchildren. The President plans to tell kids to (gasp!) stay in school and stay off drugs. How dare he politicize education! As Joan Walsh writes in Salon:
Especially since, as has now been well-documented, President George H.W. Bush addressed American students in 1991, and Ronald Reagan did so via C-SPAN in 1988. (Bush talked mainly about the importance of education, while Reagan hailed the benefits of low taxes and the line-item veto.) President George W. Bush appealed to “the children of the country” to back the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, to no public criticism. Admittedly, some Democrats accused his father of playing politics in ’91, while Newt Gingrich ardently defended him. (Waiting for Gingrich to defend Obama. Still waiting.)
Next, they’ll be wanting to hang Obama’s picture on the wall!
Rachel Norton 