Obama sends message to school children.

[cityboi]

Im not understanding the controversy over all this. All President Obama is doing is telling school children to value their education. Both president Bushs did the same thing when they were in office and there was no controversy. I suspect that the same ones thats making a big fuss over every thing Obama does are the same ones in the McCain-Palin rallies that cant stand the idea of a black man with a muslim name as our president. When you get right down to it, thats what all this is about. One guy, who was white, said on the news "I dont need Obama to tell my children education is important, they know that." Why get upset over it? His tone was like who is he to lecture my children that education is important. I'm sure he wasn't upset when George Bush did the same exact thing. People GET OVER IT! Its 2009, Obama won and we have a black president. If you can't except that, tough.

[Gard]

Im not understanding the controversy over all this. All President Obama is doing is telling school children to value their education. Both president Bushs did the same thing when they were in office and there was no controversy.

[cityboi]

I think the whole thing was childish the way people reacted to Obama speaking to school children. I do think its in part because there are sore losers from the election. The country is still somewhat polorized. I was certainly no Bush supporter but I also had no problem when he spoke to school kids because it was one of the things that he did right.

[Gard]

^

Absolutely. I have no problem at all with any leaders going to speak to school children. I think that whether people agree with them or not on a political level, they each have the ability to inspire our children to reach higher and go for their goals. I was astounded by parents threatening to keep their kids home and crying & demanding that their children not see it, acting as if Obama is the monster under their child's bed at night. If I had a child in grade school, I'd be making darn sure he/she was there to view every second of that speech. Things like that don't happen everyday and I'd see it as an important experience that could enrich my child's life, politics aside. Looking further at it, its really not the GOP as a whole here making an uproar, just one faction of it, as you pointed out, the sore losers. Louisiana, for instance, made it mandatory viewing and the governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, is an up & coming leader in the GOP. I also think the media certainly had their hands in fueling the fire, being it seems like they enjoyed giving a ton of coverage to it.

[Charlotte_native]

If Obama found a way to provide every homeless person in the US housing at no cost to the taxpayer these same people would be upset about it -- Rush would explain to them how and why. I have people like this in my family. They have no real clue about anything, but toss socializm, liberal, and Hitler around as if they actually knew what any of those words meant. They are three generations deep in hating anything that so called Conservatives tell them to hate. Funny part, none of them have gotten any trickle down from those they support and oppose health-care reform even though two i know of aren't covered and a couple others are glued to jobs they hate for fear of not getting new insurance if they leave.

Never believe that these people are upset about the speech to kids, they'll be upset at every single thing he does without ever really thinking about it and the media will trump it up like it is a large group. In Charlotte the media didn't have as much hype, but did provide a bit, and in the end virtually no parents took the option (yes some but very minimal numbers) of removing their kids from school so they wouldn't hear it. Now, just outside Charlotte in our more rural schools it's a different story...

[cityboi]

The thing is his message wasnt a republican or democratic message. It was an American message. as for the healthcare debate, I too believe its just a few causing the trouble. Show a some angry crowds on TV and suddenly it gives the impression that the vast majority of Americans are against it. Obama needs to take control of the debate as well as he did during the campaign and he needs to make it clear what universal healthcare is and how it being paid for. There is a lot of misinformation being put out there.

[sean]

nutters will be nutters! in his address to school children, obama basically encouraged all students to work hard, set goals and stay in school.... and the nutters went bat@#*% crazy in response. i'm reminded of the little boy who cried wolf; these flakes and their steady stream of conspiracy theories about yet another boogeyman.

[Gard]

as for the healthcare debate, I too believe its just a few causing the trouble. Show a some angry crowds on TV and suddenly it gives the impression that the vast majority of Americans are against it. Obama needs to take control of the debate as well as he did during the campaign and he needs to make it clear what universal health care is and how it being paid for. There is a lot of misinformation being put out there.

[Charlotteman]

Well I for one applaud President Obama for speaking to the kids. What an inspiring thing for not only the kids, but the whole school. I've been saying for years that education is humanity's only real hope to a peaceful future. Education in America should be one of the top priorities.

I think the reason liberals (rightly) claimed both Bush presidents were just playing an act when speaking to school children, is that neither was actively pro-public education. When George H.W. Bush ran for president in 1988, he whined about wanting to be "The Education President"....what a joke that turned out to be. In his 4 years as president his administration did very little for public education.

When President Obama speaks to school kids we know he is sincere. After all he was a teacher himself at one time.