“President Obama Is Coming For Your Children”

Seriously, are people in this country CRAZY? The latest tempest in a Teabagger is about President Barack Obama‘s planned address to schoolchildren on September 8, 2009. Yes — the President wants to send a message directly to the children of this nation, and apparently that’s bad.

From a Fox News story:

Regine Gordon doesn’t want her 6-year-old son to hear from President Obama next week.

Gordon, of Tampa, Fla., is among a growing number of parents across the country who are troubled by the president’s plan to address elementary, middle and high school students in an online and televised speech Tuesday.

“It’s a form of indoctrination, and I think, really, it’s indicative of the culture that the Obama administration is trying to create,” Gordon told FOXNews.com on Thursday. “It’s very socialistic.”

Wow, I bet Regine Gordon totally came up with that language on her own and didn’t hear it anywhere! But more on that in a second.

The uproar is not about the text of Obama’s speech, which has not yet been made available, but by a teacher’s guide circulated as a companion to the Obama address, suggesting that teachers ask their students questions like, “What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do? What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?” Another guide apparently suggested students “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president” and think about what “the president wants us to do.”

The issue, apparently, for Conservatives: The President should not be telling students to help him, or instructing them to do things. This is a democracy, dammit! Or something.

Okay. As a sane person, I am already making the mistake of trying to lay out my argument logically and methodically, because everyone knows that when you want to get a crazy-making message out, you just bray it loudly at a Town Hall with Hitler placards while exclaiming that you don’t want the government messing with your Medicare. Why let facts get in the way? Right, Betsy McCaughey? But nonetheless I will give it a shot.

Let’s for a moment assume that Obama does want schoolchildren to help him, and that he is asking children to do something. He could want children to knock off a local liquor store and use the money to make viral YouTube videos with will.i.am, but we don’t know that. (For sure. Chyron on Fox: “Does Obama Want Children to Knock Off a Local Liquor Stores?”) So if we don’t know what Obama is going to be talking about, is there a way to make an educated guess?

Why, yes there is! Thanks to Damon Weaver, intrepid (or should I say indoctrinated?) kid reporter, who interviewed Obama about this very subject last month. Obama broke the news of his September 8th address in Weaver’s interview — and telling Weaver about the speech. What did the President say?

“On September 8th…I will be making a big speech to young people across the country about the importance of education, the importance of staying in school, how we want to improve our education system and why it’s so important for the country.”

Deep breath. So…what Obama is going to be asking kids to do is…stay in school? Value their education? Work hard? WHAT AM I MISSING HERE?

I don’t think I’m missing anything — but how could the Conservatives sounding the OBAMA IS A SCARY KENYAN NON-AMERICAN SOCIALIST WHO WANTS TO EAT YOUR HEALTH CARE alarms have missed this interview? C’mon, even in the summer news slump Damon Weaver was all over the news a few weeks ago. The Weaver YouTube video has gotten 513,832 views and been shown across the dial on the networks, Twittered, picked up by blogs, etc. etc. You’d think at least one Conservative would have, you know, watched it.

Or did they watch it and just ignore it, because it doesn’t fit in with their Obama-Is-A-Zombie-Socialist message? I mean, it’s embedded on Michelle Malkin‘s blog post about the subject, which I read yesterday in confusion trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. Because “stay in school, education is important” is not exactly the most controversial message, and nor is it particular to Liberals.

Nor, incidentally, are notions of respect for the Office of the President. That seems pretty ingrained in this country. And as Andrea Mitchell pointed out on NBC News last night, there has been a long tradition of Presidents speaking to school kids in this country. So is the problem with…this president? And could there be an underlying…reason for that? Could it be…secret latent sublimated racism? I don’t know, but as long as I stick a question mark on that, I’m cool!

This is a ridiculous controversy, and so far in surveying the coverage I’ve been pleased to see it mostly called out as such. That said, I double-taked at my screen during Mitchell’s report, looking at the first quote she led with: An outraged harrumph by one Mike Leahy of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. Excuse me, the what? That didn’t exactly scream “legit news cred” to me, so I went to the website. It hasn’t been updated since before July 4th, and the “Action Calendar” is apparently “Coming Soon.” There’s no detailed policy position laid out, no arguments for or against, no — what’s that word again? Ah, yes — facts. I get that this Michael Leahy has a book to plug (Twitter, you reveal all), but let’s raise the bar on who, exactly, our trusted news sources hold out as credible experts. I’ve already had to smack you for this once, NBC; please don’t make me tell you again.

Here’s Mitchell’s report, followed by a bit of analysis on the subject by Ana Marie Cox, sitting in for Rachel Maddow, with the WSJ’s Thomas Frank (by the way, the quote in the headline is from Cox. See how I did that?). Oh and then, just because I like providing as much information as possible, I’ve also included Damon Weaver’s interview with Barack Obama. Just so there’s no, you know, confusion.

p.s. I just finished this post and checked my email. No joke, this email was waiting for me: OBAMA’S KENYAN BIRTH CERTIFICATE FILED IN CA. Apparently it was filed by Orly Taitz. SHEESH.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.