As Amanda notes, for a large group of racist-ass Americans, the answer is "no." For me, of course, the answer is "Hell, I'd leave my kid in a room alone with him-for hours, even-which is more than I can say for most Republicans."
But it's almost possible, if you stretch credulity to the breaking point, to give racist-ass Americans the benefit of the doubt - "Maybe they really do have some weird ideological objection to government leaders "indoctrinating" their children. Random, but I guess you can't really say it's because he's a black dude." After all, his planned remarks are a little...insipid:
When it comes to your own education, what I'm saying is take control. Don't say school is boring and blame it on your teachers. Make your teachers work hard. Tell them you want a first-class education. Tell them that you're here to learn. Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart. I can't understand for the life of me what's so great about being stupid.
Actually, I can sort of see the point. I'm not sure I want my kid to hear such mealy-mouthed bulls..wait a minute. That was George HW Bush! (Bet you saw that one coming, didn't you?)
Still, it's always good when an opportunity comes along for Dems in Congress to rally around their President on what should be a politically easy issue. As Harry Reid said,
Why is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education? It [will be] done at a nonpolitical site and...beamed to a nonpolitical audience...They want...to reach the maximum audience with the maximum effect to improve education.
Glad that Democrats are able to speak out on SOMEthing, fina...wait a minute. That was Newt Gingrich, defending George HW Bush! Ah, Auguste, the old switcheroo.
Still, Politifacts, while handing me those little tidbits, also indicated that Democrats of the time did attack Bush for his statements. Credit where credit's due. Gephardt said
As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President [Bush's fascist] ideology. The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans...is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.
S...wait a yeah, you get the idea.
Gephardt's beef was only the taxpayer dollars angle, and while some back-bench Democrats did talk about "power" they were mostly focusing on the power to use taxpayer dollars, not the power to praise corporate oligarchies.
But hey - I'm not really in a mood to defend Democrats of that time, or this, since as Tristero notes, they're not only fucking useless on health care reform:
For the sake of argument only, let's agree that both Obama's personality and his political instincts to personally avoid this kind of cynical posturing are both admirable and politically astute. Let's also concede - even if we do so with tremendous reluctance and reservation - that when his administration also refuses to treat Republican dead-enders with the contempt they so obviously deserve, they are behaving the way the executive branch should behave if our discourse were healthy. Even granting all of that, which is granting one helluva lot:
Where the fuck are the Democrats?
Tristero's got a quote from the Reagan equivalent speech, too, and who's got two thumbs and is not remotely surprised that exists? This guy.
Update: Sure wish I'd thought of this while writing this originally: I'm going to look into opting my kid out of Officer Friendly. Pigs ain't gonna indoctrinate my kid.
