I have been searching all morning for some clever way to use the term “spin” in my title. I will have to go with this – nothing more creative has been coming up….
Unless you just came in from Mars, you are aware that President Barak Obama delivered a speech to schoolchildren yesterday. Make that Jupiter – I am sure the shouts of protest from the far-right have reached Mars by now (vacuum of space and all…).
The far-right (and I mean FAR-right – moderate Republicans like Laura Bush have been supportive of Obama’s efforts) apparently thought the speech would be transformational. Take a look here for just what transformational means….
Obama’s Transformational Speech
Seriously – there is a fear in the right wing that Obama is trying to indoctrinate our children – trying to form some sort of “Obama Youth” modeled after the Hitler youth. If you haven’t heard this before you might think I am exaggerating. I kid you not. If you don’t believe me, just google “Obama Nazi” and you will find dozens of sites spewing this paranoia.
You are probably also aware that Obama hit a home run with his speech. Even the likes of Newt Gingrich praised it. It is available in many places on the internet – here is one link to the speech:
Video of Obama’s actual speech
The speech was certainly inspirational – like him or not you have to admit that President Obama knows how to talk to an audience. He spoke to core American values – hard work, staying in school, persevering in the face of difficulty, and giving back to your community.
I suspect it would be hard to find anyone willing to oppose those core American values. In fact, it would seem that the right-wing might have some egg on its face – might be a little embarrassed about having opposed a speech promoting such values?
Sadly, no…..
Here is where the spinning part comes in – and my head is indeed spinning….
Factions on the right wing are actually taking credit for the content of Obama’s speech. For example, discussion in the Delphi opinion forum yesterday centered on the way Obama was forced by the right to promote American values….
Huh?
That’s right…. Obama apparently only promoted those American values because he was pressured to do so by the right.
The conspiracy theory goes something like this. Obama had actually planned to give a radical communistic speech attempting to indoctrinate the children – all in an attempt to recruit them into a socialistic Obama Youth corps with revolution on their minds! Thank goodness for our saviors and protectors on the right! They saw through Obama’s cynical ploy and forced him to change the speech at the last minute! They should be credited with the positive American values in the speech! In fact – I suspect Glen Beck even wrote the speech!
Thank goodness for the right – they have saved us yet again!
Yes – my head is spinning….
Nausea is one consequence of a spinning head. I think I feel it coming on – I need to go throw up….
Tags: communist, conservative, left-wing, liberal, nazi, Obama, political, right-wing, socialist, spin, wordpress-political-blogs
September 9, 2009 at 8:49 am |
Unbelievable!
My jaw literally dropped when I read this and I’m still slightly dumbfounded. I don’t even know how to respond to this. “Absurd” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Can you believe that I had actually held out hope that those who opposed President Obama’s address to students would finally admit that maybe — just maybe — he’s not completely evil.
But this… Wow! My head is spinning right along with yours.
September 9, 2009 at 10:32 am |
People who are taking credit for the so-called changes in President Obama’s address to students are either incredibly gullible, completely off their rockers or flat out lying.
Follow the link for details.
September 9, 2009 at 10:51 am |
I’m going to go with lying, though the first two are likely also true.
September 9, 2009 at 11:36 am |
I suspect the leaders are outright lying (Glen Beck et al) and that the followers are gullible or off their rockers – or both….
– hippieprof
September 9, 2009 at 3:33 pm |
Of course your head is spinning. You’re a liberal democrat attempting to argue in favor of Obama policies. That can’t be easy.
But all sarcasm aside….
Who is responsible for Obama changing the wording from talking about what students can do to help him to what they can do to help themselves and America? It might have only been 1 idea, 1 line, or even 1 word. But as candidate Obama so elequently informed his democratic party opponent, “Words matter.”
Let’s be honest here. The speech Obama gave yesterday is not the speech he originally intended to give. Is it very different? Probably not. But it is different, nonetheless. And trying to deny that doesn’t set the table for a very effective arguement.
September 9, 2009 at 3:50 pm |
Red – and here you seemed like such a reasonable guy over on your own blog (which, BTW, I recommend to people – interesting format with three moderators from different ends of the spectrum).
So – you don’t actually buy into the “Obama is a Nazi organizing an Obama youth” bit do you? You seem too reasonable for that. He may have altered his words slightly – but I can assure you that indoctrination was never on the table.
– hippieprof
September 16, 2009 at 11:37 am |
I didn’t claim to buy into any of those things, although I find the left’s hypocrisy on them quite amusing. Bush was compared to Hitler a time or 2 in his 8 years, and I seem to recall some Democratic party heartburn over him addressing school children once during his tenure.
As for what I did say….
I thought you would find this recent revelation interesting.
September 16, 2009 at 11:46 am |
Red –
So – were the things removed (and I don’t think we even know if anything actually was) really examples of indoctrination? Or were they simply innocent phrases that might still be a target for someone looking to make trouble?
I suspect it is probably the later.
Case in point: We do know that the study guide originally included words saying “how can you help the President?” Those words are absolutely innocent – you really have to be insanely paranoid to believe they amount to an attempt at indoctrination. Still, the words were removed because innocent phrases can be twisted into scary stuff by someone really wanting to do so….
– hippieprof
September 16, 2009 at 12:40 pm |
I don’t know what was removed.
I am not defending the “indoctrination” claims with that reply.
As I said, I am defending my original claim.
Which was refuting your original mocking claim.
And now we know that is precisely what happened.
“and I don’t think we even know if anything actually was”
I think the word “scrubbed” suggests changes were made. If all they did was look for potential changes, then “scoured” would have been a more appropriate word.
September 16, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Red – then I suspect we are mostly on the same page. As long as “indoctrination” is not on the table I really don’t care one way or another if the speech was modified to avoid misinterpretation of innocent language. Maybe that occurred – big deal if it did.
My comment may have sounded like “mocking” – but I was accurately portraying the way some of the rhetoric was flying over on the Delphi political forum that day. The assumption over there was that indeed the original speech was heavy in indoctrination.
– hp
September 9, 2009 at 5:18 pm |
So, first Obama’s speech would indoctrinate our kids, now republicans want to take credit for a speech that they thought would indoctrinate our children.
I’ll give republicans *this* much credit; they made a small speech that no one was really talking about before the controversy, into such a well anticipated speech. Now that the speech was successful, which is only credited to Obama has become more important then if the GOP would have just kept their mouths shut.