Obama is certainly making people look stupid--how brilliant!  

Ditto!

Parents have the right to be concerned over the well being of their children and the backlash they've received is not fair. I think they are within their right.

Given his agenda so far, I think parents were right to be concerned as to what the President would say to their children. However, withholding the text of the speech till the day before and allowing the furor to reach a boiling point was a very smart piece of manipulation.

True, and who knows if there was a re-write after the hoopla too. ;~D

Nice try, but you forget, There aren't enough votes in either the House or the Senate to be so much as a speed bump to Obama, Pelosi and Reid's agenda. The fact is, they are too incompetent to even get their supporters to side with them.

The "right" thinkers want nothing to do with the Marxist ideas that he has, that's the problem. He thinks government can take care of everything and the people should be dependent on government. It's not just Mr. Obama, either. Congress and Senate are full of such thinkers and we've been electing and re-electing them for years. We have nobody but ourselves to blame. Someone once said "The people get the government they deserve." How prophetic.

I totally agree with you! There were some good things in that speech but he emphasized duty to country and officials too much. I would not want my child to listen to some of that speech. Luckily, mine are grown and in college.

I do, however, like the line saying you don't drop out of school and drop into a good job. That's a classic.

I have a problem with the tone of the speech and the first worksheets were out and out hero-worship-Marxist-targeted propaganda.

I would not call them "marxism propagenda" but I did think some of the questions and things on the work sheets were not appropriate for the age range they were made for.
As for the speech.....I think most of the problem you saw last week was that no one knew what was in it. NOw they do so I think you will see less problems.
I really think the president should have done the speech to the parents instead of the children.
Parents are the ones who can effect real change in their children and their education by being more involved.

The Department of Education sent the materials out on August 25th to schools nationwide. There must have been a speech long before then in order for them to develop and prepare these materials. Either they kept back the speech on purpose or this isn't the original speech. It doesn't really fit the materials, for instance, where in the speech is the phrase about Challenging, Attainable and Needed (CAN)?

If this speech was prepared in early August or late July, it seems ridiculous not to let parents know there would even be a speech until late last week.

lilwonders, nobody knew what was in it and the president let everyone fight and squawk for nearly a week before he released the contents. That was my point, that this was a strategy. He was not necessarily focused on speaking to the students but creating dissent.

Now, that's just a theory of mine. He may very well have really wanted to inspire the students. But I do believe that it's the parents' job, not the administration's.

The problem is, the "stupid" stuff is a march toward Marxism/Socialism. Bush started the Socialist leanings and Obama is advancing it.

All I want to for our officials to adhere to the Constitution. It's been trampled on for the past decade.

Would be nice if they didn't keep changing it to fit the needs of that business, the Governments

We let them keep passing laws that were unconstitutional. Now we have so many unemployed with time on their hands that are beginning to pay attention to what's going on and we're appalled at how we've been bamboozled. Maybe it's not too late to demand our government work for us, as they are supposed to, and quit manipulating the constitution.

Bush started the Socialist leanings?....
how /where did you get that impression - & is this some new definition of Socialism that I haven't heard of yet? Could've sworn that the self-definded lefty socialists hated him.

Either theory could be true. Or it could be that the speech we will hear today is the original and some stupid bonehead came up with the study materials. It could also be that the bonehead had an agenda to destroy the administration. There are many theories, so many they can make you dizzy!

But the point is, we can see something crazy is going on. We need to stop fighting each other, be suspicious of everything and stick to the constitution. Because I believe there are real efforts to divide us and it will only get worse.

I have to disagree, to a point. Sure, there are some people who are being silly but for the most part I have heard honest dissent with his policies, which are definitely reminiscent of many communist policies. I don't think there's any room for that in this country. Bush started the trampling of the constitution and Obama is totally throwing it under the bus.

That's my opinion. I respect you for your opinion but I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

No, I'm saying he used the opportunity to make his detractors shoot themselves in the foot. IF it was something he took advantage of, it was a brilliant move.

No, he wasn't groomed by the "powers that be", he was groomed by the communists. I'm convinced of that. But I'll be every so grateful and relieved if I am proven wrong. I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong if we are still a free people by the end of the next 3 years.

Dragon I also believe that this same thing will be done with the birth certificate as well. He is going to come out with the long form and it will be done and over with. He is definately trying to make a statement to the right and I think he will be showing it loud and clear.

Well, maybe he isn't a brilliant strategist but he's an excellent opportunist, or someone on his staff is.

Yep, a great communist leader once said give him your children and he'll take your country. Or something like that. I didn't like all the emphasis on serving the country, either. If we take care of our families and ourselves, and let the government JUST protect the country and the constitution, we'd be better off than we've been since the beginning of the twentieth century!

For myself, I was taken with his call to students to work to make America "more fair and more free".

Strange, but I have always thought of this country as being a free country and the document that makes it free as being the Constitution. I don't know how one could make it more free without altering that document.

I am not sure what "more fair" is supposed to mean but Obama has put forth his opinion of the Constitution as a "charter of negative liberties" that serve only to keep government from messing about in our lives. He'd like it to have more positive liberties, like redistribution of wealth. I suppose that's what he thinks "more fair" is.

The subtext they left in is clear enough in its intent. I can't imagine what the stuff they took out of this speech was like.

Rollo, there used to be some unfair things in this country, like prejudice and discrimination. But that's over and if it's not there is legal recourse. It's a land of opportunity and I don't see how it can be more free or more fair. I think he's sowing ideas, especially when he tells them not to disappoint their country.

There were many things I liked about his speech to the kids but a few that I objected to. I guess that's a pretty good result but I do think kids should be left to the parents and presidents--any of them--should leave them alone when it comes to speeches.

Perhaps they are but they are now seeing the damage done to the country by Bush and see that it is continuing with Obama. Now that they are out of their jobs they have time to see all this and they just want to stop the damage.