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

Dragon, First and foremost, you don't have to be brilliant or a Harvard graduate to know what to say after the fact! I would love to play poker knowing what my opponents had in their hands, no contest. I will also say that the reason he didn't concentrate on personal responsibility but rather responsibility to your country is it is exactly what he believes! He wants a socialistic society who are more in tune with what their country wants rather than what is his/her personal responsibility to him/herself, God, family and then country.

"IF he'd put those talents to uniting the country under a democratic republic, there's nothing we could not do" He did try it but the Right thinkers would have nothing to do with that! It's time he forgets about the minority and move on with the change he promised! Forget the haters! Continue to repair the damage that was done for the last kind compassionate administration we had before! It's impossible to unite people who don't want it! The my way or the highway crowd is not ready for change, it's GREED or nothing, theres god and you either cow toe to that or your unamerican! tdemex

I hate to say it but his critics mostly look stupid anyway. But hey, what can I say, I'm just a stupid liberal! Anyway, I knew people were far too up in arms about the whole speech thing when the whole controversy started. However, trying to tell people that it wasn't a huge deal, well that's another story. And then they ended up making fools of themselves. It's not surprising. Just chill out for once and stop assuming things. I think people forget what they say about people that assume things... :)

How is it stupid to be concerned about your kids education. ANd I hope you know the big issue I had was with the worksheets. I had concerns about his speech last week because I did not know what was going to be on it. But now that I have read it, I am ok with it. I don't completely agree with it but I am ok with it. I don't buy hte whole "letting your country down thing". Education is important. Not for the "country" but for the child. I think he should have stressed the personal responsibility part more and the whole "country" part less. But that is just a small issue really. Now the worksheets are another issue. They had some things I considered not appropriate for elementary schools kids in it. Like why should you listen to elected officials? Why should you do what they ask of you? That is teaching children to listen and do what they are told by elected officals. Which means as adults they will listen and do as they are told by elected officials. Well last time I checked WE were the boss not them. We hire them, pay them and can fire them. So they need to be listening to us and doing what we say. Not the other way around. The board of education wrote the worksheets. So they are their fault and not Obama's. And I do feel they messed up with a couple of the things they put on the work sheets. Especially for elementarty school age children. As a parent I have a right to say I want to know what the president is saying in advance....and I have right to see the worksheets in advance. AND I get to say if I think something on there is inappropriate. I also have the right to say my child is not going to do the activity. Not just for the presidents speech but for EVERYTHING that is taught to my child. I am the parent. Not them.

Goes to show you what one can do in that office. Regardless of all the hype and what not, obama is going to get his point across whether it is right or wrong. Now as you say with all that energy why can't we work together as a team instead? Yes we all have a difference of opinion, that isn't a bad thing, it diversifies the odds of being able to get things done. Sometimes choices are the wrong ones, the thing is the team takes it in and works it, not an individual takes the blame and sulks. Get out there and work together as one team and work it, listen, hear, voice it, and get the ideas out there so that we all can work to get this world back on her feet. We are a strong people, why do we always have to fight each other on the STUPID STUFF? Why are we directed in directions to squabble between ourselves instead of helping each other? Why can't we pass it forward so we all make it through these times? People are to stubborn to see beyond their own fences. The business of Governments are to busy taking all they can to keep the pockets full so they don't loose what those people have. Eventually it will all affect the whole of the people, not just the poor, but ALL... All because someone else is thinking they didn't get something they deserve. Sad isn't it but it is what our children learned as we learned.

So you are saying that the only reason Obama planned a talk with America's youth is because he knew that there would be idiots in an uproar about it? I am sorry, but that sounds ridiculous. It is not Obama's fault that people are stupid. I am not Obama's biggest fan, but I think we have had worse presidents. You know what, complain all you want, but at least its not Bush. Everyone is looking for ways to criticize our President, and it seems to me that he is looking for ways to improve the country (whether or not I believe in his methods is another topic altogether). But he is putting forth an effort, instead of spending months on a ranch and getting in front of the world and forgetting how to speak. I see all these people in an uproar about the image of America that Obama is projecting to the rest of the world...what??? really??? Because it was better to have a retard for a leader??? Get of your high-horses. If he tells a bit of truth (he IS a lawyer, soo...) then we finally have a president that was not groomed by the powers that be to be a President. And that, my fellow Americans, is refreshing, and a blessing.

Whether or not the speech (well, pep-talk, really) was 'political strategy' - and any and every considered, published utterance by a head of state must be assumed to be strategic in some way - there is something in it for all of us (yes, even non-Americans). "So ... I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?" Is a question every single person, young or old, should be asking themselves. If it made some people feel (or look) ridiculous and alarmist, then that is simply because they are. I am quite sure that there was no political motive in the way the speech was presented that had any intention of making people look stupid! A speech like this, made overtly to a whole sector of the public (and actually to the entire population) must be well prepared and announced, so that as many people know that it is to be made but the text of it cannot be published too long before, otherwise the speech itself will lose its freshness and not be the memorable 'event' it is supposed to be. There is no doubt that there is a great deal of the art of theatre, of 'entertainment', involved in being a politician. One has to build up an expectation and, in doing so, it is inevitable and right that there should be some surprises left for the actual event. If some people find some of the surprises unpleasant (in that they may feel that they have been made to look fools), that is surely because they - not the 'entertainer' - have chosen to see an agenda which simply does not and did not exist! Take the speech/talk at its face value, why don't you. It is an excellent and focussed exhortation to everyone to accept responsibility for their own education and that is where the responsibility truly lies. Anyone who complains that 'my parents didn't support me' or 'the Government should do this or that to help me' is sidestepping their real responsibility in education. Education does not start with kindergarten or end with graduation. That is a huge fallacy that many people carry as invisible baggage. School is there to facilitate, encourage and advise but the actual responsibility for our own education is squarely on our own shoulders and that is what your President has made plain. Part of the purpose of education is to train the mind to distinguish correctly between reality and supposition, wishful thinking and fancy. That is not to say, of course, that only 'reality' is good and 'fiction' has no place in the educative process. Imagination and fiction have a very real function in that they cause us to ask questions but the questions we should be asking must be real and cogent. Questioning the 'real intention' of (or seeing a 'hidden agenda' in) this presentation seems to me to have no purpose. Maybe those people who now feel foolish have something to learn about life and, in particular, about the reality of life in 21st Century America and its context in the world at large.

I think that anyone who has a problem with parents being concerned with their kids' education needs to be kept far away from kids.

Well, if there's room for yet another conspiracy theory... It may be that they wanted to allow the furor to reach crescendo before releasing this fairly innocuous speech, or... It could be that this is the speech they wrote AFTER the furor and the demands to see what was in it. If they sent out the teacher guideline materials on August 25th and 26th, one would assume the speech was also prepared, since they knew what to tell the teachers to ask the kids about it. Maybe that speech was changed...

The people who believe some of this alarmist stuff are making themselves look stupid.

Hi Dragon54u, I think that is the best move a president can make. Once he shows that he cares for the young ones, they may work hard and become useful members of society in future. It's time someone pays attention to the kids. In fact, Obama gives sound advice, probably he has young kids, so he can talk to them as if talking to his daughters. I think the elected officers will follow his example, and pay more attention to moral and academic education. So many countries in Asia are producing children able to score better in Maths and Science than the students in US. So many parents in Asia countries restrict the TV watching and Internet access, so that children can concentrate on studies. I think President Obama is sincere about helping the children, not just for political reasons.