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tazzygirl -> RE: The "Speach" (9/8/2009 1:57:42 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DomImus
Didn't the bed wetters get their panties in a wad when Bush I gave his own "speach" back in 1991?
First, i have no clue who is a bed wetter here, or was... but im willing to bet its almost equal across party lines.
Second, i dont recall that event, as i was not in school at the time nor did i have children in school.
Third, when i asked if any other President had spoken to children in the same fashion, the answer was repeatedly... no. So, which is it?
Now, to the article you posted. They investigated and found... nothing. The only difference i see here is that Bush was questioned after the fact. Obama was accused before the speech was even given.
The following gives a perfect example of what i mean....
quote:
In October 1991, the first President Bush staged a similar speech at Alice Deal Junior High, a high-achieving, racially diverse school in Washington, D.C.
Just as the Obama presidency is struggling now with its health care agenda, Bush was tangling with the Senate over the controversial Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas and with allegations that he was paying scant attention to domestic issues.
In his speech, Bush extolled the virtues of studying, avoiding drugs and staying out of trouble. "What's so great about being stupid?" he said.
Records at his presidential library at Texas A&M show that the speech was broadcast live on CNN and public television, along with some radio networks.
Like the current education secretary, Arne Duncan, Bush's education chief, Lamar Alexander – now a senator from Tennessee – had sent letters to every school in the country urging them to let students watch the president speak.
Democrats blasted Bush for spending nearly $28,000 from the Education Department budget to hire a TV crew – apparently to ensure a more polished production than the networks would have ponied up for.
Alexander was forced to defend the expenditure at a congressional hearing: "We don't send messages by smoke signals anymore. ... We do it by microphone and camera," he said.
This was tame compared to the allegations zipping through the airwaves and blogs this week. Obama was compared, uncharitably, to Chairman Mao and to assorted fascists.
It's a fierce derision that Obama seems to inspire in his most vocal critics, some of whom have indulged conspiracy theories about his birthplace and his agenda. Similarly, Bill Clinton and the younger Bush saw increasing political nastiness as the country's partisan divisions cemented.
Cynthia Mostoller, whose eighth-grade history class hosted Bush for the 1991 speech, said a presidential visit was a thrill – even though Bush didn't connect nearly as well with students.
"Obama speaks to a whole different audience. Our kids absolutely love him," she said. "I've been quoting Obama ever since he told the boys to pull up their pants. I loved that."
Mostoller, still teaching at Deal and chairing its humanities department, has been looking forward to Obama's big speech to Congress on health care on Wednesday and didn't even realize he also planned an address to students; not everyone is caught up in the melee.
But she called it a wonderful idea.
"Every president needs to talk to the kids and have a message and speak from the heart. ... These are public schools. They're funded with public monies. It is a public institution," Mostoller said.
Presumably, she said, "he's not advocating a position of 'support me in Afghanistan.' "
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/090409dnnatobamawhy.3e9e86e.html
Let's keep this in perspective... on both sides. Bush was questioned on the cost... and if i have it right... at a time when school lunch programs were being cut.
The messages were the same.
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