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Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Certainly he does. However, does he have the right to demand that a group of people (in this case children) be forced to listen? That's a much more slippery slope.
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Ralph, no one in the Obama administration "demanded" that the children listen; if it was demanded, it was demanded on the local level.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
As to the subterfuge claim, I'll like to ask all the following question.
If Ronald Reagan asked to do the same thing in 1983, would you be saying the same thing as you are saying now?
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Obama is not the first president to directly address students. I believe it was Bush senior who did it last and I also believe (although memory may not serve me correctly) that Reagan made a similar address to students.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Obama's political policies, I find it hard to believe that any president -- including Bush junior -- is/was so callous as to do anything more than to give students a pep talk about why school and study are important. Although the political extremes (both left and right) always see some nefarious plot when someone they dislike speaks, I like to believe that no one who has attained the highest office our country has to offer is so political that he/she would try to indoctrinate 8-year-olds with a particular political philosophy.
What I find most interesting is where (geographically) the complaints are coming from. Nearly all that have been reported are from the southern states, several of which are still fighting the Civil War (e.g., Rick Perry, governor of Texas, talking of secession) and which have significant racial problems. Makes me wonder what the real impetus behind the protests are.
Even two well-known Republican conservatives -- Newt Gingrich and Lamar Alexander -- have stated that these protests are nonsense. Sadly, too few Republican conservatives and too few Democrat liberals display any respect for any opinion that doesn't wholly mesh with their own.