Obama's School Speech

Some thoughts on the Obama School Speech:

• Great political move by Obama to pump the speech into the schools where he has a captive audience. He knows that very few of those students would ever watch him during primetime, so he used his bully pulpit. It was politically savvy, but I lost quite a bit of respect for him because of it.

• Once again, the President proved that while he has a very compelling and uplifting personal story, that is all it is, a story, lip service. And, up to this point in his presidency, it's only been talk. Instead of rewarding personal responsibility, he has choosen to reward irresponsibility, from bailing out poorly run companies that are too big to fail, to bailing out people who bought too much home, to rewarding people who continue to drive "clunkers" with $4500 of someone elses money to buy a new car.

• I love how he talked about everyone's responsibility in the education system, but I've got an idea, why don't we take some of this "government responsibility" and shift it back to the parents and allow them to set high standards, support competent teachers and principals, and turn around schools that they are unhappy with by giving the parents vouchers and allowing them to use "choice and competition" to get ensure their students are getting the opportunities they deserve.

• The biggest reason I am not an Obama supporter is the constant collectivism that he pushes. For example:

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

Or:

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?

Or:

I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

• I love how in Obama's world, no one ever figures out what they are good at without government.

• What the hell is the point of a motivational speech if end it by discouraging today's youth from chasing their dreams, even if they would like to be an athlete, actor/actress, or rapper, even if the odds are against them? Weren't the odds pretty steep for a black man to be president?
  

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

All things considered, it was a weak speech filled with watered down after-school special arguements about the "importance" of government-run education. But I would expect nothing less from this agent of "change".