Posted by Jim Lindgren:
President Obama's Speech to Children.--
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_30-2009_09_05.shtml#1252045796
One of the things that President Obama does best is inspire children.
Accordingly, whether his speech is appropriate or not, it is likely to
do more good than bad. At least I hope so.
Of course, we haven't seen the text yet, though we will [1]before the
speech is given:
Then Obama aides said they would release the text of Obama�s
address on Monday, a day before his speech is to be beamed into the
classrooms � an apparent attempt to show skeptical parents ahead of
time what he plans to say.
Rich Galen may have it [2]about right:
Republican strategist Rich Galen said he didn�t have a problem with
Obama reaching out to school children because �he is everybody�s
president. But you have to be very careful that it is not seen as
literally propaganda. The original idea to have them write letters
about how to help the president crossed the line and the White
House realized that.�
In other words, the Obama administration has backed off its earlier
suggestion to write "Dear Leader" letters.
Whether the Republican pushback plays well with the public or not, it
may have dissuaded Obama from making statements as aggressively
statist or collectivist as he would have made without the pushback.
Personally, I will be watching for Obama's statements about his 2008
campaign goal to have every middle and high school student perform 50
hours of community service every year. I suspect that the unexpected
Republican opposition will cause him to softpedal this goal in his
speech.
References
1. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26744.html
2. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26744.html
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