Obama's Education Speech Masks His Liberalism with Conservative Themes; Liberal Media Distorts Oppostion

The first piece I wrote about President Barack Hussein Obama was an August 5, 2004 ezine article titled The Barack Obama Myth, http://frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11950. This was after I listened to him speak at the 2004 Democratic convention. At that time, I wrote:

"this rising star in the Democratic Party spouted some conservative themes during his speech, the rhetoric may be deceptive. While Obama spoke of individual responsibility – such as stating that the government cannot teach kids to read, parents must – his ideology and voting record is quite different. Obama is very liberal."

Obviously, my piece was very prescient.

Mr Obama's speech to the nation's school students sounded many of those same conservative themes of self-reliance and personal responsibility he mentioned during his August 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. His speech to the students was merely a reiteration of these themes made popular by black leaders such as Thomas Sowell, Bill Cosby and Walter Williams. These themes appeal to mainstream America.


As such the speech discredited to a certain extent the opposition to it. It was very rational and it made the critics sound irrational.


Of course, the mainstream media, which disdains anyone who opposes President Obama, used this to ridicule those who protested. Indeed, they even mischaracterized the opposition.

They said that those who opposed the speech were fanatics. They said they were hatemongers.

What they didn't mention was that even the White House admitted that their initial description of the speech and what they asked teachers and students to do was "poorly worded."

The liberal mainstream media also used the opportunity to continue the criticism of Rush Limbaugh - criticism that conceivably is being urged by the Democratic Party who blame Limbaugh instead of their own ideas for the unpopularity of the congress they control.


A commentator for ABC stated that Rush Limbaugh was fomenting opposition on September 2. An MSNBC commentator said that Limbaugh called the speech unpatriotic.


Both are factually incorrect. Limbaugh was on vacation on September 2. As far as calling anyone unpatriotic, Limbaugh merely said that Mr. Obama doesn't believe what he is saying.

This is quite true. As I wrote in August 2004, "His voting record certainly displays the ideology characteristic of an indulgent liberal. (Sorry, "Progressive.") Obama favors abortion, socialized medicine, and Affirmative Action. Obama sponsored a bill in the Illinois legislature requiring local police departments in Illinois to record the race of anyone stopped for questioning so that the data can be used to track the occurrence of racial profiling. He opposes a $2,000 tax credit for retirement and has voted against private gun ownership, mandatory sentencing and the death penalty. During his tenure as a legislator, he abstained from voting about an abortion parental notification bill and on legislation that would keep pornographic video stores and strip clubs from within 1,000 feet of schools and churches. He has also voted against laws requiring students to complete suspensions before being transferred to other school districts. He abstained from legislation requiring adult prosecution for students who fire guns on school grounds. He opposed legislation making it a criminal offense for accused gang members to associate with known gang members. "

So Obama's speech to students was never going to do anything except reiterate that what he has said in the past. This doesn't mean that those who opposed it shouldn't have.

After all, Democrats and the Washington Post criticized President George H.W. Bush for addressing students in 1991 about science. If anything the condemnation by Democrats and the teachers' unions to the critics reveals their hypocrisy.

However, don't be fooled by Obama's appearance. He is very much a liberal. He is beholden to the American left - the far left of the political continuum.

As I also wrote in 2004, "Obama the candidate is conservative only when addressing a national television audience. ...Obama is a stealth candidate -- a liberal stealth candidate."