The Wall Street Journal just released an editorial discussing McCain and Obama’s approaches to fixing the education system in the United States. One of the things that I found interesting was that Obama’s daughters do not attend a Chicago public school, but instead go to the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, which range from $15,528 a year for kindergarten and $20,445 a year for high school.
Now, what bothers me about this isn’t that Obama spends more money than many of his supporters earn in a year to send his children to private schools. It is certainly his right to do so. What bothers me is his continued opposition to what he told the American Federation of Teachers was the “tired rhetoric of vouchers and school choice.
In other words, Obama thinks it is fine for his kids to go to private schools. For parents that can’t afford to spent tens of thousands of dollars a year, though—too bad, their kids are stuck in failing and often unsafe public schools.
This is blatant hypocrisy, and just goes to show how much of an elitist Barack Obama really is.
Over at OpenLeft.com, we see Matt Stoller (icon of the liberal netroots) is depressed about Barack Obama. He’s depressed because Barack Obama’s lead is slipping. He’s depressed because Barack Obama has recently soldout on a whole host of issues to pander to the political center. And he’s depressed because he seems to be realizing (like many other formerly enthusiastic supporters) that Barack Obama is just another typical politician.
My favorite lines:
Don’t expect great things from Obama. Don’t expect anything, really, except blame when he screws up. It’s our fault, since we didn’t clap hard enough.
Still, there’s the Supreme Court, so I’ll probably end up giving and volunteering at some point later. Not now, though, I don’t like being lectured by Ivy League wankers who tell me it’s my fault when Obama lies to me. That’ll have to blow over.
Ah, I love the Looney Left. Apparently, they don’t seem to love Barack Obama as much as they used to.
Well, we can fight back! Stand up with Republicans in Congress and sign the petition to tell the Democrats “No!” (like a dog about do it’s business on the carpet) by clicking on the widget below:
Karl Rove sees some incredible similarities in the Obama ground game and with the BC’04 operation. Utilizing the internet to allow volunteers to self-direct their activity, the effort to expand the electoral map, and creating an army of volunteers are all lessons learned from the Bush/Cheney campaigns.
However, Mr. Rove finds some faults with the program they are running:
There are problems, however. Mr. Obama’s people admit they want to sucker Mr. McCain into spending money. To be successful, a bluff must be credible. In places like Nebraska and North Dakota, Mr. Obama can’t rely on local issues – like Mr. Bush did with coal in West Virginia in 2000 – to unexpectedly win a critical state. Organization alone won’t suffice. And putting Obama dollars into Texas, for example, to help win five state House seats may simply cause Texan Republicans – not Mr. McCain – to raise money and work harder to counter.
In addition (and here’s where we come in):
Democrats don’t have the same large volunteer pool the GOP does with its Federated GOP Women, College and Young Republicans, and local party committees. In the primaries, Mr. Obama instead moved hordes of volunteers from state to state. It was a brilliant tactic, but Nov. 4 is different. The volunteers adequate for primaries held over five months will simply not be enough to compete in 51 separate elections (all 50 states plus the District of Columbia) all on one day.
Of course there is always Barack Obama’s problem with flip-flopping:
By taking Nixon’s advice, Mr. Obama is assuming such dramatic reversals will somehow avoid voter scrutiny. But people are watching closely, and by setting a world indoor record for jettisoning past positions, Mr. Obama may be risking his reputation for truthfulness. A candidate’s credibility, once lost, is very hard to restore, regardless of how fine an organization he has built.
It appears that the editorial board members at the University of Florida are fed-up with Barack Obama’s flip-flips on every issue from the Iraq War to FISA. Despite endorsing him way back in January saying, “We feel Obama’s message in the Oval Office will inspire young people and resonate with all Americans,” they now seem to feel differently.
Since clinching his party’s nomination for president, however, Obama has started to clarify, qualify and triangulate to such a degree that we can hardly recognize him from the inspirational “change” candidate he represented a few short months ago.
Barack Obama has been an inspiring figure for many youth voters up until this point. However, his profound tendency to waver in the face of political hardship has taken the shine right off of the sparkling image he has as something other than a typical politician, and this is beginning erode his support among youth voters.
Perhaps Obama isn’t the great change agent we thought he was. Perhaps no one can change the system. Or maybe we expected too much from someone who is, after all, just another politician.
Maybe these folks should look to someone who has stood up to say what he believes even when it wasn’t the easiest thing to do; someone who loves his country so much that he will do whatever it takes to protect it even if that means losing an election. Someone like John McCain.
Well, by now we have all heard that Obama has broken his “pledge” (his word) to accept public financing for the general election if his Republican opponent does the same. John McCain has kept his end of the bargain, but Obama sees a more politically expedient approach and is going to opt out of the public financing system, becoming the first presidential candidate since Nixon to do so.
Of course, this starts raise issues about his trustworthiness. Obama has made a great many promises to his supporters throughout this campaign, some of which are on a much grander scale than committing to public financing. Already we see his supporters having to call him to task over his recent pandering to the political center on the FISA bill, which he now says he supports even after promising to never compromise his values on such legislation only months ago. MoveOn.org has been sending their millions of liberal members emails asking them to make sure Barack doesn’t continue to break promises.
But, I never really thought he would lose support over breaking his pledge to accept public finanicing. While it is certainly a window into his character, it’s sorta a inside-baseball kind of issue. Not many people in the public carry public financing as their #1 issue.
