The Partisan Game: Obama’s Speech to Students Sparks Dialogue.

The Partisan Game: Obama’s Speech to Students Sparks Dialogue.

Tuesday September 8th, 2009, marked President Obama’s first address to America’s school children/ Much controversy has been swirling around many of President Obama’s comments, as well as the concern of how his words my affect his impressionable audience of schoolchildren, who ranged from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The President managed to distance himself from any truly politically-charged comments, opting instead to encourage the students to work hard and stay in school: “.” Obama spoke with his usual gusto, grasping his audience’s attention and minds, as only a powerful leader and influential speaker can do, occasionally dropping a light-hearted joke, and even reflecting on his own childhood: “id some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have.” Keeping in his usual manner of good-heartedness and a strong sense of humor, he kept his audience of adolescents
Citizens still carry a large burden of skepticism, but are still keeping open minds about what Obama aims to accomplish in these next 3 years. Others were worried that the President would corrupt out nations youth with subliminal and literal messages of radical socialism. However, when the dust settled, the world was still turning, America was still a democracy, and our nation’s youth was still innocent and freethinking. Mary Anderson, a second year GWA professor at UT, as well as a mother of two, believes that mountains were being made out of molehills, and that the President’s remarks were harmless. “It was well received on both sides of the aisle. For all the ruckus that surrounded this speech, it definitely seemed like a waste of time in the end. It was a stay in school/ work hard speech. I don’t really know where this flurry of indoctrination came from, or why people think the president would try and influence our children that way. His job is to lead our country, our children included.”
Others were not as positively receptive the president’s remarks, and are suspicious of the administrations motives by having him speak to an audience which spans so widely across the age demographic. Adam Gordon, a UT Junior, who already has mounting college debt, felt that the President was trying to push a socialist agenda, and was using his speech to the students strictly as a publicity stunt. “I think he was trying to get the point across that you don’t need a father necessarily to succeed, and he was trying to reach out to students (inner city children) and while that is great, we already have state psychologists who are paid to counsel these children at school. With that said, we have more pressing issues. He promised to get our troops out of the Middle East, but just sent more troops into Afghanistan. He has yet to take any positive action in helping the Economy resurface, so it seems inappropriate at this time for him to set up a huge photo-op for himself. As far as the fact that he spoke to children, I believe it was just a publicity stunt, especially because it was televised across the country, which opens up the door for people to fall under the impression that these children are his number one concern. While it was a nice gesture towards our nation, and a grand idea Obama has much more work to do, in many other sectors that are concerning our citizens right now."