President Obama and schoolchildren

Erick Erickson sums it up most concisely in a Facebook status update from a few minutes ago:

"Not really worked up about the President's school speech."

Me neither.

We may not appreciate his policies, but Barack Obama is the duly elected President of the United States who won a fairly sizeable victory last fall. We also may believe (and I do, based on empirical observation) that many Americans did not realize all that they were voting for when they elected him.

Still, for now, President Obama is the leader of the United States of America, of the free world, if you will. A few points that are worth making:

1. We conservatives profess to value education. Why should we denigrate the President when he encourages students to study hard and stay in school? He should be doing this, shouldn't he?

2. We justifiably criticize many of President Obama's initiatives. But if we cry foul over EVERYTHING he does, who looks like the extremists in the eyes of the average swing voter? A little pragmatism once in a while never hurts.

3. Read the President's remarks if you are worried about the speech. I have. I can find no fault with any of it; frankly, any President of any ideological orientation could give this talk.

4. (And last) If you are worried about the President giving a 10-minute speech to your children, yet you put them on a government bus every day to be transported to a government school to be educated by government textbooks that, according to Tucker Carlson's Fox special last Friday, are authored by one of a mere 3 textbook companies with countless sensitivity censors as a part of the process...

Just think about that for a while.