The Obama Record

On the evening he won the Democratic Party’s presumptive nomination for president, Barack Obama spoke from St. Paul, Minnesota. In the early portion of his remarks, Obama pointed to the upcoming GOP Convention in St. Paul, and the head of the ticket, John McCain:

In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda. They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically. I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.

I emphasized that particular line because, as I listened to the speech, I was struck by his apparent sensitivity to his own record of “accomplishments”, or lack thereof. It does make one wonder how he could take offense to his opponent’s lack of familiarity with said record when even his staunch supporters are unaware of the same. This video is from a few weeks ago on Chris Matthews’ show.

One paragraph of his speech that has received little scrutiny deals with the government school program:

And maybe if he spent some time in the schools of South Carolina or St. Paul or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans, he’d understand that we can’t afford to leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind; that we owe it to our children to invest in early childhood education; to recruit an army of new teachers and give them better pay and more support; to finally decide that in this global economy, the chance to get a college education should not be a privilege for the wealthy few, but the birthright of every American. That’s the change we need in America. That’s why I’m running for president.

So, an Obama Administration would seek to become intimately involved in the hiring process of local school districts, and guarantee a college degree for all comers. I mean, how else can you look at that paragraph?

I suppose that after struggling mightily to pay for a college education for my children for the past half decade, being told by Obama that our personal sacrifice is some kind of privilege reserved for the “wealthy few” truly sticks in my gizzard. It also shows just how out of touch this liberal populist is with the millions of Americans who go about their daily business, seldom complaining, paying their taxes, and keeping their collective noses to the grindstone.

And, as Mrs. Nuke and I begin to see the light at the end of the financial tunnel, instead of being proud of our children and their academic achievements, balancing part-time jobs with full class loads, and feeling a warm sense of accomplishment of getting through the college money pit, Obama insists that we should instead feel guilty, that our efforts are not only unappreciated, but the result of being part of a “privileged few.”

What a jerk.

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