Herald blogs: Muckrakers

President’s Visit Marked a Speech to One of the Last Groups Not Critical of Him

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By Jerad McHenry on November 7, 2009 7:48 PM 0 Vote 0 Votes

As Obama spoke at Wright Middle School on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but reflect on the president’s choice of speaking venue. In a town famous for its left political leanings, why wouldn’t the president speak to a group of voting adults? So many people in Madison received exactly what they wanted in the election of President Obama. The country is looking more and more like a social democracy every day, and yet, when the president is being slammed across the country for his controversial policies, he chooses to speak to preteens rather than garner positive PR for himself and his party going into the next election cycle by speaking to devoted supporters

Obama talked Wednesday about introducing accountability in public schools and encouraging success in America’s youth. Beyond being the least controversial of the president’s policy initiatives, Obama’s education policy appeals to republicans, mainline democrats, and independents alike. And yet, he spoke in a closed door speech to a bunch of naïve, star-struck adolescents rather than achieve some positive regard in the minds of the voting public when he desperately needs it. Maybe Mr. Obama was simply fulfilling a ceremonial function in visiting the school, but I think there is a deeper, more politically tinged reason for the venue choice.

President Obama sold us all on “hope” and “change.” Few questioned the president’s ability to render positive change in America during the election of 2008, but 10.2 percent unemployment, falling approval ratings, and grassroots opposition as seen in Tea Parties and Town Hall meetings definitely put “change we can believe in” in doubt for many voters. Maybe the fact that less than four months after his election, 8,000 people were on the steps of the state capitol protesting the stimulus package and the president’s tax and spend policies, or maybe it is the healthcare town hall meeting with keynote speaker John Stossel that attracted over 2,000 attendees that makes the president shudder at that thought of delivering a public speech to some of his most loyal supporters in the 2008 election.

Many of the most liberal members of congress have been called out at public forums by there once loyal supporters on a host of issues relevant and irrelevant to the topic of the forums they have held. Perhaps with the quick rise of descent in Dane County, the president would rather speak to a bunch of youth rather than astute voters. Reading the reactions of the students at Wright Middle School to the President’s visit, hope was enough for them, and in a time when the rest of America isn’t so star-struck, Obama needs to speak to any group that is still willing to believe in the bastardized change he pimped to America that now has so many Americans royally pissed.