By Jason Apuzzo. Am I the only one who finds this a bit odd? The White House recently released this video (see above) of the President meeting with the Waiting for Superman kids (see LFM’s review of the film, by Patricia Ducey), and most of the video simply consists of the kids watching Obama leave.
This seems like an odd way for the White House to reassure us Obama is on the ball, and that the problems associated with our miserable education system are being fixed. I was waiting for something more – some sort of indication from the President that he is aware of the crisis that the film is depicting, and that he’s going to move mountains to fix it. Instead, we merely get to see Obama deliver a few stiff blandishments to the kids and parents (I think I see Davis Guggenheim in there, as well) and then wave good-bye as he heads toward his helicopter.
Was anything else said? Because the rest of us would like to hear it. As p.r. from an already-embattled White House, this is a bit weird.
Posted on October 18th, 2010 at 2:20pm.
This photo op is awash in chutzpah given Pres. Obama’s opposition to school choice and his infamous attempt to kill the D.C. voucher program:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/09/AR2009120903170.html
Awash in chutzpah would seem to be an apt phrase for everything he does …
I don’t know why you would find it odd. Waiting for Superman is the new big documentary, I’ve heard both liberals and conservatives give it praise. Obama is an opportunist and I see nothing strange about him seizing the moment, if you will. As the other post states, it’s appaling that he would pose with these kids given his stance on school funding and the teacher’s unions.
Shane, the reason I find this video odd is that the documentary excoriates a system that Obama has defended – and yet he strangely has nothing to say here, or the White House edited out what he said. Obama should actually be too embarrassed to meet these people, unless he has something substantive to say to them – and to the rest of us – about the state of our education system.
What I find odd, Jason, is that you were waiting for some substantive comment from Pres. Obama on how he is going to fix the situation. He would never dare to take on the teacher’s unions that are Reason #1 for the failing public schools Guggenheim so ably depicted, given how much fundng they provide for him. And he is too committed to the existing welfare system that actually SUSTAINS failing communities in their current form instead of helping to heal them (which is Reason #2). Given that, all these kids are good for is a photo op.
God, send me just ONE Democrat like Daniel Patrick Moynihan…
OK, then at a minimum that was one of the least effective photo-ops ever …
I think Mr. Rational is right. The whole point of the documentary was “teachers’ unions are bad” and he can’t agree with that two week before an election that is not going to be good for his party in any case and a pure disaster without union support.
There is no new program to announce with a backdrop of cute kids; so he skedaddles out as fast as he can.
He should have come up with a gimmicky program overnight, then. My recommendation would’ve been: the 2010 National Putting a Smile Back on that Face While Your School Crumbles to the Ground Act.
Heh, for sure!
This is the Obama administration. They like to avoid truth in politics.