A new high-tech Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Racism. And parents too dumb to raise their children.
That was how NBC sought to explain away opposition to Pres. Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren.
Andrea Mitchell narrated a segment on this morning's Today on the subject.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Other presidents have faced opposition. But experts say it's now more organized, from cable television to blogs, to Twitter. It's gone viral.
RON BROWNSTEIN: There are mechanisms for conservatives to reach other conservatives and to keep them in a state of agitation. And that is much more developed than it was even when Bill Clinton was president.
MITCHELL: A partisan echo chamber making it much harder for any president to make his voice heard.
Yes, let's have some sympathy for the president. Everyone knows it's been virtually impossible for him to get any air time in this hostile MSM environment. And isn't it unfair that only certified conservatives are permitted to open Twitter accounts, have blogs, or go on MSNBC?
Then it was on to John Harwood of CNBC and the New York Times.
JOHN HARWOOD: In this case you've got a lot of people who are truly agitated about [the president's school speech] and I think partly that's the polarization continuing over time. And partly it's simply because Barack Obama is a different kind of president: first African-American, international elements of his background. But
I gotta tell you, Amy [Robach], as somebody who's covered Washington for a long time, this is one of the most ridiculous controversies I've ever seen. So far as I can tell, the biggest danger to kids in this whole thing is that a lot of the parents complaining aren't smart enough to raise them very effectively. Because if you think that a president coming into your school, kids school, and saying work hard and stay in school is a danger to kids, you've got some problems.
