McCain Mendacity: The Bankruptcy Of The Republican Educational Platform

With nothing but tired old talk about vouchers and attacks on teacher unions to campaign on, the McCain-Palin team has been reduced to lying about the educational record and policy agenda of Barack Obama. Don’t take our word for it; see it with your own eyes.

For the record, what Obama supported was legislation for comprehensive K-12 sex education, with the material for each grade being age appropriate. What Kindergarteners would learn is the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching, and what to do when an adult tries to touch you in an inappropriate way. The legislation even allowed parents to withdraw their children from lessons in the curriculum which they do not approve.

Sarah Palin may think this information in the hands of children is a bad idea, but I don’t know a single parent who would not want their child to know it. It must be because I live in a cosmopolitan city.

Perhaps the most telling response to the ad was that of Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune columnist and the author of the one of the quotes cherry picked for the McCain ad. Chapman is a libertarian conservative who has written for the National Review. He wrote:

The ad itself doesn’t bother explaining how the candidates differ on school vouchers, the subject of my column. Instead, it insults our intelligence by expecting us to believe that Obama thinks kindergarteners should be taught how to use condoms before they’re taught to read.

Right. And Joe Biden eats puppies for breakfast.

This commercial doesn’t tell us much about Obama. But it sure provides an education about McCain.

Fact Check.Org of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania says the claims of the McCain ad are “simply false.” The Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave the McCain ad three Pinochios, signifying “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.” The New York Times‘ Check Points concluded that both of the accusations in the McCain ad “seriously distort the record.”

Tagged: election '08, Obama, sex ed

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