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Opinion

Commentary: Admit you were wrong about Obama's speech

Dusty Nix - The Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer

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September 10, 2009 12:15 PM

Really, now.

Are even a few of the people who kicked up this unholy brouhaha about President Barack Obama's televised speech to school children willing to admit in hindsight that they feel as foolish as they deserve to?

If so, those honest souls are entitled to whatever flimsy shreds of credibility and dignity are left to be salvaged from one of the most ill-conceived public tantrums in recent memory.

Others will of course insist they were right all along and are right even now, and will continue their inexorable trek into irrelevance.

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As just about every American now knows, the president scheduled, and delivered, a Tuesday address directly to the nation's young scholars. The speech was about things like students taking responsibility for their own education and their own life choices. It was about some of the president's own bad choices and failings earlier in his life, and about how today's young people should avoid making the same mistakes. It was about not making excuses for difficult circumstances, but instead rising above them. It was about staying in school and studying harder.

Hot-to-the-touch stuff like that.

We knew these were the things the president would be talking about, because the White House released an advance transcript. This was done in large part to dispel some of the truly inane reactions to the idea of a president — or rather (let's cut to the heart of the matter), this president — talking directly to our children.

To read the complete editorial, visit The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

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