I just watched Sarah Palin and Rudy Guiliani give their talks at the RNC. I was looking forward to Sarah’s speech most of all. Joe Biden’s balls are probably hurting in anticipation of Sic ‘em Sarah Barracuda ripping them off a month from now. My favorite part, however, was when Rudy nailed Barack on his voting record.
Since my senior year at UMass, I’ve been telling my students that the most important thing is to have an opinion. “Please, have an opinion,” I would repeat again, and again. So when Guliani called out Obama on his 124 “present” votes, emphasizing that the man couldn’t make the simple choice between yes and no, I had a moment of reckoning.
How is this man going to effect our already flailing education system? Ooohhhhhh boy would I love to just say “present” the next time Mr. Boss-man asks me for my opinion (Boss-man has such a crush on Obamarama). What the hell kind of example is that for kids these days, who are already growing up in a broken public education system where marking an answer as wrong in red ink is not allowed because it is psychologically damaging? Is voting yes or no such a big imposition that a new option, “present”, was needed? What bullshit. What’s next? Getting rid of letter grades in school, because it’s not politically correct to assign bulk values to unique individual snowflakes? Oops, we’re already doing just that.
I know he’s (Obama) not the only one to vote “present”, but as a presidential nominee, I expect more of a leader. Right or wrong, a leader is at the very least someone with an opinion. You cannot lead if you don’t have an opinion. Grrrrr
