It seems every major liberal pundit as well as a number of our critics have decried John McCain’s recent Education ad, with Joe Klein calling it “one of the sleaziest ads I’ve ever seen in presidential politics.”
Echoing Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton, McClatchy’s called the ad “a deliberately misleading accusation.” At least two of our readers have accused McCain of lying.
But, was the Republican presidential candidate lying?
To find out, I decided to watch the ad. Not one of the campaign’s best, but certainly better than those I had seen from the Obama campaign. Â I think the McCain campaign could have used better language than it did when it called the bill in question as “an accomplishment.” The language in question: “Obama’s one accomplishment? Legislation to teach ‘comprehensive sex education’ to kindergartners.”
I found it hard to believe that anyone could support, much less write such legislation. Â It seemed it couldn’t be true.Â
So, I decided to take a look at the legislation itself. Â I didn’t have to look far. Â Byron York, unlike many of McCain’s critics, actually read the bill, Illinois Bill 99. He even linked it in his column on the topic. Â Here’s the language:Â
Each class or course in comprehensive sex education in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.
To be sure, the bill did allow pupils to opt out of such classes if their “parent or guardian submits written objection thereto.” But, the fact remains, the legislation did include teaching “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.
As I understand “sesson sine die“ (the final status of the bill), the legislative session (in which it was introduced) concluded without the bill passing. Hard to mark that as an accomplishment.
As to the gravamen of the ad, Obama did indeed support legislation teaching “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners. Â Even he himself said it was “the right thing to do.” Â If Burton knew what his boss had said, well, then, he would be lying. Â But, maybe he hadn’t heard those words.
Thus, if anyone is lying here, it’s not the McCain campaign. Their language may be a bit clumsy, but the assertion is accurate. Â The campaign is not misleading. Â Why is it that so many in the media are so quick to repeat the Obama campaign’s talking points?
My guess is that the columnists and editorialists who accused McCain of lying won’t be berating the Obama campaign for lying about McCain’s record in Spanish language ads. Â Or reminding us that a greater proportion of the Democrat’s ads have been negative.
Seems that at least one MSM outlet is already looking into Obama’s deceptions. Â Wonder if Joe Klein will.
UPDATE: John Hinderaker holds that he hasn’st seen “a more deeply contemptible political ad” than Obama’s Spanish-language ad. Guess Joe Klein only finds Republican ads contemptible.
UP-UPDATE: Jim Geraghty agrees with me: it was “wrong to call [the bill] an Obama accomplishment, but the description of the bill’s text was accurate.”
The Obamunists always ask us to reject the obvious and believe the implausible.
Soon, “Nick” will once again demand that we ignore the language of the bill, and unquestioningly accept the spin of the Obama campaign.
Why does comprehensive sex education for kindergartners draw a flurry of denial when infanticide does not? Obama has been completely debunked on his denial that he supported killing survivors of abortion.
This kindergarten sex ed thing hinges on the folklore that it is for the purpose of teaching children about inappropriate touching. Well, you would be amazed at the stuff some teachers think is just “common sense” chit chat. “Heather Has Two Mommies” is mild compared to a teacher in a neighboring community who showed her first graders the video taken of her child being born. They fired her. She might have had a video of the joyous moment of insemination.
This law “required” education that is questionable in any of the lower grades.
Common sense says you don’t need a curriculum about STDs and “unwanted pregnancy” to teach young children to protect themselves from abuse… but that is exactly the implausibility the Obamunists demand we believe.
What does the entire bill say? I’m not disputing per se, but you quoted just one sentence of the bill, and, as a whole, it might mean something different for each grade, as the Obama campaign surrogates have pointed out on their respective TV shows.
Here is the text of the bill.
Obama’s Digital Brownshirts.
Fascists don’t debate. They shut down debate.
Mitchell, good question. I’ve linked the bill in the post. You can find the answer by reading the bill.
But, note the Obamaphiles are saying the ad is a lie. But, the language I quoted about shows that the bill actually does what the ad says it does. Thought I think the McCain folk should have used a word other than “accomplishment” to describe it.
I made the same points earlier today in a letter to the editors of FactCheck.org — we’ll see if it has any effect on their condemnation of McCains ad. I wont hold my breath.