McCain’s Perverse Obama Education Ad
The McCain campaign released the following ad in response to Obama’s challenge to focus on education. The ad has your requisite out of context headlines, followed by the claim that Obama’s sole education accolade is comprehensive sex education to children in kindergarten. It ends with a picture of Obama beside the words “Learning about sex”…”before learning to read?”
Here’s the problem. Illinois State Bill 99, the bill quoted in the ad, in the cases of kindergarten classes, the curriculum would largely be focused on teaching children about inappropriate touching and how to defend themselves from sexual abuse. It also allowed for parents to opt out of the program.
It sickens me, sickens me, that the McCain campaign is using a bill aimed at protecting children from sexual predators as fodder for an election. As the father of a young girl, I find McCain’s behavior completely reprehensible and have to take it as a sign that John McCain has some sort of issue with curbing pedophilia through education. It’s disgusting and completely shameful.
FactCheck.org, of course, said the ad is ‘Off Base on Sex Ed’. The Fact Check also article highlights some of Obama’s accomplishments in educations in the Illinois Senate and US Senate. Again, McCain’s actions on this ad were vile and despicable and should be completely intolerable.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton released the following statement:
“It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls — a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why.”
If I might editorialize for a moment, I started this election cycle with an enormous amount of respect for Senator McCain. He was a personal hero of mine during the later parts of the 90’s and early parts of the 00’s. My thinking in this election was always “Well, Obama or Hillary I would be ecstatic to have as President, but worst case scenario, John McCain with a Democratic Congress wouldn’t probably be alright.” Today, this has changed. We simply cannot allow this person in the White House. These tactics of fear and smear, choosing a (scary) VP for political expediency as opposed to governing ability, using 9/11 as a political tool, and now this shameful display. I’m disgusted with this campaign and thoroughly disappointed with John McCain himself.
Disgusting.
