Obama backpedals on ways for school children to “help the president”
The Obama administration has pulled off quite a disappearing trick that’s so good, some of his supporters don’t even think the rabbit was there in the first place! (Which I guess would make it terrible, like this trick).
Not long after I and others reported yesterday that the Department Education urged teachers to tell their students to write letters on “what they can do to help the president” there appears to be an unexplained edit to the document online.
The second point under ideas for what to do as an extension of Obama’s unprecedented speech to the nation’s children, on what will be the first day of school for many, has been changed. It now reads: “Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short?term and long?term education goals.” That version can be found HERE.
Originally, the document read: “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” The original version is still online HERE.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Obama administration has yet to mention the controversy, as spokesman Robert Gibbs continues to play dumb, as seems to be his strategy.
The sudden switch even fooled ABC’s Jake Tapper, who tweeted, around 5:30 yesterday: “Heres Dept of Ed assignments ppl are talking about >> http://bit.ly/11VzwE Where does it assign essays on “how can i help the president”? Jim Geraghty of National Review was one of the first to respond, tweeting back: “@jaketapper Jake, as it looks like there are 2 versions out there. Was 1 a draft? “help the president” at link: http://tinyurl.com/nr4qya“
Some, including commenters on yesterday’s piece, are happy playing dumb to the whole ordeal. Below is my tribute to them.
