The Future of America

President Obama was in Arizona on Wednesday. This report, from the East Valley Tribune, focused on the reaction to President Obama's speech by one class of high school kids from Mesa.

A Dobson High School Advanced Placement government class with strong opinions about Barack Obama watched the president’s speech Wednesday on a small, grainy TV in the corner of their classroom.

The students were unable to watch the historic event that was taking place in their own gymnasium because this was the ticket in town that day. Oh and for all of you out there who think that the schools are "forcing" this on the kids.....

The gymnasium’s events were shown simultaneously in rooms throughout the Mesa school, and teachers were given discretion on whether to show the speech, the students said.

To the students credit, these kids (for the most part) gave the President the credit his due by virtue of his position. They also made some pretty astute observations about the presentation and the policy.

The students in the class were hopeful things will work out but questioned whether Obama’s plan would actually work to dig the country out of its economic woes. They also expected a longer speech.

Senior Syna Daudfar took some notes during the speech and was among the most vocally opposed to Obama’s words.

At one point, when he talked about the costs of his stimulus plan, senior Maaike Albach and Daudfar looked at each other and said, “uh-oh.”

“Overall I think it’s a good idea, but he’s not addressing the issues of the economic crisis,” said Daudfar, a John McCain supporter who added he leans more toward being a moderate conservative. “The spending bill he just passed is just progressing the Democratic agenda rather than addressing the economic issues in the country.”

Daudfar thinks Obama’s plan is backward and deals with the “less important stuff” first. “Bailing out businesses” and “providing better regulatory systems for giving out money to businesses” should have been first, he said.

“If businesses can’t afford to hire people, then people won’t be able to work and pay off their mortgages,” he said. “It’s kind of like putting money into a funnel.”

That is the same complaint a lot of professional economists have been making about the "stimulus" bill.

Senior Brandon Miller wore a shirt with the words, “Hitler gave great speeches, too” above a picture of Obama.

Miller said he had been an Obama supporter “because of his speeches,” but after debating the issues in this class and looking more into Obama’s policies, his vote was swayed toward McCain.

First off I have to say, Brandon - lose the t-shirt. I understand that is how the left treated President Bush for the last 8 years, but just because they did it, doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. That said, I know a lot of folks like Brandon - hardcore Obama supporters until they actually started looking at his voting record and honestly considering the issues. Yes I understand that the true believers will never change their minds, but there are fair minded people out there who are today regretting their vote for Obama in November. They too, got caught up in the pretty speeches. However, they are starting to see that the speeches didn't match the actions. That happens in just about every election.

The kids teacher gets the last word in this article.

AP government teacher Jeff Sherrer said his students “feel very strongly about the issues, maybe more than the general population.” He thought at least one of his students was outside protesting, and he had planned to take his students outside as a class project to show them what was going on but didn’t get the chance.

“These kinds of kids really get into it,” Sherrer said. “During the election we had lots of debates on the issues.”

Kudos to Mr. Sherrer for teaching his kids to question and to think for themselves. Who knows where these kids may line up politically in 1 year or 10 years, but you can bet that where ever they are, these kids will be able to give up a better defense of their stands than many adults.