Making Mao-ntains out of molehills

Perhaps it might be easier for the beleaguered bias hunters at NewsBusters to explain the ways in which President Obama is not a communist. They spend countless hours documenting the various ways in which the red menace lurks behind nearly everything the president does, and all that time, effort, and money could be saved were they to just post a list enumerating those activities of Obama's that are not Trotsky-inspired. Then they could call it a presidency and get back to the important work of exposing Matt Lauer's terrorist neckwear.

But, unfortunately, that's not to be, as NewsBuster Mark Finkelstein has discovered yet another communist phantom in President Obama's upcoming national address to students on the importance of education. As Finkelstein sees it, this directly from Mao Tse-Tung's playbook, particularly the Department of Education's accompanying study guide asking students: "[W]hat can we infer the President believes is important to be successful educationally." Finkelstein even challenges the media to "report on the interesting parallel between our president's plan for our children and the approach of another Great Leader from the past."

Joe McCarthy at his most drunkenly paranoid would have been hard-pressed to achieve this level of inane red baiting.

But let's take Finkelstein at his word -- a presidential address to schoolchildren and White House study guides are Maoist indoctrination tactics of the most insidious sort. He is, therefore, duty-bound to denounce former President George H.W Bush, the communist stooge, for delivering his October 1, 1991, national address to schoolchildren, in which he, according to an aide, endeavored to "motivate America's students to strive for excellence; to increase students' as well as parents' responsibility/accountability; and to promote students' and parents' awareness of the educational challenge we face." [Washington Post, 10/2/91]

And Finkelstein surely must denounce former President George W. Bush, that Maoist rat, for posting on the White House website a "teacher's guide" that helped students understand the "freedom timeline" and encouraged them to "explor[e] the biographies of the President, Mrs. Bush, Vice President, and Mrs. Cheney."

And it's not just Finkelstein -- right-wing bloggers everywhere are joining together in a mass freak out over something as anodyne as a presidential address to schoolchildren. Just imagine what would happen if Obama were to do something really controversial, like wear a hat, or use a pencil.