False equivalence of the day

Remember when right-wingers like Glenn Beck went nuts about Barack Obama telling schoolchildren to work hard and get an education, claiming he was "indoctrinating" them and suggesting he was trying to create a modern-day Hitler Youth?  Remember how that criticism came despite the fact that Republican presidents like George H.W. Bush spoke to schoolchildren?

Washington Post reporter Michael Fletcher thinks that's an example of hypocrisy by Democrats:

Downtown DC: I'm appalled at the reports of some Republicans cheering that "Obama lost" when Chicago wasn't chosen by the IOC. I'm tempted to ask, "Why do you hate America?" Can you put this incident in perspective -- have Democrats been this petty and vindictive; is this part of a coarsening of public life lately?

Michael A. Fletcher: Hard to compare the level of pettiness, but I remember learning during the flap over President Obama's address to school children that Democrats in Congress had put President George H.W. Bush through the ringer for making a similar address to students. So it goes both ways. I think that both sides in the political debate look for every opportunity to criticize the other side, and that's what you saw with Obama's Olympic pitch. I can imagine that if he decided not to go to Copenhagen and Chicago had lost out, he'd be criticized for that. As you point out, that is the tone of our politics these days.

Let's recap.

In 1991, Democrats criticized President George H. W. Bush for using taxpayer money to produce a speech to schoolchildren, arguing that it was an improper use of public funds for political purposes.  Asked whether the footage would make a good campaign commercial, White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater acknowledged "We certainly would use any tape of the president, doing anything, anywhere in the world at any time if it was to his political benefit," lending some support to the Democrats' claims. 

In 2009, Conservatives attacked Barack Obama for speaking to schoolchildren, claiming he was "indoctrinating" them and making comparisons to Nazi Germany.

Those two criticisms are not remotely similar.  I happen to think the criticism from Democrats in 1999 was petty (and the GAO ultimately concluded the expenditure was not inappropriate.)  But it was nothing like the vile and disgusting comments from Glenn Beck and his allies a few weeks ago.  It's like comparing apples and giraffes.

To look at those two events and conclude, as Michael Fletcher does, that they are comparable -- and to suggest it is the Democrats who are hypocritical and insincere in their actions -- is bizarre and indefensible.