On the July 18 broadcast of his Newsradio 850 KOA show, “Gunny” Bob Newman misleadingly asserted that Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (IL) is “in another scandal” for purportedly advocating that kindergartners be taught “the good and bad things regarding sexual intercourse.” Newman stated that Obama made his remarks about sex education to Planned Parenthood, an organization he later referred to as “the biggest abortion mill in the history of the planet ... other than the Third Reich." In fact, in a response to a question following his July 17 address to Planned Parenthood's national conference, Obama indicated that he supported providing “age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in schools.”

Newman also called Obama a “clown [who] appears to have the IQ of a road-killed toad and the morals of an alley cat.”

From the July 18 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Gunny Bob Show:

NEWMAN: Barack Obama -- he's in another scandal, and he's getting good at this. He just told abortion-mill organization Planned Parenthood that kindergartners should be taught sex education. This clown appears to have the IQ of a road-killed toad and the morals of an alley cat. Should kindergartners ever get sex education? I mean, 4-year-olds? Especially sex ed paid for by the taxpayer? That would be you! I mean, what would you do if your kid came home one day from kindergarten and said today he or she learned about the good and bad things regarding sexual intercourse? Is Obama done now? Is he done? Is his presidential candidacy done? Do you think this latest morals scandal for Barack Obama will destroy his campaign?

[...]

NEWMAN: Barack Obama, Democrat, presidential candidate, told plant, Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion mill in the history of the planet -- I mean, other than the Third Reich -- he told them that kindergartners should receive sex education.

Despite claiming that Obama's comments constituted a “morals scandal,” Newman never explained exactly what Obama had said. According to a July 18 ABC News report, Obama in his speech at the Planned Parenthood conference referenced a similar charge that Republican candidate Alan Keyes leveled against him during the 2004 U.S. Senate race:

“I remember Alan Keyes ... I remember him using this in his campaign against me,” Obama said in reference to the conservative firebrand who ran against him for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Sex education for kindergarteners had become an issue in his race against Keyes because of Obama's work on the issue as chairman of the health committee in the Illinois state Senate.

"'Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners,'" said Obama mimicking Keyes' distinctive style of speech. “Which -- I didn't know what to tell him (laughter).”

“But it's the right thing to do,” Obama continued, “to provide age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in schools.”

Later in the article, ABC News reported clarifications from Obama's campaign that “age-appropriate” education precludes “teaching explicit sex education to children in kindergarten” but would include teaching young children about “inappropriate touching”:

When Obama's campaign was asked by ABC News to explain what kind of sex education Obama considers “age appropriate” for kindergarteners, the Obama campaign pointed to an Oct. 6, 2004 story from the Daily Herald in which Obama had “moved to clarify” in his Senate campaign that he “does not support teaching explicit sex education to children in kindergarten ... The legislation in question was a state Senate measure last year that aimed to update Illinois' sex education standards with 'medically accurate' information ... 'Nobody's suggesting that kindergartners are going to be getting information about sex in the way that we think about it,' Obama said. 'If they ask a teacher 'where do babies come from,' that providing information that the fact is that it's not a stork is probably not an unhealthy thing. Although again, that's going to be determined on a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards.' ”

In addition to local schools informing kindergarteners that babies do not come from the stork, the state legislation Obama supported in Illinois, which contained an “opt out” provision for parents, also envisioned teaching kindergarteners about “inappropriate touching,” according to Obama's presidential campaign. Despite Obama's support, the legislation was not enacted.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Newman repeatedly has hyped what he described as Obama “scandals” on his show. On his March 7 broadcast, Newman echoed some national media outlets to suggest that Obama had made inappropriate purchases of stock in companies financed by some of his contributors. The New York Times, which first reported the story, concluded that "[t]here is no evidence that any of [Obama's] actions ended up benefiting either company during the roughly eight months that he owned the stocks." Further, as Media Matters for America pointed out, Newsweek senior White House correspondent Richard Wolffe, appearing on MSNBC, questioned whether the story qualified as a “scandal.”

As Colorado Media Matters also noted, Newman previously asserted that Obama was involved in a “shady land deal with a mansion he bought from Tony Rezko for a gigantic discounted price.” But as the Associated Press reported on November 17, 2006, regarding the transaction, “Obama ... [has not] been accused of wrongdoing.”