I Know How Hard it is to Put Food On Your Family

And other remembrances. As an ex-teacher, my favorite has been "If you teach a child to read, he or her can pass a literacy test." Simultaneously proving that he would be unable to pass his much-beloved tests, and that he has entirely missed the point (as well as the benefit) of being literate.

The following has been circulating all over the blogosphere today, from here.

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks.
He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will
have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an
excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets
sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and
precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he
has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has
committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total
before he is inaugurated.

See, this is why I'll never be able to vote for a Republican. I'm fascinated by Eisenhower, Lincoln, Garfield (more on the latter some other time). But you can't just ignore the fact that even if you think Iraq is the noblestest thing ever, Bush's eloquence rates somewhere between that of a mollusk and a planarian. Obama will make mistakes, and he's already done several things of which I deeply disapprove (telecom immunity, anyone?). But to say Obama should take lessons on elocution and verbal precision from Shrub? I think the correct spelling is PHBBBBBBBBBT!

Another oft-remarked item that got under my skin was this one, from MSNBC

WASHINGTON - A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a
Marxist dictatorship. "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Whatever. The reason I even bring this up is that I saw the Grrrreatest (in your best Tony the Tiger Voice) response to this at Just an Earthbound Misfit. Nicely said, EB, nicely said.