Norah O’Donnell: What’s so creepy about kids singing Obama propaganda?
posted at 8:20 pm on September 24, 2009 by Allahpundit
Here’s the thing: A few decades ago, I think she would have had a point. From what I gather, inculcating a sense in young kids that the president is a fine, fair, and friendly individual used to be an inoffensive adjunct of basic civics. When and why that changed is unclear — I would assume after Watergate, although O’Donnell says she remembers sending jelly beans to Reagan — but it has. Consider it another casualty of the hyper-partisan age. I do think that some of the conservative irritation towards Obamamania is a reaction to the left’s insane demagoguery towards Bush. Carrying protest signs comparing The One to a Nazi, as so many liberals did to Dubya, is one manifestation (although it’s the LaRouche-ians who are most guilty of that, needless to say). The outrage over the crooning children is another: Knowing that the left would have wet straight through its pants at the thought of some “Bushjugend” singing hymns of exaltation about a crypto-fascist warmongering Christian Taliban Rethuglikkkan leaves few of us on the right in the mood to take the high road. Toss in Team Barry’s own creepy nurturing of a cult of personality around Obama, replete with aggressive recruitment of artists for propagandizing on his behalf, and you have all the ingredients you need for some righteous conservative anger. Click the image to watch.
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Substitute Bush for Obama and her head would explode.
NightmareOnKStreet on September 24, 2009 at 8:23 PM
I’m sure O’Donnell hums something for Obama.
SouthernGent on September 24, 2009 at 8:23 PM
What could go wrong. The Chicoms have only had to murder 70 million citizens in the last 100 years to keep the hope alive … But their children really can belt out those dear leader songs, hit it, let’s hear some more.
tarpon on September 24, 2009 at 8:24 PM
If she has to ask…..
Terrye on September 24, 2009 at 8:26 PM
There’s a big difference between singing “My President Is A Nice Man” and “My President Is Fixing My Health Care”.
These kids were singing about endorsements of political positions – big difference.
If Norah O’Moonbat can’t see that, tough.
I can assure her millions of Americans will see it.
manofaiki on September 24, 2009 at 8:26 PM
Norah, if we have to tell you what’s wrong with this, you seriously need to find a new profession.
thebrokenrattle on September 24, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Bad boy.
/LOL
Key West Reader on September 24, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Airheads, unite!
Schadenfreude on September 24, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Norah O’Donnell ,Hannah Giles faked she was a prostitute while doing journalism…
the_nile on September 24, 2009 at 8:28 PM
Another point to consider:
The children sung to the following tunes:
Battle Hymn of The Republic
Jesus Loves The Little Children
THAT’s only two reasons why this is soooo creepy.
Key West Reader on September 24, 2009 at 8:28 PM
you’re a Bad, Bad Man……..
and probably right; nearly all of them are humming for him
Janos Hunyadi on September 24, 2009 at 8:29 PM
You consistently have great one liners on Hot Air. There needs to be a prize for that.
msmveritas on September 24, 2009 at 8:29 PM
We teach them to take their patriotism at second-hand; to shout with the largest crowd without examining into the right or wrong of the matter — exactly as boys under monarchies are taught and have always been taught. We teach them to regard as traitors, and hold in aversion and contempt, such as do not shout with the crowd, and so here in our democracy we are cheering a thing which of all things is most foreign to it and out of place — the delivery of our political conscience into somebody else’s keeping. This is patriotism on the Russian plan.
- Mark Twain
I swear, some of these so called journalists are dumber than a box of rocks.
MB4 on September 24, 2009 at 8:29 PM
The fact that you and quite a few of your liberal cohorts in the progressive media don’t see a problem with it is what makes it creepy.
Hellrider on September 24, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Apply at ACORN . . . (that might be harsh)
rebuzz on September 24, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Breaking: Ginsberg in Hospital
Joe Caps on September 24, 2009 at 8:31 PM
Sending candy to the president, singing songs in worship of his personality and political agenda, really what’s the difference between friends?
It’s not like one is sending food to the guy and the other is taking part in a government-sponsored cult of personality, right?
amerpundit on September 24, 2009 at 8:31 PM
What about the fact they replaced Jesus with Obama in the song?
ninjapirate on September 24, 2009 at 8:31 PM
Tell me you aren’t that dense AP.
I went to elementary School in the late 50′s and early 60′s. I never learned a song about the goodness of D. Eisenhower or JFK. My son and daughter attended elementary school in the late 70′s and early 80′s. They never learned songs about the goodness of Carter or Reagan.
chemman on September 24, 2009 at 8:32 PM
Theocracy! Fascism! Separate church and state NOW!!1!
amerpundit on September 24, 2009 at 8:33 PM
This is a classic…
Obama Kids: Sing for Change (Pyongyang Remix)
ninjapirate on September 24, 2009 at 8:33 PM
In the song the children chant ”Barack Hussein Obama He says equal work is equal pay.”
Equal work for equal pay was a common theme for the 1940’s ”The Daily Worker”, which was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain and has resonated since in socialist and communist political circles worldwide, now a Presidential slogan used frequently by President Obama. The manner of indoctrination these children are being subjected to by school teachers using repetitive instruction to burn the image of Obama as a supreme being beyond the role of just being President of the United States is a fashion similar to those used by Stalinist Russian children and Hitler Youth of the 1940’s.
Pretty scary stuff…
djn on September 24, 2009 at 8:33 PM
You got that right. MSNBC attacked Bush for everything. But when it comes to Obama, MSNBC can’t kiss his butt fast enough.
SoulGlo on September 24, 2009 at 8:34 PM
I don’t blame Norah. Her father is genuinely retarded, so she never had a chance.
Wait… what’s that? She’s no relation to Laurence O’Donnell?
OK, she’s blameworthy then.
Red Cloud on September 24, 2009 at 8:34 PM
And this is what needs to be thrown in the face of any idiot(I’m looking at you, Norah) who attempts to justify this. The day these leftist idiots can say with a straight face that children singing a song praising Dubya and the Iraq War(or any part of his record) would’ve been hunky dory is the day I’ll believe their defense of this clip is anything other than spin.
Doughboy on September 24, 2009 at 8:34 PM
Well “singing” is sort of being generous. It was more of a un-harmonic Gregorian chant than anything else.
On a serious note, I’m not exactly sure what to make of this. Did they sing …er…”songs” for President Bush? No, then this get’s filed under “weird hero worship”.
Nothing wrong making the President a poster child for our kids, you know, serve as a model. He is a good model, after all. He rose from disadvantaged circumstances to become the leader f the free world. I just wish I agreed with his policies more… a lot more.
Rightwingguy on September 24, 2009 at 8:34 PM
The video is “unauthorized”? Wonder if the copyright owners of “Jesus Loves The Little Children” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” – assuming they are not PD – authorized the new lyrics?
jamie gumm on September 24, 2009 at 8:34 PM
Boy, those days are long, long gone.
We live in such politicized times that they won’t come back.
Of course, if you expand government to such an extent, increase its scope and powers, this – politicized presidencies – will inevitably happen.
SteveMG on September 24, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Just because I made my kids genuflect to a picture of Reagan doesn’t mean I want the school to encourage indoctrinate them. Regardless of of the party. Kids should know the president’s name and know what he/she looks like.
Cindy Munford on September 24, 2009 at 8:36 PM
This whole thing just proves to me that atheists really aren’t what they say they are.
They have a mental and emotional need for a GOD too. And that GOD can be the “Earth” as worshiped in the church of Global Warming …
Or their GOD can be Obama … as worshiped in the church of the ostrich media.
Or – I suppose there are a lot of other things they can elevate to GOD status while pretending they’re more enlightened than the people who worship …
The REAL God.
HondaV65 on September 24, 2009 at 8:36 PM
What’s so editable about footage of black protestors lawfully carrying weapons, Norah?
MadisonConservative on September 24, 2009 at 8:37 PM
History teaches us not to indoctrinate love of a personality. Not that Norah took any history classes or can spell “history” . . .
The Reasonable Man on September 24, 2009 at 8:37 PM
Why Apply for what she’s already a professional at? (those knee pads must chafe something terrible)
Katfish on September 24, 2009 at 8:37 PM
Well how’s this, Nora: I have an uber-lefty, Obama-fan friend who has seen the “red, yellow, black, & white” video. She is appalled and says “It really makes us look bad.” But you go ahead and keep that propaganda machine humming.
hoosiermama on September 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM
Well anytime I hear Olbermann talking of the unhinged rage of the right for protesting, I lol. I can just remember the contempt they had for President Bush back in the day. Turnabout is fair play, eh dems?
Heck it ain’t even turnabout. We are moderately protesting his policies, not calling for impeachment or anything else they did.
Rightwingguy on September 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM
COTD®
munchnstuf on September 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM
I bet your right, Allahpundit. I bet nobody would have batted an eye a few decades ago. Hyper-partisanship has changed our country.
terryannonline on September 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM
If in say 2005 you were to write a book about a charimatic despot coming to power in the United States, wouldn’t his assent and early reign be pretty much like Obama’s?
The man hits our creepy vibes because absent the safeguards built into our political system he would be another Chavez. And he and his allies desperately want to remove those safeguards.
18-1 on September 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM
Touche.
Rightwingguy on September 24, 2009 at 8:39 PM
Five bucks says the same group of kids couldn’t stumble their way through an impromptu and no-do-overs pledge to the flag.
rogerb on September 24, 2009 at 8:39 PM
I doubt anyone can do that at that age. Shoot, by the time I’d mastered it, they stopped doing it.
Rightwingguy on September 24, 2009 at 8:40 PM
All of that is irrelevant. The lyrics in these songs are about “homoring” Obama, and everyone being “equal in his eyes” like he’s God.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/24/lyrics-songs-president-obama/
RightWinged on September 24, 2009 at 8:41 PM
I was thinking about this indoctrination thing. I imagined how a Progressive Liberal might change the Pledge of Allegiance. Here’s my take….
I pledge allegiance to the humanity of the United States of the planet. And to the global community for which it stands, one planet, committed to the environment, with equality and fairness for all.
Scary. Even though God sees all, it doesn’t mean we get to sit on our hands.
pjean on September 24, 2009 at 8:41 PM
She was channeling Dan Rather.
the_nile on September 24, 2009 at 8:42 PM
I think what’s missing in the assessment is that other things have changed. From the period of, say, FDR foreward, the relationship between society and the president, or better yet, the involvement of the president in day to day affairs of the people, changed.
The involvement comes the rules. With the rules comes the disagreement. With the disagreement comes the argument. When the power to make the rules overrules those who disagree, you get the fights. It’s become king of the hill now that power is centered in one place. That’s why even the little things, such as access to your children in public schools, are fought over.
But I’m surprised you are surprised, AP, considering the manner, tone and effort the Left puts into indoctrinating children. Do you really not see the difference between kids sending a president jelly beans and kids singing odes to to one?
Dusty on September 24, 2009 at 8:42 PM
Some fables die hard. Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand to avoid trouble. They put their head to the ground to listen for vibrations that indicate the direction trouble is coming from. If only the MSM would do a real imitation of an Ostrich.
chemman on September 24, 2009 at 8:42 PM
MSNBCORN
chickasaw42 on September 24, 2009 at 8:43 PM
There was a documentary called “Jesus Camp” a few years ago which portrayed evangelical Christian children praying to a cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush. And yes, lefties did get their panties in a twist over it.
While that’s probably creepier, it wasn’t mandated by the state education system. That’s what makes this creepy Obama-worship song so much worse.
Caiwyn on September 24, 2009 at 8:43 PM
I never sang songs to any president in school. Something has indeed changed.
Ronnie on September 24, 2009 at 8:44 PM
Norah, honey, think back…..
Were kids singing the praises of LBJ or Richard Nixon back in the 60′s?
Fact is, I don’t recall any “dear leader” propaganda hymns for either George Herbert Walker Bush or “W”.
It’s SICK, Norah, SICK, SICK, SICK!!!
bannedbyhuffpo on September 24, 2009 at 8:44 PM
It’s gonna take me an hour to clean my keyboard SG—-thanks for the laugh though…..
Rovin on September 24, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Of course they could. After the teacher told them they could.. uh. ya know. Opt “out”.
Key West Reader on September 24, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Oh please guys, you and allah are wrong… there were hearings in congress over Bush 1′s speech to children in the early 90s… the outrage against Obama’s school speech was well placed considering what we know they’re attempting at the NEA… they are out to mass manipulate people… they are out for your children… that’s what Axelrod did for a living was mass manipulation…
ninjapirate on September 24, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Friends don’t let friends watch MSNBC video clips.
My collie says:
CyberCipher on September 24, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Same here.
terryannonline on September 24, 2009 at 8:46 PM
It still is. Encouraging children to worship the President or elevating a leader above the country itself are evils dictatorships are made of.
ROCnPhilly on September 24, 2009 at 8:47 PM
My ancestors escaped Nazi Germany but before they did, the kids still had to serve. They arrived safely at Ellis Island and our family name is engraved on the island.
There’s nothing like dead relatives and their trunks of stuff to make you wake up and SEE wtf is going on here.
Key West Reader on September 24, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Allahpundit said decades ago, before Nixon. I wouldn’t be surprised if the schoolchildren created little songs for FDR or JFK…although I wasn’t alive then.
terryannonline on September 24, 2009 at 8:49 PM
You speak of it as a cause rather than a symptom. Hyper-partisanship is the result of the concentration of power. You want to get rid of hyper-partisanship, reduce the power of the federal government.
Dusty on September 24, 2009 at 8:50 PM
In four words: No. We. Did. Not.
Key West Reader on September 24, 2009 at 8:50 PM
Prescient point. Well said.
I recall that when I was these kids’ age, the person who was in the White House was not jammed down our throats. We were all taught that we could aspire to be the President. It wasn’t, “You could be just like Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, or Ronald Reagan. Aren’t they just wonderful?!” We’ve taken a significant and dangerous turn with such hero worship. This is the stuff of burgeoning dictatorships.
schafkopf on September 24, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Fail…..we teach our children to honoe the country, not the man. the ideals of freedom and liberty are our battlecries not for the dear leader. These socialists need to get the hell out
unseen on September 24, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Praying to or praying for?
bamaconservative on September 24, 2009 at 8:52 PM
One of our local radio stations KHOW juxtaposed this ludicrous Obama propaganda hymn with actual recordings of Hitler youth singing their praises to the fuhrer back in the late 1930′s (it’s on the KHOW.com website). They sound like they were written by the same person………
Scary…….
bannedbyhuffpo on September 24, 2009 at 8:52 PM
I was in kindergarten when JFK was President, and we didn’t sing songs about him. My parents would have taken us out of school if we Did!
rockmom on September 24, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Doubtful… unless you forget the Johavah’s Witnesses refused to even say the pledge of allegiance… people overestimate the conformity of past generations… I don’t think anything like what you have seen in that video has ever occurred in US history about a current president…
ninjapirate on September 24, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Asked my parents, who grew up during Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK.
No, they didn’t.
MadisonConservative on September 24, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Come, they told me, Barak Obama,
A newborn King to see, Barack Obama
Our finest gifts we bring, Barack Obama
To lay before the King, Barack Obama
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum
I can’t wait for the full
ChristmasHoliday Season album.BobMbx on September 24, 2009 at 8:55 PM
Yeah, that’s the thing. We’re supposed to understand that this kind of mindless chanting (mmm . . . mmm . . .mmm) honoring a personality is wrong, because it’s happened before and it wasn’t good. And, yet, here we go again.
The Reasonable Man on September 24, 2009 at 8:55 PM
[terryannonline on September 24, 2009 at 8:49 PM]
Not that I ever heard of back in JFK’s time and I went to a Catholic school. None of my friends in public schools did. In fact, we never once talked about him.
I seriously doubt there was any of that when FDR was president, because adults back then were adults.
Dusty on September 24, 2009 at 8:56 PM
I think a conservative teacher should have their class sing a song about how George W. Bush saved this nation from ever being attacked since 9/11. Would that be ok with you Norah?
The liberals would go completely nuts!
Rovin on September 24, 2009 at 8:56 PM
So if a kid showed up for choir practice and refused to sing, then what?
Bishop on September 24, 2009 at 8:56 PM
How many of those kids could even give a coherent explaination of what that one line in this “song” means?
tru2tx on September 24, 2009 at 8:57 PM
No we didn’t, and we knew all the words to the first verse of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’. We have elected officials today that don’t know the National Anthem.
thomasaur on September 24, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Ya know…….
The “mmmm, mmmm, mmmm” line is a direct knock off from the old Campbell’s Soup commercials. They oughta sue!
bannedbyhuffpo on September 24, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Yeah I didn’t say every schoolchildren. Just like this video is of ONE classroom singing a song about Obama.
terryannonline on September 24, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Wasn’t there another guy, in another place, at another time; who had a ‘messiah’ complex? He could do no wrong? Only others failed to implement His plans; the plans themselves were not reprehensible? His minions enlisted “artists” to glorify his programs. He was concerned about the education of the jugend.
Does any of this sound familiar?
After 9/11, Democrats, with 20/20 hindsight were screaming about “connecting the dots”. Can we start “connecting the dots” again?
GarandFan on September 24, 2009 at 8:58 PM
I hope the world will always be safe for your ironic detachment, AP. But ironic detachment doesn’t keep it that way.
Conservatives are right: having kids chant ideological refrains about Obama is cultism, not “recognizing the president as a friendly guy.”
It’s one thing to send Reagan jelly beans. But if a public school teacher had asked kids to chant about Reagan the way they’re chanting about Obama?
Mmm, mmm, mmm
Ronald Wilson Reagan!
He says we’ll beat the Russkis –
Put the fissile to the missile!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Ronald Wilson Reagan!
He says we’ll all get rich again –
More axin’ and less taxin’!
Not that these wouldn’t be charming in the hands of Jib-Jab. But cultism is cultism. That’s one big, hairy, sweaty leader cult they got goin’, them O-bot types. Hands off the schoolkids with it.
J.E. Dyer on September 24, 2009 at 8:58 PM
I still think “America The Beautiful” would be a better anthem.
MadisonConservative on September 24, 2009 at 8:58 PM
If all the kiddies were un-white, the libs might just explode, literally.
BobMbx on September 24, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Racism isn’t tolerated..
the_nile on September 24, 2009 at 8:59 PM
I was in a Catholic grade school while Kennedy ran and served. The nuns were for Kennedy, and encouraged us kids to talk about him with our parents. But we never sang songs praising him. That seems a bit creepy.
Oh, and I learned a lot about Kennedy when I went home to my Republican mom. I learned a lot about all of them…
karl9000 on September 24, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Yeah but does she get a tingle down her leg?
SHARPTOOTH on September 24, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Not that I ever heard of back in JFK’s time and I went to a Catholic school. None of my friends in public schools did. In fact, we never once talked about him.
[Dusty on September 24, 2009 at 8:56 PM]
I take that back. We used his name in vain during that two week push-up, sit-up fad he tried to start. I think “That Dolt!” were the words we used … cool phrase, used in all the comic books.
Dusty on September 24, 2009 at 9:00 PM
I’m sure O’Donnell hums something for Obama.
SouthernGent on September 24, 2009 at 8:23 PM
lol
Jeff from WI on September 24, 2009 at 9:00 PM
…but it’s not.
thomasaur on September 24, 2009 at 9:00 PM
insufferable see, you, en, tee.
moonbatkiller on September 24, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Did the pitcher hollar “Oh Yeah!” at her when she took that big gulp of Kool Aid?
Jeff from WI on September 24, 2009 at 9:01 PM
Singing paeans to Obama is too, too similar to the songs kids sing in praise of —– fill in the blank —– in countries like China, North Korea, Cuba… Or doesn’t she know about that practice?
ProfessorMiao on September 24, 2009 at 9:01 PM
I think you meant Lawrence O’Donnell…
StevefromMKE on September 24, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Dude a bunch of kids all singing together is totally creepy regardless of whether it’s propaganda. The fact that it’s propaganda makes it worse, but how can Norah O’Donnell not be aware of this?
Proud Rino on September 24, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Thank you. However, there are many other posters better than I am at this.
SouthernGent on September 24, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Our really out-there leftist first grade teacher at P.S. 40 in New York had us singing folk songs during auditorium that had come in to fashion during the Popular Front of the 1930s, including a fairly harmless paean to Abe Lincoln and the end of slavery. While singing a song that blasts “Old Jeff Davis” for tearing down the government wasn’t controversial even in 1963, the thing is by then Lincoln had been dead for 98 years and his place in history had pretty much been established based on what he had done.
Having a bunch of little kids singing paeans to not just living presidents, but presidents who are in still in office is just creepy in a Leni Riefenstahl-cult of personality type of way. Obama has a place in history for who he is — America’s first black president — not for what he’s done, so singing praises for the current president just based on how the teacher voted last November can’t help but come off as a reminder of similar scenes in places Americans fought wars and died for to liberate those people from their leaders.
jon1979 on September 24, 2009 at 9:03 PM
Is there a difference between her and Campbell Brown that concern anybody other than Dan Senor ?
borntoraisehogs on September 24, 2009 at 9:03 PM
We didn’t pay attention to who was President until 11 days in October ’62
Jeff from WI on September 24, 2009 at 9:03 PM
You’ve been quick and deadly as of late though.
thomasaur on September 24, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Ever been in choir?
Musically, it’s far superior.
MadisonConservative on September 24, 2009 at 9:04 PM
If the kid were black? Whew…that could create quite the scene of consternation among the good liberal faculty.
Bishop on September 24, 2009 at 9:04 PM
You know EVEN rosie does
CWforFreedom on September 24, 2009 at 9:05 PM
My dad was a typical union Democrat. He liked Kennedy, and he was the biggest bigot I ever met.
Jeff from WI on September 24, 2009 at 9:06 PM
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