the 12 missing minutes

Remember that speech to the little children about staying in skool, washing their hands and eating their veggies?  The one that the RWE redneck, clinger, terrorist paranoids so raaacistly thought might turn out to be fulla political mind-thoughts?  [aside from the creepily Big Brother/Dear Leader quality?]

Bemember how it somehow turned out to be 12 minutes shorter than originally planned—after they pulled teh study guides about letters to themselves pledging how students would “help Obama” [not “help the POTUS”:  “help” OBAMA, hizownself, personally]

Yeah.  That speech.

When critics lashed out at President Obama for scheduling a speech to public school students this month, accusing him of wanting to indoctrinate children to his politics, his advisers quickly scrubbed his planned comments for potentially problematic wording. They then reached out to progressive Web sites such as the Huffington Post, liberal bloggers and Democratic pundits to make their case to a friendly audience.

The controversy escalated, but by the time it was over, White House advisers thought they had emerged with the upper hand. The speech, they said, was the most-viewed live video on any government Web site in history, and they were pleased with the media coverage of the event.

Not so paranoid, hm?  Just wait.

In private, Obama has developed what his advisers say is becoming a familiar response to new allegations, rolling his eyes in disbelief and asking how his staff plans to counter them. ...

But at a tactical level, administration officials are taking seriously the potential for damage and are attempting to respond forcefully. In early August, officials stepped up their efforts to link the “birther” movement ... to Republican leaders. ...

Obama publicly rejected the charge that he is maintaining an “enemies list,” raising the issue to dismiss it at a town hall meeting. ...

“In a world with Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and the Drudge Report and everything else that makes up the right-wing noise machine, nothing is clean and nothing is simple,” a senior administration official said. “You don’t stomp a story out. You ride the wave and try to steer it to safe water.”

Aww—having to face what you did?  How awful for you.

Although Obama does not pore over the conservative attacks himself, he is not oblivious to them, advisers said.  ...sometimes after learning of them in e-mails from friends outside the White House, for example, or from ordinary voters at rallies. Little of it surprises him, aides said.

Well, it’s surprising many who voted for ya, Jugears.

...Rahm Emanuel .... “Father Coughlin called Roosevelt a socialist, the John Birch Society was created in reaction to Kennedy, Clinton had [Richard Mellon] Scaife and others who went after him,” he said. “And now they’ve come after Obama on Socialism and other things. This has always been a creed from those voices dealing with Democratic presidents. But yes, there’s an intensity, given the [rapid media] time frame we’re all under, that’s different.”

Roosevelt was a socialist—and admired the fascist economic system, as well.  Sounds like you’re losing control of Teh Narrative—and Teh Narrative Givers, Rahm…

Now, the challenge for Obama will be to maintain that stance without ceding ground to his most extreme critics, whom administration officials believe are trying to mount an existential threat to the president.

What’s that old phrase....  oh yeah:  Turn about is fair play.

Ace