THE AP DOES WELL AGAIN

I'm very pleased that the AP isn't rolling over for the GOP Noise Machine. It's done well on health care and now it points out how silly the wingers were for squawking about Pres. Obama's address to school children.

Analysis: Obama foes contrived back-to-school fuss

By WALTER R. MEARS (AP) – 15 hours ago

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There may be a lesson plan for grown-ups in the contrived controversy about Barack Obama's back-to-school pep talk to students. It would be to do your homework, just as the president told the pupils.

That way, the people who protested the Obama speech before they knew what was in it would have realized there is nothing unusual about a president appearing at a public school as the classroom year begins. The previous three Republicans have and there wasn't any stir, aside from some Democratic nitpicking about White House expenses, proving that neither party has a monopoly on pettiness. It was routine. As, in the end, Obama's Tuesday talk was.

Then again, many people doing the complaining, and certainly the broadcast talkers and anti-Obama bloggers who fomented the whole business, were not looking for information or for reasons not to make a fuss. They wanted one, and got it.