RUSH: Now, this is the next McCain ad that really has the Obama camp fit to be tied. It’s entitled ‘Education.’
ANNOUNCER: Education Week says Obama hasn’t made a significant mark on education, that he’s elusive on accountability, a staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly. Obama’s one accomplishment: Legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergarteners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama, wrong on education, wrong for your family.
MCCAIN: I’m John McCain, and I approved this message.
RUSH: Oh, this has got ’em fit to be tied. How dare they say this about Obama? Well, let’s go back in 2007, on November 20th, Obama spoke at a Planned Parenthood event, and he said this about Alan Keyes, who was his opponent in the Senate race in 2004.
OBAMA: I remember him, uh, using this in his campaign against me, saying, ‘Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners.’ (laughter) And, you know, which — I didn’t know what to tell him. But it’s the right thing to do.
RUSH: But it’s the right thing to do. We’ve got him saying it. Now, there’s even more on this. You want some issues, Obama? (laughing) You have come to the right place. Obama has said that this ad you just heard about Obama supporting a law to teach young children about sex education was unfair and misleading, but it’s not. I have a summary here of McCain’s ad and of Obama’s response and then I’ve got a news article that ran September 27, 2007, on the Fox News website after a Democrat debate. An excerpt from that article reporting on the debate says this: ‘A fairy tale about two princes falling in love sparked a backlash — and a lawsuit — against a teacher and a school last year when it was read to a second-grade class in Massachusetts. But the three front-runners in the Democratic presidential race suggested Wednesday night at their debate in New Hampshire that they’d support reading the controversial book to children as part of a school curriculum. … Obama agreed with Edwards and revealed that his wife has already spoken to his 6- and 9-year-old daughters about same-sex marriage.’ This was said by Obama in a debate in New Hampshire last November that a book about two princes falling in love should be read as part of the education curriculum to school kids.
The story from this debate is by Catherine Donaldson-Evans and we got it from the Fox website. ‘A fairy tale about two princes falling in love sparked a backlash — and a lawsuit — against a teacher and a school last year when it was read to a second-grade class in Massachusetts. But the three front-runners in the Democratic presidential race suggested Wednesday night at their debate in New Hampshire that they’d support reading the controversial book to children as part of a school curriculum. Moderator Tim Russert asked John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton whether they’d be comfortable having the story — called ‘King & King’ — read to their children in school. Edwards gave the first and most definitive answer — a resounding and instant ‘yes, absolutely’ — although he added that it ‘might be a little tough’ for second-graders. Obama agreed with Edwards and revealed that his wife has already spoken to his 6- and 9-year-old daughters about same-sex marriage.’ Does anybody believe that, by the way? I’m sorry, folks, I’m not sure that I believe that. (interruption) What you mean, they see it? Okay, maybe, maybe. Dawn is telling me that kids see it. If they see two girls or guys kissing in school, maybe the nine-year-old went home and asked, ‘Mommy and Daddy, what does that mean?’ The six-year-old, look, either way, I can understand talking about — I don’t know — not at age six, not at age six. Something about this is just odd. I think it’s pandering to the typical fringe kook Democrat audience.
Regardless, ‘Hillary Clinton said she believes it’s up to parents to decide how to handle such topics, but added that it’s important to teach kids about the ‘many differences that are in the world.’ Same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, and, as Russert pointed out Wednesday, most of the Democratic candidates have said they oppose it. But though they don’t back the legislation, they apparently think it’s OK to teach elementary-school students about gay marriage. … Obama told Russert that his sentiments are similar to those of Edwards, and, when asked whether he’d sat down to talk about same-sex marriage with his young daughters, he replied that his wife had. ‘The fact is, my nine-year-old and my six-year-old I think are already aware that there are same-sex couples,’ the Illinois senator told the debate. ‘One of the things I want to communicate to my children is not to be afraid of people who are different. … One of the things I think the next president has to do is stop fanning people’s fears. If we spend all our time feeding the American people fear and conflict and division, then they become fearful and conflicted and divided,” which is exactly what the Democrat Party has been doing for the last seven years on virtually every issue that comes along. So go back, I want you to play sound bites 12 and 13 again, listen to these, the McCain ad from November of 2007, Barack Obama at a Planned Parenthood event.
(replaying of McCain ad)
RUSH: In 2007, Barack Obama complained about Alan Keyes using this argument against him in the Senate race, but then listen to how he ends up.
OBAMA: I remember him, uh, using this in his campaign against me, saying, ‘Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners.’ (laughter) And, you know, which — I didn’t know what to tell him. But it’s the right thing to do.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have here in my formally nicotine-stained fingers (shuffling papers) a copy of a page of the actual bill in Illinois that Obama voted for that proscribes ‘comprehensive sex education’ taught in grades K, six through 12. Here is the excerpt: ‘Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K, six through 12; shall include instructions on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections including the prevention, transmission, and spread of HIV. Nothing in this section prohibits instruction in sanitation, hygiene, or traditional courses in biology.’ So, it’s there. This was Senate bill 0099, and this is the Bill that Obama voted for — and all the McCain ad says is exactly that, that Obama supported legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergarteners. It’s right here. K, six through 12. He voted for the bill. Now, he can go out there and try to revise history all he wants, but we have (shuffling papers) the legislation.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have more evidence on this comprehensive sex education in kindergarten in Illinois that Obama denies supporting, yet he did. Here’s McCain’s ad that has the Obama camp so upset.
(replaying of McCain ad)
Steve Gilbert at the Sweetness&Light.com blog has found the original text here of the legislation. It was Illinois General Assembly Senate bill 0099, An Act Concerning Education. What this copy actually shows is that the bill was specifically changed to include kindergarten. Originally the bill was just grades six through 12. In this copy the number six is crossed out and the capital K representing kindergarten is in place of it. So it actually reads: ‘Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K 6 through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.’ It originally said AIDS, AIDS is crossed out, and it says HIV. So the crossed-out language was dropped from the bill, the underlined words were added in the bill, and it was originally not to include kindergarten. It was specifically changed to include kindergarteners in comprehensive sex education, and Obama did vote for it.