Romney; Obama; Sex Education

UPDATED

Mitt Romney panders to the GOP base by demagoguing on the "controversy" over Barack Obama's stance on sex education.

As Anonymous Liberal notes, an ABC News story breathlessly teased, "Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama." Of course, the headline is completely unsupported by the actual story.

Once you get past the initial paragraphs and the reporter actually lets Obama explain himself, the utter triviality of the article becomes apparent:

When Obama's campaign was asked by ABC News to explain what kind of sex education Obama considers "age appropriate" for kindergarteners, the Obama campaign pointed to an Oct. 6, 2004 story from the Daily Herald in which Obama had "moved to clarify" in his Senate campaign that he "does not support teaching explicit sex education to children in kindergarten. . . The legislation in question was a state Senate measure last year that aimed to update Illinois' sex education standards with 'medically accurate' information . . . 'Nobody's suggesting that kindergartners are going to be getting information about sex in the way that we think about it,' Obama said. 'If they ask a teacher 'where do babies come from,' that providing information that the fact is that it's not a stork is probably not an unhealthy thing. Although again, that's going to be determined on a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards.'"

In addition to local schools informing kindergarteners that babies do not come from the stork, the state legislation Obama supported in Illinois, which contained an "opt out" provision for parents, also envisioned teaching kindergarteners about "inappropriate touching," according to Obama's presidential campaign. Despite Obama's support, the legislation was not enacted.

So let's review. Obama favors allowing teachers to say non-explicit but accurate things in response to children's questions, and only then in accordance with guidelines developed on "a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards" and with a provision allowing parents to opt out. He also favors teaching young children about "inappropriate touching" so as to prevent and/or identify cases of child abuse.

Needless to say, these are eminently reasonable positions, ones probably supported by most parents (I know I would have no problem with such a policy). Yet ABC decides to run with an intentionally provocative and totally misleading headline--Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama--with the obvious purpose of turning a total non-story into something that will attract lots of traffic from dishonest right-wing bloggers.

To say nothing of dishonest, right-wing politicians. Enter Mitt Romney:

ROMNEY: How much sex education is appropriate for a five-year-old? In my view, "zero" is the right amount [applause].

I wonder if it ever occurred to Slick-Dancin' Mitt that age-appropriate sex education would actually help children to keep from drowning in that "ocean of filth" he keeps talking about.

This is to say nothing of the fact that Rommey is completely misrepresenting Obama's comments on sex education. In a broader sense, this approach is counterproductive to the goal of keeping kids safe.

What is wrong with these people? Why do they think just telling kids to say "no" to pre-marital sex is enough to keep them emotionally- and physically-healthy as sexual beings? Why can't they see the importance of equipping young people to avoid pregnancy and disease in the event that they should have sex at some point in their lives?

It's not just shameless hackery, it is dangerous hackery. It is, in a very real sense, putting young people's lives at risk.

Of course, there is no political benefit to someone like Romney speaking the truth, even if he understands it. Just listen to the mindless applause he receives to that ridiculous wingnut rhetoric. That's how you win support from the GOP base, so for a hack like Mitt, that's the way to go, common sense be damned.

UPDATE

Via The Politico, we learn that, not only is Romney's demagoguing on sex ed shameless, it also represents yet another flip-flop.

It turns out, Romney himself once indicated support for the same sort of sex-ed approach -- "age-appropriate" -- that Obama backs.

In a Planned Parenthood questionnaire he filled out during his 2002 gubernatorial run, Romney checked 'yes' to a question asking, "Do you support the teaching of responsible, age-appropriate, factually accurate health and sexuality education, including information about both abstinence and contraception, in public schools?"

How can you tell that Mitt is flip-flopping on something? His lips are moving.

In a strange way, I find this consistency rather comforting. It's like knowing that the sun will rise in the east every morning.