Obama Administration: Accountability Is For Teachers, Not For Us

Glenn Greenwald points out this Obama quote from a speech he gave in September 2008:

"As president, I will lead a new era of accountability in education. But see, I don't just want to hold our teachers accountable; I want to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable."

He then notes how White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, in trying to walk back his comments that liberal critics of President Obama are "crazy," and "should be drug-tested," said the following:

We should all, me included, stop fighting each other and arguing about our differences on certain policies, and instead work together to make sure everyone knows what is at stake because we've come too far to turn back now.

Greenwald responds to the Gibbs quote this way:

In other words: we should all stop criticizing the administration when it does things we think are bad, destructive and wrong, and instead dutifully place our allegiance to Party above all else by loyally and quietly working to elect more Democrats. Sorry: that's not going to happen.

...

Being a rational, engaged citizen means objecting when political leaders do things that you think are wrong or bad and praising them when they do things you think are good and constructive. That even includes President Obama. It's just that simple, and pointing to Scary John Boehner hovering in the corner in order to ratchet up fear levels isn't going to change that, nor should it. Barack Obama is President of the U.S. at least until January, 2013, and wields vast power. It's therefore vital that he, like any other political official, be held accountable for the bad actions he undertakes -- just as he himself always argued.

But Glenn, that was when Obama was still RUNNING for president.

Now that he actually IS president, we need to all shut up and bow down to the Great Leader and Orator, suck it up even when he breaks promises, betrays liberal causes or goes directly at the interests of liberal constituencies like teachers unions, and worship the ground he plays basketball on.

Glenn is right in the end, of course.

Ain't gonna happen.

Not at this blog, at any rate.

And not at quite a few other ed blogs around the Internets.

We KNOW the Obama administration sucks big time on so many issues - from education to financial reform to Wall Street bailouts to food stamp cuts to the coming privatization of Social Security - and so long as they continue to suck big time, they're going to hear it from us.

And some of us are even going to work AGAINST them.

The more they whine and moan and criticize and scapegoat, the more they'll add to that group of people from the left working AGAINST them.

So shut up, Mr. Gibbs, and go back to lying like the professional bullshit artist you are and get away from the whining and self-pity.

It's not helping your cause.