The Obama Plan: Community Service or Social Work?

But enough about them. You’d think turning Sarah Palin’s personal life into an episode of Melrose Place was the only pressing issue facing our country right now.

Jim Lindgren at The Volokh Conspiracy has been blogging about Obama’s community service plan in what has so far been a three-part series — see post 1, post 2, and post 3 for details. The gist of it is that Obama plans to use the tools of government to mandate that middle school and high school students will be required to do 50 hours of community service per year. He will also create a volunteer service program for college students that will be nearly universal because of the way it will be tied to college aid, including the work-study program. And he will create numerous new government service programs to get non-collegeiate young people, middle-aged folks, and senior citizens to participate in community service.

There’s no reason not to call this what it is. It’s a social welfare program on par with FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. While it may have some benefits as those programs did, it will be the largest expansion of government in a long time and that’s one of the reasons I’m opposed to it. But there’s also a more fundamental reason.

Contra James Vega

James Vega at The Democratic Strategist has posted six messages that he thinks Democrats should use to respond to McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. I think a couple of these are good strategy while most of the rest range from bad to terrible, so I thought I’d throw my two cents into the ring.

Bristol Palin and Abstinence Only Education

The McCain campaign announced today that Sarah Palin’s oldest daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin, is pregnant. Consistent with what I said this morning, I’m going to go with Sen. Obama on this one and say that Democratic pundits and the media should leave the Palin family alone. The private life of the Palin family doesn’t have anything to do with this election. I’m even going to go a step further and say that I think the Palin family and Bristol Palin in particular are handling this well. People make mistakes. It’s how they handle the consequences of those mistakes that really matters.

I do think this is a good time to talk about abstinence only education though. Gov. Palin has been a consistent supporter of abstinence only education and has opposed distribution of condoms in public schools. This issue raises a question that all Americans should consider in this election: Is abstinence only working?

And Happy Labor Day

I almost forgot to say Happy Labor Day to all the hard working Americans out there who keep our country going. Jeralyn at TalkLeft has some info on the origin of the holiday. Interesting stuff.

If I actually get any readers today — a big if, I’m brand new — consider this an open thread.

Hurricane Gustav

I hope anyone reading will join me in praying for the families along the Gulf Coast who could be affected by Hurricane Gustav. I’ll also be praying that the economic damage Gustav might do will be light, that President Bush and all our leaders will be blessed with wisdom and compassion during this crisis, and that God will forgive those who have profaned his name by implying or outright saying that he is sending a hurricane to the Gulf Coast to punish Republicans or make them look bad.

Palin Derangement Syndrome

Guys, can I be honest with you? You’re being ridiculous. After spending months running defense against the McCain campaign’s central argument that Sen. Obama is too inexperienced to be President, just as McCain himself was planning to take that issue off the table, you’re attacking Gov. Sarah Palin for being too inexperienced — even though she has roughly the same level of experience as Sen. Obama. Now you’re opening up a new can of worms as Republicans counter that she has more executive experience. Think that doesn’t matter? Really? How many senators have been elected President in American history? Uh-huh. And how many governors? Right.

That’s not to mention that it might not be exactly prudent to suggest that their vice presidential candidate is too inexperienced when she’s got about the same level of experience as our presidential candidate. She’s running for number two. If McCain’s judgment is bad because he picked her, what does Obama’s judgment look like for running for President at all? Let’s get back to what we’ve been saying. This campaign isn’t about how many years you’ve been in Washington, and we’ve had some great Presidents who were considered too inexperienced. This campaign is about who can bring the right kind of change to Washington: Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or John McCain and Sarah Palin?

That’s the stupid. Now let’s get to the insane.