White House announces major STEM initiative

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

You don't even want to joke about a thing like that. Having a sitting president visit a large public arena full of mysterious-looking hardware would give the Secret Service the screaming fantods. The disruption of the event would be incredible, too. My personal preference would be to have the President appear on video, not in person.

(Of course, if FTC 417 doesn't win, I won't have to worry about it at all. )

I'm going to do a find and replace, replacing "public arena" with "factory".

You don't even want to joke about a thing like that. Having a sitting president visit a large factory full of mysterious-looking hardware would give the Secret Service the screaming fantods. The disruption of the event would be incredible, too. My personal preference would be to have the President appear on video, not in person."

Sounds just as justifiable, right? Except that the President has toured several factories across the United States over the past year:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...in-ohio-friday
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008..._friday_m.html
http://lightfromtheruins.blogspot.co...actory-in.html
http://thepage.time.com/pool-report-...glass-factory/

So would it be possible? Yes, I'm sure the Secret Service would find a way (The President has already had people with actual AR-15s outside rallies).

The pre-recorded video would be easier logistically and schedule wise, but wouldn't have the same impact as the if given in person. A live webcast would, but I think the ideal solution would be to have something funny that's scripted like when Obama appeared on The Colbert Report during his week of reporting from Iraq for the Armed Forces, ordering Colbert to shave his head for the troops. Something like Obama signing an executive order mandating that Sasha and Malia pick up their toys, and having them build a robot to do it for them would probably be quite funny and resonate with students better than just a canned "stay in school speech". Or maybe have Obama appear with a veteran from the war with Dean's robotic arm, thanking the students as future scientists and engineers for creating in the future devices such as Dean's robotic arm that could make the lives of those who fought for our freedom better.

Actually, Dean could use that advice as well. Students nowadays are living in the Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert generation. We like our news with comedy and intelligent satire*. If Dean throws some well-crafted humor and satire throughout his speeches, you won't see too many people sleeping through it anymore.

* Even though many people call them "fake news", regular watchers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on average scored higher than most other news networks in Pew Research studies. Why? Because no one would get the jokes on these shows if they didn't already have strong background knowledge of the news.