McCain Ad: Obama for Sex Education in Kindergarten

The McCain campaign responds to the Obama ad on education with a hard-hitting one of its own. The ad contains the usual list of quotes from various media sources, often without context, which is fairly common in political advertising these days. The most explosive charge, though, is the claim that Obama sponsored legislation to include sex education in kindergarten classrooms.

The charge has been made before, once by Alan Keyes during the 2004 Senate race in Illinois and more recently by Mitt Romney. Read this article in its entirety or see the extract below for the whole story. McCain's claim, while technically "factual," is a complete distortion of truth and amounts to scare-mongering.

Extracts from the article:

Here's what Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki is telling The Brody File this morning:

"Barack Obama supports sensible, community-driven education for children because, among other things, he believes it could help protect them from pedophiles. A child's knowledge of the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching is crucial to keeping them safe from predators."

So, at this point at least, what Obama is referring to is teaching five year olds about inappropriate touching. The Obama campaign also tells The Brody File that parents would be able to opt out. As for further details, the touching aspect seems to be the main idea here. Obama doesn't want to hand out condoms to five year olds. He doesn't want cucumber demonstrations as part of show and tell.