With his Back to School Event (text here), President Obama becomes the nation's Nanny-in-Chief, filling his speech with banalities at every turn, a speech as forgettable as any principal's remarks at the opening assembly of the year.The triumph of the banal is complete as clichés cascade from the eloquent Obama lips: "But at the end of the day ... But at the end of the day ... Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up ... I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot ... [D]on't ever give up on yourself" ... There's no truism too shopworn for the telegenic presidential eloquence. There's the gratuitous hip slang: "I get it." Cool, way cool, man. And the not-so-subtle political exhortation, the appeal to the moppets to fix a country that's "just downright mean," to use his wife's felicitous phrase: "You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and...(Read Full Post)