A Republican insider privy to private internal polling data tells The Brody File that potential voters had a serious negative reaction when told about Barack Obama’s views on sex education. Obama is on record saying it is proper to provide “age appropriate sex education” to kindergarteners in grade school (watch him say it
here) but if this polling data is any indication, it seems that his views could very well be a major sore point in his attempt to appeal to religious voters.
This Republican insider says Obama’s views on sex education polls very poorly particularly with minority groups, especially Hispanics. He describes the polling reaction as “off the charts”.
Because of the sensitive, private nature of the data, the full polling report has not been disclosed but The Brody File has been told by one Republican strategist familiar with the polling that there was “universal discomfort expressed by individuals upon learning about what would be considered “age-appropriate” for kindergartners.
The Obama campaign told The Brody File last year through spokesman Bill Burton that:
"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."
Back then, the campaign directed me to Oregon Department of Education guidelines which they said would give people a good idea of where Obama is at on the issue. Read those guidelines here.
The problem here is that many of those guidelines are pretty vague. Obama made the following comments back in 2004:
“Nobody's suggesting that kindergartners are going to be getting information about sex in the way that we think about it…"If they ask a teacher 'where do babies come from,' that providing information that the fact is that it's not a stork is probably not an unhealthy thing. Although again, that's going to be determined on a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards."
Part of the problem here is that many school districts across the country look to The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) when shaping guidelines. Those guidelines may make many parents shudder. They include teaching children 5-8 years old about homosexuality, names for body parts and specific details about how a baby is made. More details
here. Regarding the polling that was done on this issue, the Republican strategist told me that:
“No one seeing those guidelines believed that that material was age appropriate.”
The Obama campaign sent out the SIECUS guidelines to MSNBC when asked about this issue last year. The problem confronting the Obama campaign on this issue is that while he may not be for any of the more intense language contained in the SIECUS guidelines, he does support age-appropriate sex ed for kindergartners and the polling suggests voters are uncomfortable with that. The Obama campaign may be pulling the hair out screaming that he’s not for any of that stuff but if he’s not more aggressive on this in the general election, he could easily be defined as a big time liberal.
The issue of sex education will definitely be in the news this fall because the Springfield Illinois School District plans to introduce sex education to fourth-graders next school year, a grade younger than its current practice. That’s right in Obama’s backyard. When Obama was a state senator in 2003, he tried to get a bill passed on this issue of sex education. Read below from The Associated Press:
Obama's legislation would have altered Illinois' sex education standards to include instruction in any grade from kindergarten through 12th, rather than grades 6-12. It deleted language calling for sex education courses to honor "monogamous heterosexual marriage" and would have softened the state's emphasis on abstinence, while adding that any course materials should be "age and developmentally appropriate" and based on the latest scientific studies.
Obama was chairman of a state Senate committee that passed the legislation along party lines in March 2003. The full Senate never voted on the measure, and it ultimately died.
Look, here’s what’s going on. Republicans are going to paint Obama as an out of touch liberal. They believe his views on sex education play right into that narrative. This is something that the Obama campaign will need to try and figure out…and quick! As much as Obama talks up his Christian walk, you have religious voters that are not quite there yet when it comes to matching Obama’s values and biblical based values. I’m just giving it to you straight.
Let’s remember. The Obama campaign is linking social justice issues to the Bible and that’s all fine and dandy. It’s been working BUT if Obama is looking to connect in the heartland to those Reagan Democrats, to those culturally conservative Catholics, he has hurdles to overcome. His pro-choice position on abortion is a big one, so is his support for civil unions and when you see polling like this on sex education it drives home the point that the heavy lifting is just beginning for Obama when it comes to the more culturally conservative and moderate religious voters. If Obama gets pegged with the snobby, out of touch liberal label he’ll be toast in the heartland.
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