I never cared for the McCain campaign’s “Education” ad; throwing in the Illinois sex-ed bill and calling it his “one accomplishment” was a cheap shot, in my book. (It was also bad politics, since it took all the attention from the actual point of the ad.)
That said, I also don’t care for the Obama campaign and the MSM getting away with labeling Sen. McCain a liar when the ad’s description of the bill is, in fact, accurate—as Brit Hume points out, quoting from the bill itself:
HT: Jennifer RubinAs Byron York points out,
Obama’s explanation for his vote [that he voted for it because of his concern over inappropriate touching] has been accepted by nearly all commentators. And perhaps that is indeed why he voted for Senate Bill 99, although we don’t know for sure. But we do know that the bill itself was much more than that. The fact is, the bill’s intention was to mandate sex education, especially concerning contraception and the prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases, for children before the sixth grade and as early as kindergarten. Obama’s defenders may howl, but the bill is what it is.
Update: Here’s what Sen. Obama told Planned Parenthood last year about this:
sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is “age-appropriate,” is “the right thing to do.”