I believe President Reagan gave a speech in 1988 which was nationally televised to students. The difference is Reagan wasnt trying to indoctrinate the students.
The differences are stark. Obama is doing this at the beginning of his presidency in order to troll for votes. Reagan's speech was in the last year of his second term. Reagan had no cheerleading section of Hollywood and musician types pledging servanthood to him. Reagan told the kids to "ground themselves in the ideas and values of the American Revolution." Obama is claiming that he's bringing a new revolution. Reagan wasn't a socialist. Obama is a statist who has been steeped in radical, anti-American rhetoric since his youngest days.
The problem with those who say, well, Reagan gave a speech to students in 1988 and Bush gave a speech to students in 1991, so there's really nothing different about Obama giving a speech to students in 2009 is the fallacy of the undistributed middle: A is M and B is M; therefore, A is B. It just isn't so: Jets have wings. Birds have wings; therefore, jets are birds. Reagan and Bush were presidents and Obama is a president, but Obama is certainly no Reagan or Bush.
Well put.
The argument that “well, [GOP prez of your choice] did it, so therefore Obama can do it too” is really based on false premises. What Obama is doing in every case, ranging from TARP to this school speech, is entirely different in content and purpose.