"I'm committed to moving our country from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math education over the next decade," Obama said during an event launching the project, at which he announced a $4 billion education reform investment fund"

Given the fact how much government-run education is a failure, it won't happen and fact american taxpayers have date wasted nearly $700 billion on a failing socialist education system is an example of this,.

"We are honored to have President Obama recognize the unique ability of games to act as a catalyst in generating new areas of growth in education."

I would have liked to have seen this "recognition of the unique ability of games" referenced somewhere else in this article. Not saying it didn't happen, but without additional research, I have no idea what he's referring to.

"turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to your child."

Video games can help, but parents need to take an invested interest in their child's learning if we're going to make it to the top.

You'll have to forgive me some vitriol. I was one of the few people who actually bothered to research Obama's history before the 2008 election and discover what a low-down, backroom-dealing, completely unqualified con man he is (for your edification, research how he and David Axelrod managed to defeat Jack Ryan for his Senate seat by obtaining and leaking confidential divorce records).

I've put up with several articles on Gamasutra that are nothing but shallow, completely transparent paens to the cult of personality this man has generated - articles that are supposedly about a game-related subject but which actually are only written so the author can publicly confirm that he/she is a dues-paid member of the pro-Obama crowd.

So maybe I'm a bit sensitive on the issue. But I don't see how this article makes a bit of sense or is of any use. Obama's "call for STEM education", like every other statement he has made, was nothing but an empty echo of a standard campaign promise - to 'fix' the education system which is really only broken because of constant government meddling (much like our health care system).

But what really baffles me regarding this article is that the spokesperson attributes a line to Obama that - unless the writer forgot to source it - is completely made up. How has Obama "recognize[d] the unique ability of games to act as a catalyst in generating new areas of growth in education"? The only quote attributed to Obama that in any way references video games is a passing swipe at them for supposedly contributing to the ignorance/fatness of our children - something I would imagine would upset professional game developers rather than make them go all goo-goo eyed at his smiling picture.

I'm not sure what's going on here, if it's just mindless fanboyism from these organizations, an attempt to latch their effort onto the faded-and-falling Obama coattails, or something like the voluntary NEA/MSM propaganda push. But this is pretty bad journalism.

I am very happy with Obama. During the campaign when GTAIV was released, instead of bashing this game as a cop-killing sim like past poloticians have done, he recognized that this game was never intended for children, and instead of saying this game is irresponsible, he said PARENTS are irresponsible if they are not aware of what their children are doing/playing/watching. This is obvious for almost all of us on this site, but is a bigger attitude shift from washington than I have seen yet regarding video games. Hats off to Obama!!!

Jeffrey, you won't get much argument from me on the background points you make regarding the current Administration.

I also have to admit to a certain amount of irritation with Gamasutra over what seemed to me to be free political advertising for a particular candidate whom I assume was personally favored by the editorial staff -- by writing only positive stories about that candidate with respect to the game industry -- during the last U.S. presidential election cycle.

But I have to say I think you're being unnecessarily hard on Chris Remo regarding his reporting here. There's no reason to think he did not accurately report what ESA president Michael Gallagher said.

Certainly we can praise or criticize Gallagher for his comments or whatever motivation we may impute to him for making those comments. But that's a not a failure of reporting by anyone at Gamasutra.

If you wanted to try to make the larger case that Gamasutra's reporting on political issues that affect the game development industry tends to be slanted in favor of liberal policies and politicians, you might have some grounds for that argument. I would follow that discussion with some interest. ;)

I don't think Chris or Gamasutra have done anything wrong in this particular story, though. Other than perhaps being a bit uncritical in reporting on the promised benefits of big-government spending, this story seemed fine to me.

Jeffrey,

I don't really see it as my duty on this website to espouse an opinion as to whether Obama has lived up to his campaign promises. It certainly isn't my duty to look at his pre-election activities and take them into the remotest consideration when it comes to an entirely unrelated story like this.

And you're right; Gallagher's statement seems completely at odds with Obama's apparent complete absense of statements to that effect. That's why I included it; in my reporting on this site, I frequently deliberately include PR statements that don't seem to line up with the events being reported, because I trust that people reading the article will be able to make a similar observation. It's also why I followed that paragraph up with a mention of Obama's "put away the video games" line. To me, the juxtaposition was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But I don't think it's my place in a straight news story like this to call that out more explicitly. I'm not going to start including snarky slams on Obama or Gallagher or anyone else. Anyone, like you, can read this story and form his or her own conclusions.

I assumed that these companies had either volunteered or won bids for part of the 4 billion he's investing in education reform - that the government was subsidizing creation of the educational games. I had that idea after I failed to see the connection, I guess.