Candidate Obama would have known what to do if someone wanted to stop him from spreading his message. His unprecedented use of text messaging, Facebook and other social media supported more traditional communications means (if email can be considered traditional) to propel his campaign.As President, however, Obama seems as old-school as Ronald Reagan, who started this back-to-school ritual during the final year of his second term.

The stamp of Web 2.0 is in fact largely absent from the White House scene today; his speech to school children isn't at the top of the YouTube charts, doesn't have a Facebook page and hasn't been the subject of an email campaign that I can tell.

But you could fool the GOP. The chairman of Florida's Republican party, Jim Greer, said Obama's Administration "has been very diabolical in creating outlets to communicate with young people."

He also accused the president of trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda."

The speech encourages kids to work hard, volunteer in their communities, to love their country and to be accountable regardless of their circumstances.

At the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home -- that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.

Pretty standard stuff to my tin ear, but hardly technologically diabolical. Nevertheless, several school districts in Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri and Minnesota are boycotting the speech.

Candidate Obama would have used "diabolical" technology to get around the censors, but President Obama isn't. Go figure.