Unlike some people

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Fox 'News.' What else can I say? They're not really a news network, but the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. Of course they're going to misquote Barack Obama. If you expect them to be accurate, let alone 'fair and balanced,' you haven't been paying attention.

I'm shocked, though, that at least two newspapers haven't gotten that message. Well, one newspaper, anyway. After all, the New York Post is also owned by Rupert Murdoch. I'm sure they've got the same mandate to elect Republicans as Fox.

But there's another thing about this. Listen to Barack Obama in those excerpts. It's not just that he wasn't attacking Mitt Romney (not even by implication). He was saying something important.

Public education used to be valued by all Americans. This is how you gave kids a chance. Free public education and affordable universities meant that middle class people could also get a good education, that it wasn't reserved just for the wealthy.

Well, college tuition costs have been skyrocketing, and we've been laying off teachers in order to give tax cuts to the rich. Schools in many poor districts hardly deserve the name.

We are developing a hereditary aristocracy here, and we're doing it deliberately. Republicans are even trying to eliminate the estate tax! And again, they're slashing spending on anything the rich don't need - like public education.

If you're lucky enough to be Mitt Romney, born into wealth, you've got it made. You don't even have to pay the same tax rate as the little people. And note that his sons already have a $100 million trust fund, so they'd never really have to work a day in their lives. This is a hereditary aristocracy in all but name.

If your parents aren't so rich, though - and especially if they're poor - well, you should have thought of that before you picked them. When I was young, a kid could still hope, with a little luck, to pay his own way through college. I'd sure hate to try that now!