Tavis Smiley was off by a year.

When Barack Obama decided two years ago that he would seek the presidency, Smiley famously predicted on the Tom Joyner Morning Show that the junior senator from Illinois was about to “discover America.” In other words, he was about to see the ugly side of American racism.

As bad as things got during the election campaign, nothing could have prepared Obama, or his supporters, for what is occurring now.

Let’s forget the raucous town hall meetings for a minute. Have you heard the latest?

Some on the radical right are now castigating the president because of a televised speech he is set to deliver on Tuesday to the nation’s school children, encouraging them to work hard, set goals, stay in school and take personal responsibility.

Conservative talk show hosts and right-wing bloggers are completely apoplectic.

They accuse the president of trying to force feed the nation’s most vulnerable minds with liberal pabulum. And all over the nation – including in the Qcity – angry parents are calling school districts demanding that their children be exempted from hearing the president talk.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry said CMS has gotten more calls than she can count.

Still, she said, the district is “making the opportunity available” to all students who want to watch the president’s speech. Parents who object can have their children opt out.

According to the Charlotte Observer, school officials in Cabarrus, Union and York County, S.C., also are making the speech optional.

To be completely fair, some critics insist that what they really oppose is a letter sent to the nation’s principals by the Department of Education, encouraging schools to develop a lesson plan around the president’s “historic” speech.

For grades pre-K through 6, the department suggested some questions students might ponder while watching the speech, such as: "What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do?

For grades 7-12, it suggested "guided discussion" with topics such as: "What resonated with you from President Obama's speech?" and "What is President Obama inspiring you to do?"

Whoever got the notion to get the Education Department involved should be fired. Americans by birthright are an independent lot, a people acutely sensitive to government meddling. And with all the shouts of “socialist” being leveled at the president already, the DOE letter was simply a ham-handed idea, made all the worse by its clumsy focus on Obama and not his subject matter -- education, goals and responsibility.

Still, it’s hard to explain the level of vitriol being aimed at this particular president so early in his administration.

Florida's Republican Party chair, Jim Greer, issued a statement saying “President Obama has turned to American's (sic) children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American's (sic) youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves."

Did someone forget to remind Mr. Greer that presidents Reagan and Bush each gave nationally televised speeches aimed at students?

Where was the outrage then?

And, sure, the debate over health care reform grew nasty when Bill Clinton proposed it, too, but no one showed up at town hall meetings packing guns. No one talked of insurrection.

I have used this blog in the past to denounce African Americans who shout “Racism!” where none obviously existed. But in the case of the Obama presidency, Tavis Smiley wasn’t wrong; he was simply ill-timed.