Many conservatives ridiculed some Obama supporters for their seemingly religious devotion to a politician. Some conservatives also expressed concern (at least) over the President's speech to school children. The Left has defended themselves against such attacks by maintaining that no one really worshiped Obama and several other presidents gave similar speeches to school children.
While it could not be argued that everyone on the left fits those stereotypes, it has to be acknowledged that they are stereotypes for a reason. The reason? This and this.
It's hard for conservatives not to laugh (or scream) when they see a video of school children singing the praises of a politician, especially when said song alludes to a Sunday School hymn. Then you have a quiz for students to take about Obama's health care speech, which is blatantly partisan.
This was my main concern going into the speech, which I knew would be filled with encouraging, but vague platitudes about the importance of educations and service. The potential for abuse lie in the classroom of teachers who would use the moment for political lessons (be they pro or anti Obama).
Neither the Obama praise song or the health care speech quiz are in and of themselves completely unacceptable. However, the two instances play up and into the stereotypes that liberals claim are completely illegitimate.
Each side has their own negative stereotypes that we wish didn't exist. To combat these, we need to call out those on our side who engage in the acts that encourage the caricatures. If liberals have problems with the stereotypes then they need to turn their attention to those on their own side that are propagating them.
