To My Conservative Friends

I don't like the guy, and I likely won't be voting for him, but every time you pass along something as transparently stupid as Obama was never editor of the Harvard Law Review or keep harping about the dead-and-buried birth certificate issue, you look ridiculous. There are plenty of the man's ideas that can be attacked on their merits, or lack thereof, and that's how you're going to get independent voters.

This is why I'm absolutely disappointed that an idea guy couldn't get more traction in the Republican primary, because a vigorous debate over ideas would do our country a lot of good right now, and I don't think that a guy like Mitt Romney who is built on a foundation of sand has the chops to pull it off. You can't debate health care reform when you yourself pushed through an almost identical plan when you were Governor. Obama is pretty good on foreign policy--sorry, Steve Beren, but "My administration got Osama bin Laden" probably is enough to cancel everything else out--and that leaves domestic issues where "But the recovery could have been faster!" and "Transvaginal ultrasounds are swell!" aren't going to get you anywhere.

Here's to 2016.

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Mitt v. Newt

The humorous thing about Mitt saying that Newt "Can't take the heat" is that Mitt has sputtered pretty hard in the debates when he's actually been challenged head-on. Perry got under his skin a few weeks back, and Newt got him in the last one with the line about Ted Kennedy.

If Mitt Romney can't handle softball attacks from his fellow Republicans, how can anyone really think that he'll be able to handle Obama?

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Anyone Who Cares About Education and Doesn't Vote for Mitt Romney is an Idiot

Third Rail~!

One more interesting tidbit from this week's Education Gadfly is their look at how the new Governor of Massachusetts is planning to change with the state academic standards, which have been highly rated in the past. In fact, nearly every report you read will have Massachusetts up near the top in every education metric.

That being true, should teachers support Mitt Romney for president? I mean, sure, he supports charter schools, wants to give home schoolers a tax credit, and is a big proponent of merit pay, but he's also gotten results. Or is giving him credit for success in Massachusetts more than he deserves, because of how the state operates as a whole?

As far as I can see there's no one left in the contest who has the education record that Romney does; does that matter?

Read more here, if any.