Campaign 2008

Friday's Presidential debate was supposed to focus on foreign policy, so we weren't expecting to hear much discussion of early education issues. But during a section in which moderator Jim Lehrer asked the candidates about how the current financial crisis will impact their proposed policy agendas, Democratic candidate Barack Obama gave a shout-out to early education as the kind of needed investment that produces long-term returns that justify increasing investments even in tight economic times:

LEHRER: Would you go for that [a freeze on domestic spending proposed by McCain]?

OBAMA: The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I want to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn't make sense.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936710710962237.html?mod=todays_columnists

Writing in the Globe and Mail, Canadian columnist John Ibbitson offers an interesting perspective on the current U.S. presidential race. Ibbitson notes that the tenor of the campaign debate has pushed education reform out of the public view in this race, and wonders why, given the issue's importance to America's future. Ibbitson makes a pretty bold prediction:

But mark this: After this election, education will be one of the two or three issues that dominate political debate. Why? Because it's simply too huge a problem to ignore.

The breadth of Christian religious backgrounds of the four candidates (Pentacostal, UCC, Catholic, Episcopalian/Baptism) is very interesting to me. 

in Post this week

 At the Republican convention, Sarah Palin introduced herself to the world in the speech of a lifetime.  Her family was nearby and joining them was Levi Johnston, the father of the baby that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is carrying.   Sarah Palin is often compared to Dan Quayle, George H.W.

 In his campaign acceptance speech last week, John McCain focused on worker retraining in a way Republican candidates rarely do.  McCain has understood throughout this campaign that how he responds to the plight of workers harmed by the global economy will be critical to his election chances.  In a March 24, 2008, editorial in the Washington Post, McCain's senior policy advisor included modernizing unemployment insurance and training programs as a critical component to McCain's plan to turn around the economy. Now this important issue is urgent.  Last week the Labor Department reported that unemployment has jumped from 5.7% to 6.1%, a five year high, as employers slashed jobs.  If such economic trends continue, McCain will have trouble winning the battleground states and the election.

 One key line that has been underreported from McCain's convention speech is his mention of filling the gap between an unemployed worker’s lost salary and that person’s new wage while that person trains for the new job.  That sentence signals support for an idea supported usually by Democrats of wage insurance - insuring a worker’s income against job loss.  This is a significant phrase for a GOP candidate to utter.

John McCain likes to talk about Teddy Roosevelt as one of his heroes.  So he picked a true Western hunter tough.....person as his runningmate.