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Campaign Crawlers
Who’s Sorry Now?
Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes wants his old job back so badly that he’s abandoned the one issue that made him exceptional.
(Page 2 of 2)
At the national level, Obama’s embrace of school reform — the only part of his agenda that has proven to be a singular success — along with the success of teacher quality reform efforts in Colorado, California, and even New York have shown that teachers unions no longer hold the high ground on education policy. Barnes is not only abandoning an issue just as he can actually win on it — and keep office — he is also abandoning one of the proudest legacies of Southern governors. After all, it was the efforts of Clinton, George W. Bush, Lamar Alexander, and other Southern governors that helped usher in the modern school reform movement.
Meanwhile Barnes’s apologies aren’t working with teachers union officials or the rank-and-file. A week after Barnes released one of his video mea culpas, the GAE refused to endorse him or any other Democrat; it may still endorse a Republican candidate in a likely Republican run-off for the gubernatorial nod. Barnes also came in a pathetic fifth place in a straw poll held by the traditional education circle-allied Georgia Education Alliance. Many teachers share the same feelings as Mary Ann Ellis, who complained about receiving so many of Barnes’s targeted e-mails. Wrote Ellis in the Baxley News-Banner: “As you speak, humility cakes your face like too much makeup on a strumpet.”
The chances of a second term for Barnes, especially in light of the struggles of fellow Democrats in other states, may make all this groveling an exercise in wretched futility.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
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drudge ette obama| 7.14.10 @ 8:02AM
Georgians are begging eachother not to put this guy back in office. No Barnes, please! He's super slimy and a fast-talking Southern polcat.
It would be like putting Clinton (Bill) back in the White House. RoyBoy is a typical class action lawyer from small-town Marietta GA. Need I say more? He dips in and out of politics, in and out of class actions.
Georgians are begging...NoRoyBoy.
Jeff Lee| 7.14.10 @ 8:17AM
Barnes has learned how to grovel for success.
Mike| 7.14.10 @ 9:56AM
Any one remember, the fiscal disaster he left Georgia in?
drudge ette obama| 7.14.10 @ 5:23PM
He left the schools in shambles, mostly with his poor choice of a Secretary of Education. Current governor has done well just stemming the tide.
Frank Drackman | 7.14.10 @ 9:59AM
Roy Barnes did not eliminate the "Unseemly" Stars and Bars from the Georgia State Flag, he merely shrunk it, on a design that might just be the worst State Flag in history. A bland Blue banner with the State Seal in the middle, "Georgia's History" on the bottom with a progression of the flags that have flow over the Peach State.
Ironically, the current design looks more like the Original Confederate Flag than the one that got all you Yankee's danders up.
Frank "The South will Rise Again" Drackman
Quartermaster| 7.14.10 @ 7:41PM
That was not the "Stars and Bars" in teh canton corner, but the Battle Flag. The "Stars and Bars" was the 1st national or provisional flag that was replaced by the Stainless Banner.
Only Yankees and other ignorant types saw the Georgia Flag as "controversial." Their ignorance was all that was controversial.
Clinton nee Publius | 7.14.10 @ 11:06AM
I did a business meeting with him two years ago and was surprised at his lack of understanding of basic business cycle issues. His attitude was that because he was the former governor his business could charge what it wanted and it would be successful. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Sour grapes on my part no doubt, but I wonder how those grapes are going to taste to voters who realize this is just another guy who will say whatever he has to say to get elected and then he will act in the way that he wants. Sound eerily familiar?
Roy Barnes| 7.14.10 @ 6:40PM
I really don't have a chance to win. Obama has spoiled it for me and Captain Negative (AKA Harry Reid)
Oxidine will be the next governor.
JR| 7.16.10 @ 1:46PM
Actually, the current Georgia flag IS the flag known as the "Stars and Bars", with the only difference being the addition of the Georgia seal in the circle of stars. The Stars and Bars was the original flag of the Confederacy. The contrversial "crossed stars" flag was a battle flag that was incorporated as part of later versions of the Confederate Flag. The "crossed stars" configuration was adobted because in the heat of battle the Stars and Bars was easily confused with the Stars and Stripes, especially when there was no wind.