Can Obama Hold the Center?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 20th, 2009 4:41 am by HL
Can Obama Hold the Center?
The public’s approval of Barack Obama breaks along stark partisan lines, mimicking George W. Bush at the same point in his presidency. The steady support of independents, meanwhile, has sustained Obama’s overall public approval. Six in ten independents have supported Obama since he entered the White House, according to tracking by the Gallup Poll, matching his public standing on the whole. Bush, by comparison, began March 2001 with similarly strong support from moderates. By the close of the month Bush’s independent support withered to 48 percent, slimming his majority for the first time into the low 50s.
Let’s Not Play Standards Roulette 
Whether it’s blind hope that Washington can fix anything, a lack of ideas for reforming our crummy schools, or some other reason entirely, calls for national academic standards are increasingly loud and frequent. And while President Barack Obama stopped short of explicitly advocating for them in his first major education address, there have been several high–profile calls recently by American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, the National Governor’s Association and Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan. But instituting national standards will not solve the problems facing our schools. Indeed, it would be like playing Russian roulette with our kids — with only one empty chamber.
