Erick Erickson's Blog, page 111

The Perry Problem and the Romney Alternative

Rick Perry is a horrible debater. If you did not think so before last night, you must now concede the point.

Reading through the book about Dave Carney and Perry's eggheads, the Perry camp concluded that debates really are not that impactful. Perry has not had a debate since 2005 and, I am told, is simply not a good debater — staff and prep have nothing to do with it.

But in this cycle, we have just concluded the third of five debates in a row. The debates have become the best way to introduce the candidates to the largest possible audience of GOP voters at one time without spending gobs of money. Consequently, while debates may not have a typically large impact, they are having an impact right now. It is reflected in Perry's poll numbers drifting downward.

At the same time, there are a lot of people who still crave an alternative to Mitt Romney. Romney, for all his attacks on Rick Perry and social security, is doing himself no favors. His campaign team may think it is a winning issue for them, but Romney continues to stand as a less likable John McCain in this election cycle.

I've already gotten the opposition research book on Mitt Romney that the McCain 2008 campaign prepared. It is 198 pages of stuff that McCain never seemed to get around to using. If I've gotten the book, others have gotten the book. Some of the stuff is no big deal. A lot of it is a big deal if only to highlight the consistently changing positions of Mitt Romney.

That's why voters don't like him and want an alternative.

Rick Perry stands on the precipice. He is about to fall off. If he wants to be the anti-Romney candidate, he needs to do a few things quickly. First, he needs to get a comprehensive economic plan out soon. Second, he needs to answer some tough questions on immigration. Third, he needs to talk about America more than Texas. Fourth, he needs to not lose the next two debates. He does not have to win. He just cannot lose.

If Perry can hold his own in the debates he'll be fine not winning the debates outright. But another performance like last night could push him off the edge of support among people who want an anti-Romney alternative, but who really want to beat Barack Obama even more.

Morning Briefing for September 23, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For September 23, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Herman Cain Won the Debate

2. Democracy Corps (D): Obama 41/55

3. It's Great for America So Naturally the Left Opposes It

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1. Herman Cain Won the Debate

Good Lord this was the worst debate I think I've ever watched.

The audio was terrible. When the audience clapped the sound of the candidates faded away. The charts and polling was silly. Too many bells and whistles and too damn many candidates on the stage.

Did you know Gary Johnson intends to balance a budget? Whoopitydoo.

Rick Perry was a train wreck in this debate. He flubbed his response on Romney flip-flopping. He got the first question tonight and stumbled. Good grief.

Romney did so much better than Perry. So much better. But I still cannot believe these candidates have pulled their punches on Romneycare. He's getting a free pass on it. But his answers on so many questions, while smoothly delivered, were Democrat like.

The winner is Herman Cain. The audience loved him. Other than his question on Israel, Cain's answers really were out of the park awesome. He provided the most uplifting moments and the most memorable lines, with substance included.

Biggest two surprises of the night? Rick Santorum came off like a jerk. He was way too angry on every answer, even those times I fully agreed with him. He was just angry.

Jon Huntsman gave some very good and substantive answers.

Lastly, if Newt Gingrich could operate like he debates he'd be President.

There are still 15 minutes left, but I've had enough. I guarantee the last question will be just useless. This was miserable all around.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Democracy Corps (D): Obama 41/55

The Greenberg/Carville-sponsored poll certainly does have a good deal to say about the current state of House races, albeit from as positive-towards-the-Democrats position (Hotline called it 'sugary spin') as possible. For example, for all of the talk about how 'cool' the electorate was towards Republican incumbents the truth is that they're averaging a 40/32 approval/disapproval rating, and that the generic Congressional vote went from 48/42 Republican/Democrat in 2010 to 50/41 R/D today (which is up from 46/44 R/D in March). And while the poll will happily tell you that Greenberg & Carville's recommended message will shift that advantage down to an even-steven 45/45 R/D generic Congressional number, what they don't mention is that the last time they polled this survey they were able to 'turn' a 46/44 R/D into 44/47 R/D. In other words: things have gotten subtly worse for the Democrats since March.

As Hotline said: sugary spin.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. It's Great for America So Naturally the Left Opposes It

Next week will begin public meetings regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will be a pipeline connecting Alberta, Canada with Gulf Coast refineries.

As I'm sure you can expect, the freaks are going to come out of the woodworks. The left is already giving them their talking points.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Herman Cain Won the Debate

Good Lord this was the worst debate I think I've ever watched.

The audio was terrible. When the audience clapped the sound of the candidates faded away. The charts and polling was silly. Too many bells and whistles and too damn many candidates on the stage.

Did you know Gary Johnson intends to balance a budget? Whoopitydoo.

Rick Perry was a train wreck in this debate. He flubbed his response on Romney flip-flopping. He got the first question tonight and stumbled. Good grief.

Romney did so much better than Perry. So much better. But I still cannot believe these candidates have pulled their punches on Romneycare. He's getting a free pass on it. But his answers on so many questions, while smoothly delivered, were Democrat like.

The winner is Herman Cain. The audience loved him. Other than his question on Israel, Cain's answers really were out of the park awesome. He provided the most uplifting moments and the most memorable lines, with substance included.

Biggest two surprises of the night? Rick Santorum came off like a jerk. He was way too angry on every answer, even those times I fully agreed with him. He was just angry.

Jon Huntsman gave some very good and substantive answers.

Lastly, if Newt Gingrich could operate like he debates he'd be President.

There are still 15 minutes left, but I've had enough. This was miserable all around.

The Fox News GOP Debate From Orlando, FL

We're going to do it simple tonight and just add our twitter feeds to a Cover-It-Live box.

The GOP Debate

Horserace for September 22, 2011

Is the love affair over? Mitt Romney is starting to creep up on Rick Perry. Perry is drifting down in polling. Michele Bachmann has dropped of the radar.

More surprisingly, Jon Huntsman suddenly looks like he's searching for a viable path to victory out of New Hampshire and his gains are not having an impact on Mitt Romney . . . yet.

Tonight there is another debate in Florida. This time it is Orlando, FL and everyone will, yet again, gang up on Rick Perry. But his lead is slipping. He has not locked in the support he needs and consolidated his gains. Close . . . so close for Perry. But is the love affair fading?

We'll get into all of that today in the horserace.

Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann has fallen off the path to victory and, surprisingly, many of her supporters have headed toward Mitt Romney. She could potentially get back on the path to victory, but she'll need to start showing life in Iowa. She's not showing well in any state right now except Iowa. Iowa will have to give her a bounce over New Hampshire to get her into South Carolina.

Ever since Rick Perry got in the race, Bachmann has floundered. Right now she is serving a useful purpose for Romney by attacking Perry on HPV. But those attacks are not actually helping Michele Bachmann. In fact, I would argue the over the top attacks have been hurting Bachmann and, to a lesser degree, Perry.

Bachmann needs to regain her footing and focus on getting more money. If she can't compete in Iowa, she can't compete anywhere.

Herman Cain

Herman's campaign is over. There is no path to victory. He played the few cards he had not as well as he should have.

Newt Gingrich

Gingrich is still not resonating with voters, many of whom see him as yesterday's leader, not tomorrow's. He seemed reconciled to that in the last GOP debate, but maybe a fiery performance tonight will fire back up the Gingrich 2012 campaign. I won't hold my breath. Is he just hanging out in hopes of paying off campaign debt? That seems to be the most likely explanation.

Jon Huntsman

A new poll suggests Jon Huntsman is coming on strong in New Hampshire, moving into second place behind an increasingly entrenched Mitt Romney.

But like with Bachmann in Iowa, New Hampshire would need to be a must win state for Huntsman and I doubt he can overcome the Romney advantage. If he starts throwing mud in Romney's direction to hurt Romney — something he will have to do — that may help Huntsman in New Hampshire, but overall helps a guy like Perry even more because Perry is more competitive than Huntsman in most other places.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul will not be the nominee.

Rick Perry

Let's just admit that Perry is a bad debater. I do not expect much from him in tonight's debate. He will need to have good answers on social security and immigration. He needs to prepare again for the HPV issue, but I suspect that issue has largely blown over.

Foreign policy is going to be a bigger focus. He handled the Afghan question poorly in the last debate. He'll get a do-over. Fundamentally, Perry has been unable to close the deal with the primary electorate. True, there is still plenty of time before Iowa, but now is the time to start locking in a lead to shut out others. The keep polling will come in December. If Perry is able to hold on, and I suspect he will, Perry will be the nominee.

As much as people are not sold on Perry, those same people just want a show of competence so they can permanently cut strings with MItt Romney, the guy who is everyone's fallback.

Perry remains the frontrunner and the ad war and state by state playing field that will be more playable after this series of debates is where he'll need to make up some ground. The exception is if he finally has a stellar debate performance. I don't normally put too much stock in debate performances — and Perry has not had one since 2005, which suggests he does not either — but the debate performances are driving the narrative right now and driving Perry's polling down. That said, it is not hurting him in Florida so far and a majority of Republicans agree on the ponzi scheme comment.

The Perry love affair is not over for primary voters. But they sure are stringing Mitt Romney along as a fallback.

Mitt Romney

The Romney strategy had been to sit back and wait for Perry to implode. That has not happened so they are engaged in pushing Perry, hoping to find the self-destruct button on Perry. In doing so, Romney is making himself less and less a conservative and more and more a John McCain.

The history of the Republican nominating process shows there is merit to that strategy. Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain were all the safe picks and more moderate than some of the fire breathing conservatives. But their track record was not so good at winning the general election.

George H. W. Bush largely won in 1988 because he was Reagan's successor. George W. Bush beat McCain in 2000 by being the conservative. In 1980, Reagan beat George H. W. Bush in a primary that increasingly resembles this primary. I'm not comparing Perry to Reagan except to the extent Reagan was viewed as the risky, hard charging heir to Goldwater conservatism and Bush was the guy who Washington Republicans felt would play it safe.

The mood of the 2012 cycle strikes me as the mood of the 1980 cycle. Romney's money gives him a strong cushion, but he could stumble outside the zeitgeist of the election. Already he's lost his front runner status and his strategy to get it back — to get to the left of Perry on key issues — won't help him in the ad war.

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum will not be the nominee.

Morning Briefing for September 22, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For September 22, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

The first post today is on Troy Davis. I want to make clear that I have a lot of friends who oppose the death penalty. They have valid reasons for doing so. But those of my friends who oppose the death penalty have not been out planting or reaping seeds of doubt the Troy Davis defense has, for twenty years, been sowing. For twenty years, for multiple trips to the Supreme Court, and despite all the hollering from the Davis supporters, he has been consistently found guilty.

What is ironic to me is the large number of liberals who think the state should abandon its 5000+ year history and, in this country additionally, its constitutional role in meting out death as the ultimate punishment, but should suddenly embrace as a duty those things the government has no long history or constitutional authority to take on.

Contrary to last night's "clever" talking point on the left, there is no conflict between a belief in limited government and support for the death penalty. That penalty has long been an explicit power of the state. Troy Davis is dead. May Mark MacPhail, the real victim, rest in peace.

1. There Is No Travesty of Justice in Georgia.

2. Class Warfare: American Communists of 1928 Compared to Barack Obama

3. Green Profiteers and Plastic Bags

4. Get Ready: Conservatives Are About to Support the Federal Takeover of Schools

5. On HPV and Virtuous Diseases

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1. There Is No Travesty of Justice in Georgia.

Last night, the United States Supreme Court declined to stay Troy Davis's execution. He will, by the time many of you are reading this, be dead. There were no expressions of dissent or objection from any of the 9 members of the Supreme Court.

I like Guy Benson a lot, but his column on Troy Davis got my blood pressure up.

I'm hearing a lot from people opposed to Troy Davis's execution that there is no physical evidence in the case — and a whole lot of other hoo-haa.

First of all, let's set out that the case has been going on for twenty years.

Second, let's point out that two witnesses at Davis's trial testified under oath that Troy Davis admitted to the shooting.

Yes, those witnesses have now, twenty years and much badgering by anti-death penalty advocates later, recanted. A federal judge spent two days reviewing the evidence and the testimony last year and issued a 172 page order explaining why the witnesses recanting was "smoke and mirrors."

In fact, one of the chief nuggets of the case is that there was no physical evidence. Except that is crap. There is the matter of Troy Davis's bloody clothes that you've probably never heard of. And the gun.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

RELATED: Ann Coulter's Mumia's the Word

2. Class Warfare: American Communists of 1928 Compared to Barack Obama

The other day I linked to a rather silly post at Think Progress by Matthew Yglesias. His point was that Obama is not engaging in class warfare because if you want real class warfare look at the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1928. That was real class warfare. Never mind how similar some of what the CPGB wanted in 1928 is what Obama is calling for now.

But we don't have to look to the CPGB. We can look to the Communist Party of America 1928.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Green Profiteers and Plastic Bags

Believe it or not, there's been a war going on over plastic bags for some time now. It seems that manufacturers of those reusable bags you see near the checkout line were none too pleased that so many people were continuing to choose plastic or paper bags as opposed to shelling out $20 bucks for their environmental solution.

So the reusable bag company known as ChicoBag did what any good environmental alarmist would do: they lied.

For instance, they claimed that "a reusable bag needs only to be used eleven times to have a lower environmental impact than using eleven disposable bags." They were close. It was actually 393 times or roughly 7.5 years to replace reusing a plastic bag just three times.

But, as always seems to be the case with wild claims of healing mother earth, their exaggerations weren't just limited to their alleged comparability to plastic bags.

This company even went so far as to hide the fact that reusable bags can actually have negative health effects since, unlike the evil plastic bags, reusable bags can become covered in bacteria.

They even created a bogus government website to push their agenda.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Get Ready: Conservatives Are About to Support the Federal Takeover of Schools

After Mitt Romney attacked Rick Perry for joining Milton Friedman in calling social security a "ponzi scheme", conservative intellectuals in the DC-NY corridor suddenly began treating Friedman as John Maynard Keynes' bastard love child with Karl Marx and rejecting all calls to reform social security because Rick Perry dared to call it a ponzi scheme.

Considering the behavior of conservative intellectuals in Washington and New York on that issue, get ready for them to support a federal take over of elementary and secondary schools because Mitt Romney today came out in favor of Barack Obama's Race to the Top and Arne Duncan's education reforms.

This is more than a subtle dig at Rick Perry.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. On HPV and Virtuous Diseases

One of the disadvantages of being a procrastinator is that sometimes you lose great opportunities. I started on this story last week and put it aside because of travel, In the meantime I find that Michael Gerson has hit the subject much better than I ever could.

Though the kerfuffle concerning Michele Bachmann and the HPV vaccine from the Republican candidate debate in Tampa is about over, during the course of that debate I repeatedly encountered an argument that, in my view, belongs much more in Saudi Arabia than America.

Fact: there is no such thing as a virtuous disease.

Fact: no behavior or lifestyle choice merits death by cancer.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Christianity and the Death Penalty

"Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind."
— Gen. 9:6 (NIV)

I am no theologian, but tonight I kept running into people who claim I cannot be a Christian and support the death penalty. Many of them referred to the Catholic Church, which takes a very firm stand in favor of life, from abortion to the death penalty.

Let me deal with this as best a layman can.

I firmly respect that view point, but I do not think a Christian must reject the death penalty.

For all those who read in the 10 Commandments "Thou Shalt Not Kill", consider that a more accurate interpretation is, in fact, "murder" and not "kill" in Exodus 20:13.

And if you think otherwise, just flip over a page to Exodus 21:12-17 where you'll find

Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death.

Anyone who attacks[c] their father or mother is to be put to death.

Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper's possession.

Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

And that's not God saying he'll do it. That's God telling the Israelites to do it.

But the story doesn't start with Exodus. Go all the way back to the beginning to the Book of Genesis, specifically Genesis 9:6, in which God declares, "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind."

Fast forward to Romans 13 and you'll see in the first six verses St. Paul saying clearly that God establishes all governing authorities and that "[the governing authorities] are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience." Romans 13:4-5.

Some would read this in conflict with Romans 12′s admonition in verses 17 to 19 which states,

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[d] says the Lord.

Except it is very clear in Romans 12 that it is talking about the individual Christian, not the state. Individual Christians are not supposed to seek revenge or repay anyone "evil for evil." We are supposed to love and to "overcome evil with good." See Romans 12-21.

That, however, does not preclude the death penalty being imposed by Christians through their government. In fact, Romans 12:19 says "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath." Jump back over to Romans 13:4b and you find that the state is "God's servant[], and his "agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer."

Many people fall into the trap of not separating out discussions of the individual Christian's response with that of the governing authorities who, again, "God has established." Keep in mind as well that Paul is writing this during Roman persecution still telling Christians that they must obey the state, pay their taxes, and honor the government.

If you want to oppose the death penalty, that's fine. If you want to oppose the death penalty on religious grounds, that's fine. If you want to oppose the death penalty on Christian religious grounds, that is even fine.

Just don't say the correct Chrisian theological position is to oppose the death penalty when very clearly Romans 13 tells us the state serves a purpose to mete out God's wrath, including through capital punishment.

Troy Davis Is A Justly Convicted Cop Killer

I've had my say on Troy Davis. Now consider Ann Coulter who read through the entirely of the 170+ page federal judicial re-examination of the evidence.

[T]he media claim that seven of the nine witnesses against Davis at trial have recanted.

First of all, the state presented 34 witnesses against Davis — not nine — which should give you some idea of how punctilious the media are about their facts in death penalty cases.

Among the witnesses who did not recant a word of their testimony against Davis were three members of the Air Force, who saw the shooting from their van in the Burger King drive-in lane. The airman who saw events clearly enough to positively identify Davis as the shooter explained on cross-examination, "You don't forget someone that stands over and shoots someone."

. . . .

Three recantations were from friends of Davis, making minor or completely unbelievable modifications to their trial testimony. For example, one said he was no longer sure he saw Davis shoot the cop, even though he was five feet away at the time. His remaining testimony still implicated Davis.

One alleged recantation, from the vagrant's girlfriend (since deceased), wasn't a recantation at all, but rather reiterated all relevant parts of her trial testimony, which included a direct identification of Davis as the shooter.

Only two of the seven alleged "recantations" (out of 34 witnesses) actually recanted anything of value — and those two affidavits were discounted by the court because Davis refused to allow the affiants to testify at the post-trial evidentiary hearing, even though one was seated right outside the courtroom, waiting to appear.

The court specifically warned Davis that his refusal to call his only two genuinely recanting witnesses would make their affidavits worthless. But Davis still refused to call them — suggesting, as the court said, that their lawyer-drafted affidavits would not have held up under cross-examination.

But somehow this is all a travesty of justice.

The Troy Davis Execution and the Horserace

Tonight, Troy Davis is set to be executed at 7:00 p.m. I go on air at 7:06 p.m. We'll be handling the situation live and then going into the horserace at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

You can listen live by clicking here and you can call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Get Ready: Conservatives Are About to Support the Federal Takeover of Schools

After Mitt Romney attacked Rick Perry for joining Milton Friedman in calling social security a "ponzi scheme", conservative intellectuals in the DC-NY corridor suddenly began treating Friedman as John Maynard Keynes' bastard love child with Karl Marx and rejecting all calls to reform social security because Rick Perry dared to call it a ponzi scheme.

Considering the behavior of conservative intellectuals in Washington and New York on that issue, get ready for them to support a federal take over of elementary and secondary schools because Mitt Romney today came out in favor of Barack Obama's Race to the Top and Arne Duncan's education reforms.

This is more than a subtle dig at Rick Perry.

Perry rejected Race to the Top ("RTTT") funding claiming it would amount to a federal incursion into education standards in Texas and possibly lead to a federal take over of schools that underperform on RTTT standards, which had not actually even been set at the time Perry rejected funding.

Considering Texas is among the nation's leaders in standards, I imagine whatever federal standards are eventually agreed upon will be weaker than the ones we have now.

Adding injury to insult, the price tag to change all our text books and instructional materials to comply with Washington's vision for public education would be about $3 billion.

In return, Texas could expect to get back from Race To The Top as little as $75 a student, barely enough to fund our state's educational system for two days.

So turning down the strings-attached stimulus money was an easy call — in terms of ensuring our children get the best education possible and in simple matters of dollars and cents.

A few days after I made that announcement, the president said he wanted another $1.35 billion in borrowed dollars to expand RTTT so he could sidestep states and appeal directly to individual school districts that might be willing to sign away their authority in return for a quick infusion of some federal cash.

In recent days, that led Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who Romney says "has done some good things," to attack Perry and Texas's education record. That led to a rebuke of Duncan by Robert Scott, head of the Texas Education Agency. Rodger Jones at the Dallas Morning News says the rebuke of Duncan is justified. Duncan, in a politically motivated attack on Perry, said Texas schools have "really struggled" under Perry. But the Dallas Morning News went so far as to call Duncan's statement "a lie."

TEA Commissioner Robert Scott emailed Duncan a sharp response last night (keep reading for text), and I'm glad he did.

The tipoff that Duncan doesn't care about facts was his statement about "massive increases in class size in Texas" during Rick Perry's time in the governor's office.

Does that sound right to you — considering the fact that the 22-1 class-size cap has been in place that whole time for primary grades?

I checked TEA records on statewide class size averages. Primary grades held steady, of course, while most secondary class averages went down during the Perry years.

Examples: Secondary math classes averaged 20.3 students in 2000-01 and dropped to 18.5 by last year. Average size of secondary English/language arts classes fell from 20.2 students in 2000-01 to 17.8 by last year.

Anybody could look this stuff up. It's right there on the TEA website. Duncan surely has a few thousand employees who could help him find it.

Even Time Magazine had to issue a corrective on Arne Duncan's statement. As Time's Andrew J. Rotherham pointed out, Texas schools outpace the Chicago schools Arne Duncan had once overseen.

Ross Douthat at the New York Times pointed out that "When a 2009 McKinsey study contrasted Perry's home state to the similarly sized and situated California, it found that Texas students were 'one to two years of learning ahead of California students of the same age, even though Texas has less income per capita and spends less per pupil than California.'"

But Romney is cool with RTTT and Arne Duncan. And I find it impossible to believe his mentioning Duncan this week is not tied to Duncan's lies about Texas.

Romney's own record on education doesn't leave one with a good feeling. He supported No Child Left Behind. According to an August 31, 2006, Associated Press report,

Massachusetts has not been impacted by the federal No Child Left Behind law because it was testing public school students before it was enacted, Gov. Mitt Romney said Thursday, but he supports it because such measurement is necessary to improve schools.

Then there's his 2002 gubernatorial bid in which Romney came out opposed to school vouchers after aggressively supporting them in his 1994 campaign against Teddy Kennedy. In fact, though Romney supported No Child Left Behind and now seemingly supports Race to the Top, in 2002 he said vouchers "are not a good idea for Massachusetts."

By 2007, Romney had moved on to supporting Charer Schools.

"On education, Romney boasted of student performance on federal testing on English and math, growth of charter schools, state funded college scholarships and approval of a ballot initiative that ended bilingual education." (Todd Dvorak, "Romney Touts Conservative Views In Waterloo," The Associated Press, 1/26/07)

But there was a hitch. As Governor of Massachusetts he refused to ever meet with the head of the Massachusetts Charter School Association.

. "Even his local supporters are cringing. Few issues are as important as school choice but Marc Kenen, head of the Massachusetts Charter School Association, wasn't able to get a single meeting with the governor in four years. 'We never had an opportunity to sit down with him, we never had a one-on-one conversation,' Kenen said. 'He wasn't the most accessible guy.'" (Brett Arends, Op-Ed, "Mitt Shoots Holes In His Credibility," The Boston Herald, 4/11/07)

In other words, Mitt Romney is on the record supporting No Child Left Behind and Arne Duncan's reforms geared toward discrediting Texas, but he would not support school choice and while he said he'd support charter schools he'd never meet with charter schools leaders.

What the hell does Mitt Romney believe in other than saying or doing anything right now to hurt Team Perry, including tacking to the left? But hey! At least in 1994 Mitt Romney supported the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. Like Obama though, I suspect this statement of his comes with an expiration date tied to what he now considers electability as a moderate.