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Man, how do I put this in a delightfully colorful and thus hopefully vaguely entertaining way? I don't think it's karma, because by all accounts he seems like a really good, earnest fella. But dude, my man Jeff Merkley can't seem to go more than a few days without pissing all over his own good news. You start to think they might finally have a little momentum going...and a bird from above craps on them again. This week's little bird is Dave Steves over at the Reg-Guard, with something I was already getting ready to point out (as apparently was LO member Pat Malach, good eye Pat): Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley seems to be on a fast-rising curve when it comes to learning to hate No Child Left Behind.
On Thursday, he issued an open letter to President Bush’s education secretary (who was in Salem that day as part of a P.R. swing promoting the law). Merkley’s letter said among other things, that “nothing short of a full-scale overhaul of NCLB will address the myriad problems with the law.”
A day earlier, the student newspaper, Oregon Daily Emerald, reported that when Merkley was asked at a gathering of students at the UO what should be done about the No Child Left Behind Act, Merkley said abruptly, “It needs to be thrown out.”
That seems to be a less kind and less gentle approach than the one Merkley took on Jan. 8, when he vowed in a press release to “Improve No Child Left Behind.” The now-familiar dismissive, why-are-you-bothering-me-again response from manager Russ Kelley? “Novick said, ‘junk it. Get rid of it. It’s no good.’ Merkley said, ‘it’s absolutely no good. Fix it.’— as if those are two absolutely different positions,” he said. “They’re exactly the same positions. Novick lays out the fixes he wants. Merkley lays out the fixes he wants.” The parsing between the positions isn't actually the point Steves appears to be making. Moreover, what Steves' real point implies is one of two things. One is the harmless amusement of someone getting busted playing language games and having to decide whether to admit being busted or continue playing it straight and looking a little Baghdad Bob-ish in the process. But the second possibility is very realistic, and not at all encouraging. And even Steves' fun with messaging mistakes gives us something to ponder about the effectiveness of the campaign machine so far. Take a look below, will you? {down here, below the little line graphic}
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