Strange Attraction
By RICH GIBSON
On July 4th , National Education Association Representative Assembly delegates, local leaders from all over the USA, voted 5,414 to 2,102 to endorse the demagogue, Obama. Most of those opposed to the endorsement only sought to delay it, hoping to "send Obama a message," about the Race to the Top.
That vote count is a far wider margin than most observers predicted and, if 95% of the delegates actually voted as they usually do, it means that NEA has nearly 1500 less delegates at the convention than last year, and last year was down from the usual 10,000 or so. Even if NEA lost 30,000 members the past year, as their own figures indicate, that couldn't account for the notable drop in delegates.
In any case, keep in mind that on February 14th of this year, bosses from the NEA, AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and some national community groups held an extraordinary meeting at NEA's headquarters. NEA, the nation's largest union with more than 3.1 million members, isn't affiliated with the bankrupt AFL-CIO, nor CTW, although NEA's leadership has sought affiliation for 25 years, a move repeatedly rejected by NEA members–wisely so as the only people the AFL-CIO is good at fighting are their own members.
The February meeting grew out of labor tops' worries about the nascent