THE 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION JUST ANOTHER CASULTY OF PURPOSEFULLY FAILED PUBLIC EDUCATION? (LA ELECCIÓN PRESIDENCIAL DE 2012 SOLO OTRA DE CASULTY propósito FALLÓ LA EDUCACIÓN PÚBLICA?)
(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)
Last night I went to the Hammer Museum for one in a series of excellent programs moderated by KPFK 90.7 FM's Ian Masters entitled Political Persuasion: The 2012 Elections. As we start the countdown to next year's presidential election, I was surprised by the unanimity between the veteran but opposing campaign strategists. Both Bill Zimmerman, who has worked on many political campaigns for candidates or ballot initiatives and Dan Schnur, the now director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, who worked on virtually all Republican presidential campaigns since Ron Reagan, agreed that it would be least educated that would hold the balance of power in deciding whether Barack Obama would get a second term or whether a Republican would replace him.
What the campaign comes down to is what Dan Schnur laid out in the following manner. He called those voters who agreed with you "Saints", those that disagreed with you "Sinners." He pointed out that there was no really