Tom Friedman's Embarrassing Man-Crush on Sec. Duncan
by Frederick M. Hess • Dec 3, 2012 at 7:04 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
Many people say nice things about our earnest Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. It's easy to see why, even if one thinks the Obama administration has made its share of mistakes on education. He's a pleasant, even-tempered guy; has comported himself in Chicago and D.C. with class; and has gotten some significant stuff right, like giving his terrific "New Normal" speech and broadening out the reform agenda in helpful ways. But none of that explains the bizarre, mouth-breathing man-crush that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has on him.
In a NYT column last week that I found fairly disturbing (Arne, please call the stalker hotline before you turn in tonight), Friedman instructs President Obama that his next Secretary of State should be Duncan. Friedman's got a number of reasons for this. My favorite is: "As our foreign budget shrinks, more and more of it will have to be converted from traditional grants to 'Races to the Top,' which Duncan's Education Department pioneered in U.S. school reform. We will have to tell needy countries that whoever comes up with the best ideas for
