The (Revised) George W. Bush Legacy

Learning From the Rise and Fall of Michelle Rhee
By Jason Stanford on Monday, May 20th, 2013
At some point, we need to stop believing in miracles, at least in education. While we’re still getting over the RICO indictments handed down in the Atlanta cheating scandal comes the revelation that the success Michelle Rhee achieved as the “no excuses” superintendent of Washington, D.C.’s public schools was the product of massive cheating. Those asking why Rhee isn’t under indictment just like her former colleague in Atlanta are missing the bigger question: If she’s ...
What Rick Perry Can Learn From California
By Jason Stanford on Monday, May 13th, 2013
The faux pas bordered on sedition. The Texas Association of Dairymen sent blocks of mild cheddar to state senate offices “in appreciation for your hard work this legislative session on behalf of the people of Texas.” Legislative offices often get free—and perfectly legal—swag from special interests. The problem arose when someone read the label. The company that made the cheese was based in California. California? Get a rope. This was such an offense against local ...
Will Obama Beat the 6-Year Itch?
By Jason Stanford on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
If the 2010 elections weren’t bad enough for Democrats, here comes the “six-year itch.” With the exception of Bill Clinton’s second term, the party that controls the White House loses seats in congress six years into a presidency. But there’s a gathering sense among Democratic consultants who work on congressional campaigns that their party could buck the trend in 2014 for a number of reasons, not least because Barack Obama is finally fired up and ...
Business is Booming in Perry’s Potemkin Village
By Jason Stanford on Wednesday, May 1st, 2013
You can’t change the facts of an explosion. A large fertilizer factory operated next to homes, a middle school and a nursing home. The factory blew, and 14 people died. We can’t change those facts, but it’s up to us to decide what they mean. Gov. Rick Perry disagrees with those who see the fatal explosion of the largely uninspected factory as a preventable disaster. It was not, Perry protests, the inevitable result of his ...
The (Revised) George W. Bush Legacy
By Jason Stanford on Monday, April 29th, 2013
New polls show that George W. Bush is not as unpopular now as when he left office. That bodes well for a public examination of his legacy but it’s difficult to look back on his presidency as something other than a preventable catastrophe. Thursday’s opening of the his Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas offers an opportunity to review his time in office, and while Bush professes a blithe unconcern with how history will judge ...