Two days after President Obama went to Massachusetts to campaign for Democrat senatorial candidate Martha Coakley in a special election Democrats thought she had locked against Republican insurgent Scott Brown, Obama visited Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia on Tuesday to announce his plans to seek $1.35 billion in his next budget for the “Race to the Top” program, a signature piece in his education agenda.
Strangely absent at this event, though, was perhaps one of the most relentless advocates of his education reforms in Virgina-newly elected Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, whose office confirmed to a Richmond television station that he did not receive an invitation to the event.
On the campaign trail in 2009, McDonnell insisted that he was enthused about working with Obama to improve Virginia’s education system. When he gave the weekly Republican address in the midst of his campaign, McDonnell told a national audience that “the president is right in his call for real education reform, with more charter schools and performance pay for great teachers and principals. Now that’s a bipartisan reform that will help all our children get the education they need today and the jobs of tomorrow.”
McDonnell’s support did not wane after he was inaugurated last weekend as the Commonwealth’s 71st Governor. When he addressed Virginia’s General Assembly on Monday, McDonnell said that “President Obama and I share a passion for good charter schools. He is committed to expanding them nationwide. I’m committed to helping him.” McDonnell also announced that he signed a letter supporting Virginia’s application for $350 million of the Race to the Top funds, which are allocated to states based on their proposals for educational reform, particularly to innovative charter schools and low-income school districts that present plans to become high performing schools by improving teacher quality and student achievement.
Symbolism matters in politics, and Obama missed an opportunity for a bi-partisan moment he could have used to signal to Americans, especially independent voters, that he is finally hearing the concerns they have and is willing to work more proactively with Republicans on various issues. Since Obama came to office, independents have flocked to Republican candidates like Brown in part to protest Obama’s championing of bills such as cap and trade and health care reform that reflected a statist-oriented agenda that lacked bi-partisan support.
In elections after Obama entered the White House, Republican Chris Christie of New Jersey won the governorship largely in part because he won 60% of the independent vote. In Virginia, McDonnell received 65% of the independent vote en route to the most lop-sided win in the Commonwealth’s history. And polls showed that Brown had the support of roughly 70% of the Bay State’s independents on Tuesday.
But not extending an invitation to McDonnell also displayed another instance of the gap between Obama’s rhetoric and reality and showed a political tone deafness that has plagued Obama during his first year in office. For months, the Obama administration has attempted to label Republicans as an obstructionist “Party of No,” bent on blocking Obama’s agenda while being devoid of ideas and solutions. After such constant carping, one would logically expect the Obama administration would have been more than eager to publicly extend their hand to a Republican governor who has consistently and enthusiastically extended his hand to Obama on his Race to the Top program to show independents-and Virginians-his willingness to work with Republicans who want to work with him.
Perhaps the Obama administration just overlooked the fact that inviting McDonnell would be a good idea let alone a courtesy to the newly elected Governor. If this was the case, it was yet another political blunder by operatives who seem to be working multiple levels above their pay grades and undercuts the promise Obama made to bring a level of competence to the White House that his supporters felt was lacking in the Bush Administration.
Or maybe there were political overtones. The Race to the Top event generated favorable local press in a state that is critical to Obama’s re-election on an evening when the national media interpreted the election results in Massachusetts as a rejection of Obama’s agenda to date, and maybe Obama wanted the local spotlight to himself. But if politics were involved in this decision, it goes against Obama’s promise to end the era of partisan politics and usher in an era of post-partisanship.
McDonnell has spent the last year touting Obama’s Race to the Top program. The least Obama could have done was extend an invitation to him for the kickoff event. Stiffing McDonnell in his home state is certainly not an example of the post-partisan change that voters, especially independents, voted for.
Tony Lee is a political writer based in Virginia. Follow him on twitter @TheTonyLee.
Tony, you are right on target. One part of the Massachusetts canon blast by the independents in that state derived from their shattered expectations. President Obama campaigned on hope and change and against all things DC, and promptly became part of what he campaigned against. He has only given lip service to bipartisanship and his stubbing of Governor McDonnell is symbolic of how he has governed. His partisanship (or maybe his ego) overshadows his commitment to education and it showed. Governor McDonnell will hopefully rise above that and continue to join with the President in pursuing educational reform “we believe in.”
Hopefully, by now, everybody understands that Obama’s “Change We Can Believe In” campaign was a fraud. He is just another Chicago politician.
Bob, its nice to finally have it made clear that this blog is a wholly owned outlet of the RNC.
Tony, no matter how obstructionism is tarted up with insincere, hypocritical calls for bipartisanship, it ain’t selling but keep whining, maybe you can convince yourself of your sincerity. Americans aren’t gullible enough to fall for it.
Wyatt, exactly what recreational pharmaceuticals have you been partaking. Sober up friend, the only thing lower than Democrats approval rating is Republicans approval ratings.
Martin, even insinuating that this blog “is a wholly owned outlet of the RNC” is an insult to Dr. Bob and the type of blog/site that he runs here. Them fightin’ words, sir. Someone once said a fool is undiscovered until he speaks — or, in this case, posts a ridiculous reply.
As for your comment about “obstructionism,” I can see your point in those comments, but they have nothing to do with the piece I wrote, which was about how McDonnell has genuinely embraced President Obama’s education reforms and Obama should have extended him the courtesy of an invitation to the Race to the Top event.
In hindsight, it’s an omission I think this White House will come to regret, especially if McDonnell delivers a superb response to the SOTU. In terms of optics, how can Obama claim he has done everything to try to bring Republicans to the table, which I’m sure he’ll claim in some fashion, when the Governor who is giving the SOTU response that he stiffed is a symbol of his NOT being bi-partisan?
You should heeded your own advice about a fool before you published that diary, Tony.
Like too many Virginia politicians of both parties, McDonnell would need a full skeletal transplant to acquire a genuine bone in his body as he demonstrated by campaigning far and wide on the promise of a “secret plan” to solve the transportation crisis and then, shock and surprise, announces immediately after his inauguration that he can’t do anything about it now or in the forseeable future. Next we are sure to hear that it wasn’t really a problem after all or, more likely, the solution can only be found in Lexus lanes owned by Bechtel and available only to the obscenely rich.
Your diary demonstrates thay you forget that Virginia has already tried charter schools. They were called “white academies.” Our Commonwealth was one of the last states to establish a public school system. The General Assembly’s support for that system is among the lowest in the nation. Our public schools have not recovered from “massive resistance.” In parts of this Commonwealth, local school boards have resegregated their schools. And your solution to all of this is to further weaken the meager support for Virginia’s public schools by giving the extremely few an “escape hatch” of charter schools. Its stunning that everyone hasn’t flocked to this old chestnut after 30 years of hawking by enemies of teachers unions but keep on pounding that long dead horse, observing the effort is entertaining.
As for the extremely one sided nature of this blog, please count the number of times “Dr.” Bob (is he a dentist, oncologist, or just too pretentious?) posts a Republican’s diary on this site and how many Democrats and please don’t count Wilder among the Democrats, “ol’ Doug” long ago left that party and formed a galaxy of his exclusive domain. Please identify one progressive Democrat that has ever been invited or allowed to post a diary here.
Martin, I’m so sorry that you feel so strongly against President Obama’s and Secretary Duncan’s education program/proposals.
Tony, you really shouldn’t be surprised. Unlike the automatons of the Republican party, not all Democrats walk in lockstep with their “authority figures.”
As Will Rogers famously said, ” I don’t belong to an organized political party, I’m a Democrat.”
And that’s a good thing.