Rich Kahlenberg writes that the left is headed for a damaging and unnecessary battle over education:
Just as Democrats have finally settled on a nominee and begun to unite, a major new fight has broken out between competing factions in the liberal education-policy community. One group argues that poverty should not be used as an excuse for failure and sees teacher unions as a major obstacle to promoting equity through education reform. The other group says education reform by itself cannot close the achievement gap between rich and poor and black and white without addressing larger economic inequalities in society. The battle, which can broadly be characterized as one between portions of the civil-rights community and teacher unions, is a movie we've seen before -- most explosively in the New York City teacher strikes of the 1960s -- and it doesn't end well. Sen. Barack Obama should follow the lead of legendary teacher-union leader Albert Shanker and recognize that both sides in the debate need to bend.
Courtney Martin counsels progressives to expect to have to hold Obmaa accountable for his failings:
The public reaction has got me thinking about the inevitable tarnishing of Obama's golden image. His profound charisma, his gift for public speaking, and his inspiring biography have led a country of lefty voters, especially the young, to idolize him. Obama maintained this angelic persona through the primaries, but sooner or later, the halo is going to fall. In anticipation of that moment -- or many moments, as they case may be -- I hope that Democratic voters, especially the young, can shift the tenor of their support for Obama. After all, he is not a god; he is just a man.
And Sarah Posner has the latest on the religious right, including more background on Obama's recent rhetorical shift on abortion:
Obama, a longtime supporter of reproductive rights, has long been a critic of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart upholding the federal ban on the late-term intact dilation and extraction procedure (which did not include an exception for the mother’s health). In 2007 he said that the "ruling signals an alarming willingness on the part of the conservative majority to disregard its prior rulings respecting a woman's medical concerns and the very personal decisions between a doctor and patient," but did not say he would support a ban if it contained an exception for the mother’s health. He continued to critique the Carhart decision throughout last summer, calling it "a concerted effort to steadily roll back" reproductive rights.
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