Wednesday, August 30, 2000
This nation of ours must challenge what I like to call the soft bigotry of low expectations. Every child can learn. It starts with raising people's sights and raising expectations and refusing to yield, refusing to accept a curriculum that won't work.
— Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, from a
New York Times story about how he has changed the party's stance on education -- advocating an expanded federal role in public education, chiefly by making schools more accountable for their students' performance.
Posted: 10:18 PM
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I think it's time to make revolutionary improvements in our public schools the No. 1 priority in the nation.
— Democratic nominee Al Gore, in
the same NYT story, in a speech to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in Chicago. His proposals include having the federal government contribute money to raise teachers' salaries and increase spending on preschool programs and school construction.
Posted: 10:15 PM
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"Education is one of those issues that fills a vacuum" - something for the voters and the candidates to talk about in a year when no overriding issue like the economy or international tensions is dominating the debate.
—
Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, and the explanation from The New York Times
Posted: 10:09 PM
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It's boring, nut-and-bolts stuff. It's also very important. If you care strongly about who wins this presidential race, you need to volunteer some time to your side. Your mission is six more votes per precinct.
— Columnist David Yepsen in the
Des Moines Register on how turnout can affect election results.
Posted: 1:21 AM
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Tuesday, August 29, 2000
The point is we need more people. ...An aspect of it has to be a program or plan or some kind of method by which we become a welcoming state for people from different cultures. ... It's going to be a struggle.
Posted: 12:57 AM
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Monday, August 07, 2000
The Republican convention is mixing with this hard-core blue-collar city like oil with water. The result is being covered by the folks at the Independent Media Center, which is using the Web to do something that 16,000 mainstream journalists herded into tents at the convention site seem powerless to do.
Posted: 1:10 AM
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The point here, is we do need to change the law. Drug prohibition is what is tearing this country apart. It's not drug use, and nobody wants to hear that.
Posted: 12:50 AM
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Sunday, August 06, 2000
This is money coming from interested companies and interested individuals who have agendas. Given the stakes they have, the investment they have made in this convention in Philadelphia is very modest, given the potential rate of return.
Posted: 12:30 AM
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The Republican Party is poised to collect a post-convention windfall from corporate interests. A core group of business donors -- oil, tobacco, guns, real estate and software -- now form the financial backbone of the modern Republican Party. ...
Three of the Republican National Committee's 10 largest donors -- Philip Morris, the National Rifle Association and Microsoft -- have contributed record sums to the Republican Party this year at a time when they face legal and legislative assaults led by the Democrats.
Posted: 12:21 AM
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