Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Hooked on Phonics

Monday, May 1, 2000

New York Times lead: "Venturing onto Gov. George W. Bush's home turf and grabbing a theme from his campaign agenda, Vice President Al Gore �" From the Washington Post: "Sweeping into George W. Bush's home state to tackle one of the Republican's strongest issues and what has become a major issue in the presidential campaign �"

Who would have believed, two years ago in the run-up to the 1998 elections, that the Republican candidate for President would have seized the high ground on one of the most important issues facing the U.S. politically, economically, and morally - education?

An example of how important this issue is, someone sent me an e-mail which had the following un-sourced and un-cited (but a reasonable person can guess at their origin) statistics regarding education in Texas:
-- 50th in spending for teachers' salaries
-- 41st in per-capita spending on public education

Among other things. The reader was urged to "Please forward to every person of voting age."

Here are a series of facts as cited (at Mullings' request) by the Bush campaign:
-- 1st in student improvement on test scores, especially for African-American and Hispanic students.
-- 9th in teacher pay, when adjusted for cost of living and teacher experience.

In addition, here are some items which might just bear on the ability of Texas children to learn and grow:
-- 1.2 million jobs created, representing more than 10 percent of new jobs created nationwide and 48,000 new businesses.
-- Lowest unemployment rate in twenty years -- 4.7 percent.
-- Doubled the number of adoptions of abused and neglected children in Texas.

The Bush campaign also points out what the cyber-dirty-trick did not; that in America, under the Clinton/Gore Administration:
-- Almost 70 percent of fourth graders in the highest poverty schools cannot read at basic level.
-- Teachers were victims of 1.8 million crimes at school, including 657,000 violent crimes.
-- Illegal drug use among high school seniors increased 78 percent.

(For the full list of the items in the sham e-mail, and the Bush reality check go HERE:

Gore, unaccountably, has allowed Bush a free hand to re-acquaint himself to the voting public following Super Tuesday. Perhaps it is because Gore is the political equivalent of a streak hitter in baseball; a batter who will go five games without a hit; will go 8 for 12 in the next four; and will not get a hit in the next two.

The problem with a streak hitter is you never know if the hits are going to come when the team needs them: A hitter getting on base when his team already has a big lead is not nearly as valuable as one who can be depended upon to get a hit with men in scoring position in a tight game.

The 25th anniversary celebration of the war's end in Viet Nam this weekend did nothing but sharpen the reality that communism doesn't work. This is a country which has been at peace for the past 25 years and yet ranks as one of the poorest in Southeast Asia.

It's clearly not the fault of its people. Vietnamese who escaped to the US have fared as well or better than any immigrant group in the past century. It can only be, then, the government's refusal to allow its people the freedom the innovate and to own the fruits of that innovation.

This is why I don't get invited out much: I thought the following was laugh-out-loud funny: An NPR story on Sunday regarding the Fraternal Order of Eagles being sued because they don't allow women to be members. The lawyer for the plaintiff said "Although women are not permitted to join the Eagles, they do the lion's share of the work."

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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