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Garnett on Obama on Judges

Rick Garnett:

Sen. Obama has now made it clear, in a recent speech to the American Federation of Teachers, that he opposes school choice. Trotting out the old canard about “draining resources from the public schools” – as if the problem in America’s failing public schools is a shortage of funds – and dismissed as “tired rhetoric” the powerful, hopeful advocacy of those who have struggled to bring educational opportunities to low-income children, competition to public education, and religious freedom to all. Even the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which enjoys bipartisan support – particularly from African-Americans in the District, who are paying the price for the Democrats’ willingness to pander – has lost Obama’s support. The “Audacity of Hope”? Try “The Unbearable Sameness of Disappointment.”

School choice, properly understood and designed, is a matter of simple justice. One might have expected that Sen. Obama would appreciate this, and that a candidate who is willing to buck the base on the death penalty and gun ownership might also be willing to let low-income kids in the District of Columbia benefit from the options that middle-class people in the suburbs take for granted. No such luck.

Politics as usual once again raises its ugly head.