You are correct that conservatives have no affinity for the NEA. (How could any rational person, they suck at their jobs and are constantly asking for more money)

No, conservatives actually care about the education of children, not the survival of an educational system that has consistantly failed the most vulnerable children for decades. But think what you want and keep spreading that Obama-vibe of assuming good-faith motivation by those that disagree with you on policy.

if you want to learn more about Obama’s plans and proposals, go to his Web site, read interviews with him and watch C-SPAN.

I have and I was fairly certain that I’d stubbled across the love-child of George McGovern and Jimmy Carter.

The school vouchers idea has been around for at least three decades. It’s more about right-wing Republicans’ hatred of and desire to destroy unions than about reforming education. Right wingers especially hate teachers’ unions because those organizations are still strong, have political clout and are unalterably opposed to about 99.5 percent of the GOP agenda and way of doing things at any given time.

Despite his somewhat scolding tone, I think Gingrich is going to make an honest effort to work with him and it even seems like he’s looking forward to it.

I remember so well when Gingrich, with much evening-news fanfare, buried the hatchet with Bill Clinton, vowing to seek common ground and work together on a range of serious, longterm problems.

In no time, Gingrich was perpetrating another government shutdown — an unconstitutional move, BTW — and all that kumbaya was revealed as the deceitful tactical grab for good PR it was from the beginning.

If you really think Gingrich is capable of an honest effort, talk to those who’ve gone in with him on something in the past.

As for Gingrich working with Obama, Gingrich is last decade’s bad news, discredited, untrustworthy and not trusted even in his own party, and with no platform or constituency to bring to any such dealing.

BTW, anyone who doesn’t think BHO isn’t going to vast increase the role of government is people’s lives is either a liar or an idiot. djthedj - I’ll credit you with being both.

So S.W. stop filing for a second and explain what “new ideas” BHO has? Regarding education, a truly new approach would be the support of school vouchers and parental choice. That would be NEW. Regarding health care, how about trying to get away from third party payers. That would be NEW. Regarding building the green-economy, the government should not subsidize — it should directly tax or regulate the negative externality, if it must, and try to foster environmentally-based voluntary exchanges. Thereby putting most of the economic decisions in the hands of people with the most information. BHO should not try to build the “green economy” from the top down by sinking untold billions into pilot projects and what not. That would be NEW.

Barrack Obama offers nothing new on the domestic front. And I am actually sympathetic with his position on Iraq. But as for the rest of his policies, it’s just not change that I can believe in.

Despite his somewhat scolding tone, I think Gingrich is going to make an honest effort to work with him and it even seems like he’s looking forward to it. Now that the only candidate who had real plans to fundamentally change our government has no chance of winning, I’m looking forward to seeing how Obama tries to handle his promise of post-partisanship.

All that aside, I’m going to have to agree with Dos and Gingrich on this one. The only new idea I’ve heard from him is the google-for-government thing that will allow us to see where our tax money is being spent. Investing in “Health Care” “Jobs” “Education”, and ending the war in ____ are not new or novel ideas; they’re spit out every campaign cycle. “Change” is nothing new either - both Clinton I and Bush II ran on change and it has proven to be a very stupid thing to vote for.

What Obama is bringing to the table is just a new attitude. That’s it. Whether or not he’s going to actually follow through and fill up any of his hollow rhetoric on the job is something we’ll just have to wait and see about but there’s more than enough precedent to show that it’s not very likely.

I’ll file Dos’ assessment of Obama’s vision and goals away with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush’s list of achievements in fiscal responsibility — and have plenty of room left over for $2 trillion to $3 trillion wasted, squandered and unaccounted for current and future taxpayers’ dollars.