My Candidates for President in 2008
The United States is going to have a presidential election in 2008. Speculation focuses on traditional candidates such as Rudy Guiliani, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, Wesley "I'm a General" Clark, bla bla bla.

Now in the past we've had some good left-field candidates, including Ross Perot, Wendell Wilkie, and the like. One of them, Jimmy Carter, even got elected.

So, rather than hear blather about Hillary and Rudy, I'd like to propose my own candidates for the Republican and Democratic nominations.

The Repulican candidate is obvious to anyone who's gotten to this blog via Google. Sheena Metal describes her as "Fox Sports' conservative cutie." Take Krystal Fernandez, please.

For the Democratic nomination, let's look at Democrats who have won recently. This list includes Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon Johnson. Notice a trend? I say we nominate fellow Southerner (Georgia native) Van Earl Wright.

They've gotten into it a few times on the Fox Sports Morning Extravaganza, most recently this morning (January 6). Our governor (some guy named Arnold, who's also a possible Presidential candidate), gave his State of the State address last night and focused partly on education:

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Now, the third item relates to the education of our children.

California will spend $50 billion on K through 14 education this year; that's $2.9 billion more than last year. Nearly half the state's budget is dedicated to education.

What do we get for that money? We get many wonderful and dedicated teachers. We get many children who are doing terrific.

But $50 billion, and we still have 30 percent of high school students not graduating. That is a human disaster.

$50 billion and we still have hundreds of schools that are failing. That is an institutional disaster.

$50 billion and the majority of our students cannot even perform at their grade level. That is an educational disaster.

So, where do we start? We start in the classroom. We start with those who hold our children's learning in their hands. We start with the teachers.

Let me say this to every California teacher who is opening the minds of our children and nurturing their lives: I want to reward you for your hard work. I want to reward you for the sacrifices you make. I want to reward you for the learning that you instill.

But I cannot do so under the current system. Help me change it.

We must financially reward good teachers and expel those who are not. The more we reward excellent teachers, the more our teachers will be excellent. The more we tolerate ineffective teachers, the more our teachers will be ineffective.

So, in the special session, I propose that teacher pay be tied to merit, not tenure. And I propose that teacher employment be tied to performance, not to just showing up.

And I want to say to every Californian who has a child: "Your child deserves a good teacher. An educational system that rewards and protects a bad teacher at the expense of a child is wrong. And I intend to change that system."

My colleagues, this is going to be a big political fight. This is a battle of the special interests versus the children's interests. Which will you choose?

I will also introduce measures to further charter schools, vocational education and fiscal transparency so people know how every educational dollar is spent at their local schools.

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Meanwhile, on this morning's radio show on Fox, a question was asked about Arnold's speech. Van Earl and Andrew Siciliano hadn't heard the speech, since they were on a plane returning from Florida. Krystal had heard the speech, however, and gave a positive comment about how Arnold said he would do wonderful things for education. Van Earl replied, stating that Arnold gutted education in the first place.

Despite their drawbacks, I'd rather hear Krystal vs. Van Earl than Hillary vs. Rudy.

[OE UPDATE 1/14/2005: Poster mystery solved.]