On this day when we all ponder how thankful we are, perhaps it’s appropriate to take a look at some people who have quite a bit to be thankful for. 1. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, D, who should be thankful he lives in a state where voters can’t seem to connect the dots.
O’Malley made a big deal in his campaign of boasting about the progress students in Baltimore schools have made. Not once did he give credit for the progress where it’s most due: to the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act.
(Baltimore’s historically underperforming schools didn’t show any improvement until after that law was passed. Yes, the thinking may smack of a little “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” — after the fact, therefore because of the fact logic — but I think it applies here.)
No, instead the governor implied that it was the Democrats — not those child-hating, anti-education Republicans — who masterminded the improvement in student performance. It occurs to me — and that any political party taking credit for improved student performance should take the blame for the years of failure, when the schools were a wreck and students were underperforming.
Has anyone yet heard O’Malley — or anyone in his herd of Democratic Martinistas in Baltimore — take the blame for years of failing schools, budget deficits and mismanagement that occurred on their watch?
Anyone? Anyone? I thought not.
But judging from the election results, there must have been quite a few voters who bought O’Malley’s nonsense. In most states of the Union, he’d have been tossed out on his ear for spouting such flapdoodle. And that brings me to my second person that should be thankful this holiday.
2. President Obama, who should be happy there are still states like Maryland, which is to say deliriously and hopelessly Democratic, and Papa Smurf blue.
Obama did concede that he — and his party — took a “shellacking” in the recent midterm elections. We should praise the president for his candor, although he would have been much more candid if he had added the phrase “well deserved” before “shellacking.”
Despite the pasting at the polls, Obama can rest assured that at least one state will always have his — and his party’s — back. Obama ran a radio campaign spot endorsing O’Malley during the gubernatorial race, and throughout Baltimore there were signs posted saying, “Vote Democratic: Obama, We Got Your Back!”
Translation: Black folks had better vote for the Democrats or those mean, nasty, racist Republicans will get ’em. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why Republicans are constantly portrayed as the party that uses scare tactics when the Democrats have really mastered the art.
3. Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who just might be encouraged to run for president against a vulnerable Obama in 2012.
Christie’s looking more and more like a viable presidential candidate. He promised to cut spending in New Jersey, and did it. He’s gained the hostility of powerful teachers unions in New Jersey, which has got to earn the man votes somewhere.
Best of all, Christie brings to the table something Obama never brought in his presidential run: experience as a chief executive. True, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would bring the same thing if she were to run for president in 2012, but she would have to fend off the same attacks aimed at her in 2008: That she had no knowledge of foreign policy and was ill-prepared for the vice presidency.
Whichever Republican candidate runs in 2012, that person needs to drive home the point that the country can ill afford another four years with a state senator running the country.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
