Don't Forget Duncan

Nothing's more difficult in Washington than admitting fault, and so Fordham's Mike Petrilli has determined that his omission of Chicago superintendent Arne Duncan in a recent roundup of top EdSec candidates wasn't a mistake.  Instead, Petrilli conjures up the argument that Duncan isn't a viable candidate because... he isn't as well known as Jim Hunt and can't help Obama win Southern states.  Well, last I looked, cabinet announcements are often made after elections and aren't usually called on to help win them.  No one in the real world has ever heard of Hunt or Duncan -- or knew Paige or Spellings before they were appointed.  The real reason Duncan won't ultimately get the nod is that he sounds like a goofball when he talks and is a follower rather than a leader.  But that doesn't mean he's not a contender.

Comments

[Sherman Dorn]

I've been wondering about the "rumors" since Rotherham first floated the idea (or at least was the first I read to float the idea). Yes, Duncan is from Chicago. But I suspect that Obama will not want to appoint too many Chicagoans to insider positions because people will draw parallels to Bush's "Texas mafia" insiders, and he doesn't need Duncan as Ed Sec.