Politics: Arne Duncan, Master Manipulator? Give NEA Credit, Too.

One of the things that Michael Grunwald gives Team Duncan credit for in Politico's long feature about the not-yet-lameduck Education Secretary is seeing the anti-testing momentum building earlier than many (think 2011) and figuring out how to help his boss avoid unnecessary criticism: 

“The union needed a target for its anger, and he was happy to take a bullet for the president.” 

That's raised some eyebrows, including from EIA's Mike Antonucci.

Writes the observant union watchdog: "If true – and I would expect vigorous denials if anyone bothered to inquire – I might actually have to adjust my cynicism meter into the red zone. This is manipulation of the union’s most devoted activists on a grand scale."

Well, not so fast there.

What's not mentioned about the anecdote -- which I have not confirmed independently (Dorie? Justin? Massie? Daren?) is that the NEA isn't necessarily as dumb as it might look from this move. Its challenge was to express members' frustrations with the direction with the administration was taking without hurting the chances of the Democratic President they still wanted in the White House.

This strategy has been noted several times in the past -- Jonathan Chait from New York Magazine comes to mind. So however smart Duncan's staff was getting him involved in his own roasting, the union was arguably just as smart aiming its fire at Duncan not Obama.  

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Comments

[Mike]

In my mind the issue isn't whether it was a smart move, or whether it had been done before. It's that the 8,000 union delegates who voted on this thing weren't told, "Oh, we ran the language by Arne and he's OK with it."