TBT: Remembering The Duncan Confirmation Hearing & That New Yorker Profile

Six years ago, Arne Duncan was getting the New Yorker treatment. Seven years ago, he was going through an unusually easy confirmation process.

The confirmation hearing was so boring I spent most of the time making screengrabs and lame comments about folks sitting behind Duncan in the hearing room:

 

"Sneaking a peak at the ole Blackberry while Senator Alexander is talking." [

Remember Blackberries? 

As you may recall from Duncan Gets The New Yorker Treatment that came out a year later, I didn't think much of the New Yorker piece: "By and large, it's the Spellings treatment all over again.  Homey details, celebrity name-dropping, and lots of backstory about Duncan's childhood.  There's also the familiar effort to puff Duncan up over his "unprecedented" budget and his buddy-buddy status with the POTUS, as well as the (to my mind) overheated notion that we're on the verge of some great age of education reform." 

Around that time, I was also touting this Slate article about Obama's detached relationships with people and institutions and a 2008 piece I'd written about Obama's elusive support for local control in Chicago schools.

 

"Sneaking a peak at the ole Blackberry while Senator Alexander is talking." [

Remember Blackberries? 

As you may recall from Duncan Gets The New Yorker Treatment that came out a year later, I didn't think much of the New Yorker piece: "By and large, it's the Spellings treatment all over again.  Homey details, celebrity name-dropping, and lots of backstory about Duncan's childhood.  There's also the familiar effort to puff Duncan up over his "unprecedented" budget and his buddy-buddy status with the POTUS, as well as the (to my mind) overheated notion that we're on the verge of some great age of education reform."