Although I can’t find it on their website, the National Education Association has confirmed eight presidential candidates to come speak at its annual meeting starting next Friday in Philadelphia, at least according to an email sent by the Colorado Education Association affiliate to its members. The eight candidates are listed alphabetically, as follows:
1. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE)
2. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
3. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
4. Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC)
5. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR)
6. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
7. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
8. Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM)
There are seven complete non-surprises there. But, if you’re at all like me, you are wondering what Gov. Huckabee is going to say to the overwhelmingly left-liberal delegates of the national teachers union. Even more so if you’re a Republican primary voter carefully considering whom to support. An educated guess says it will be an attempt by the aw-shucks Huckabee to separate himself from President Bush by finding some common ground with NEA about the No Child Left Behind Act. But that’s just a guess.
Since NEA began endorsing presidential candidates since 1976, the organization has a perfect record of siding with the Democrat nominee. No group will be better represented at next August’s Democratic National Convention here in Denver than NEA. So they might want to start practicing their “Hillary” chants, even though most delegates would likely take either Edwards, Obama, or Kucinich as their first choice.
I like Huckabee, though he won’t even be picked for veep.
Maybe he’ll tell the NEA to slim down (like he did) to a healthy size from the ridiculously corpulent size they now are.
At least he will give the delegates (not all of whom will be Marxists, by the way) a choice, not an echo.
I hope.