Morning Joe 6/10/2011 -- Education reform, Afghanistan and Gingrich

On Morning Joe today the three big topics were education reform, the implosion of Newt Gingrich and the waste of life and money in Afghanistan. On education reform, they used Crenshaw High School in LA to show how a holistic approach can make a difference. The involvement of industry in helping the school confirms what I've been preaching for quite some time, that the private sector is where education belongs. A combination of parent involvement, community involvement and industry involvement will create innovative solutions, but government continues to intervene and undercut the power of the private sector. Reform will be uneven, and we'll see more failures than successes, like the unusual success of Crenshaw, as long as government is involved in education. However, with budget problems placing a natural limitation on government intervention, perhaps the successes of schools like Crenshaw will wake up enough concerned citizens to realize we need to go a step further and eliminate the DOE-- this would be a good first step.

Gingrich was trashed again by Joe S, Barnicle and others for going on a cruise when he should be campaigning. Gingrich's campaign team left him over differences in strategy. Gingrich will do what he wants to do -- he'll never be the nominee, but he can stir the pot. No matter who runs on the Republican side, the media will find something wrong, except for Jon Huntsman, whom they will build up shortly as the only mature, intelligent, moderate candidate. When the Tea Party finds Huntsman too centrist and statist, the media will contrast Huntsman with any other candidate who's leading as a difference between moderation/intelligence/nuance and extremism/ideological stubbornness/ignorance.

The ongoing opposition to Afghanistan on Morning Joe is commendable, and more voices need to sound dissatisfaction with this war -- and the war in Libya -- and the war in Iraq -- and the war in Pakistan -- and the war in Yemen -- and the War on Drugs -- and military bases all over the world -- and involvement in the UN, IMF, World Bank and WTO. Oh, so much to oppose, and so little time.