The NEA is gathering in Washington--some "10,000 delegates and a few thousand other union members and guests," according to the Washington Post. The union is going to decide whether to offer its presidential endorsement to Barack Obama or to John McCain. (I wonder what are the Vegas odds on McCain?) What's interesting about this, though, is that Obama will address the group on Saturday. I predict that Mr. Postpartisanism (a concept that shares much with postmodernism), will offer up a bland speech about making sure all children have a future and all teachers have support and all American classrooms are splendid. Maybe he throws in a few lines??like, "We??should reward the best teachers as they deserve to be rewarded,"??from which??ed-reform tasseographers can??divine the candidate's future support for merit pay. The key, of course, is for Obama to give a talk that a) doesn't offend the NEA and b) doesn't make him sound any less postpartisanismishy. We'll see if he can pull it off.
