I then wrote to him, thanked him for coming, told him I wished I had voted for him back in ’88 when he was running for President and wished that Mr. Dole had appeared with him this time to make the sale.

The thick manilla envelope he sent in return blew me away, and to this day is one of my prized possessions. from the signed, personal cover letter to position papers with points of interest circled, and scribbled notes in the margins, Mr. Kemp was sincerely trying to have a conversation.

In the end, Dole/Kemp garnered around 12% of the black vote–and that was against Elvis! Jack Kemp seemed like the last of his kind…but I hope not.

Here’s a question the right needs to answer on charter schools. If the idea is that private, non-unionized schools are better because they will be replaced if they perform poorly, why are poorly performing charter schools not closing? Why aren’t they firing teachers? It seems we merely replaced poorly performing public schools with poorly performing charter schools, the only difference is that some investor is making bank off of poor kid’s educational failures.

http://www.progressivepolicy.org/2012/06/improving-charter-school-accountability-the-challenge-of-closing-failing-schools/

Umm.. Just because your “liberal friends” are fixated on keeping a 1950s school model up because it helps teacher unions and you have papers from a liberal think tank to back it up, doesn’t make it so. Charter schools fail the reason that any business fails because parents don’t want the product. And teachers get fired at charter schools. The whole concept is that they are “at will” employees, so underperforming teachers are out of a job.

Rather than having failure factories and neighborhood schools preparing kids for the demands of the 1950s, it would be great if kids could choose from schools in a certain area and if they all had different focuses and specialties similar to what has happened in New Orleans. I’m assuming that this is what is going to end up being the meat and potatoes of a Ryan-type education plan.

Jack Kemp was more of a Reagan “Conservative” than Rush or Mark or any poseurs currently occupying that identification.

Show some respect and/or learn something before you speak.

AYNBLAND on November 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Good points.

AYNBLAND on November 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Anyone on the right taking advice from Kondrake would have to be brain dead. Kemp’s ideas aren’t the answer to our problems. L.I.B.

Having said that, it should be obvious I’m even more to the right than Reagan or Kemp. Doesn’t make me popular, but then, I never wanted to be. It’s something I learned a long time ago.

(I imagine lots of charter school and voucher talk).

Illinidiva on November 23, 2012 at 10:10 AM

Here’s a question the right needs to answer on charter schools. If the idea is that private, non-unionized schools are better because they will be replaced if they perform poorly, why are poorly performing charter schools not closing? Why aren’t they firing teachers? It seems we merely replaced poorly performing public schools with poorly performing charter schools, the only difference is that some investor is making bank off of poor kid’s educational failures.

http://www.progressivepolicy.org/2012/06/improving-charter-school-accountability-the-challenge-of-closing-failing-schools/

I believe Ryan wanted to campaign on big ideas and attack the Dems on entitlements and the destruction of civil society in the cities but Stu Stephens put the kibosh on it after the Ryan appearance in Cleveland.

Ted Torgerson on November 23, 2012 at 9:46 AM

Ryan actually wanted to go in cities and talk about poverty for the entire campaign. And the Romney campaign put a kibosh on it. I don’t think that Ryan was used very effectively in many ways.. (I would have liked more interactions with college kids and 20-somethings, putting him on some entertainment type shows, actually talking about the budget, etc.). But this was probably the right call because it would distract from Romney’s message. I think that letting Ryan do the Cleveland speech was a “thank you” for acting as a good surrogate to the campaign, especially since Boston thought they were winning.

However, it is intriguing that poverty in America is apparently Ryan’s new thing. Both he and Rubio are giving speeches at the Jack Kemp Dinner in a few weeks. Rubio is being given the annual Jack Kemp award for “his accomplishments.” He will actually be talking about middle class sort of issues, which is a big deal as Rubio generally doesn’t concern himself with silly things like policies. Ryan was given the first Jack Kemp award last year for his actual accomplishments and is apparently giving the keynote address at the dinner where he is going to talk about ending poverty with an emphasis on education. (I imagine lots of charter school and voucher talk).

I’m not saying it’s in the American national interest to risk destabilizing Mexico by flooding it with millons of returning unemployed either, but it’s mindless to think the US can function indefinitely as an international relief agency when it can’t even produce a functioning budget.

Kemp was a true conservative, don’t let the clueless make you believe anything less.

Kermit on November 23, 2012 at 9:45 AM

So he was the original trucon?