Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Monday, December 18, 2006
Vilsack: A president who gets education?
Tom Vilsack
I just watched Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who’s now running for president, on the Daily Show. He did much better than I expected.
I met Vilsack and watched him speak last year at an event sponsored by the Hechinger Institute for Education and the Media. He completely wowed a room full of education reporters with his deep knowledge of issues in education.
But at the same time, I didn’t come away feeling he would make a strong national candidate.
My first thought was he needed to get some handlers. He showed up to this speech in Chicago, a sitting governor, with an amazingly small detail of one aide and one or two security guards. He was remarkably accessible. All that was quite refreshing.
But on the other hand, he didn’t seem very polished. He told a couple of long, rambling anecdotes and had a tendency to get super wonky discussing education. I cut him a break there since his audience was also quite edwonky. Plus Bill Clinton was notoriously wonky on policy and still played well in front of a crowd.
I just wasn’t sure Vilsack would connect with general audiences. But he was pretty good with Jon Stewart tonight, even cracking a couple decent jokes. Stewart pushed him on Iraq, which made Vilsack sound like he perhaps hadn’t completely thought out his positions. And there was, unfortunately, no discussion of education.
But still, I thought he did well overall. If you’re interested in education, Vilsack is one candidate to keep an eye on.
(Image credit: http://www.governor.state.ia.us/)
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