Lynch at Large

Words fail to express my sense of dismay at the two candidates for governor which we were allowed to see last night. Has there ever been a more poorly focused and ill-prepared candidate than Mike Beebe. Thankfully, most of the voters will never see the exercise in tedium, but it is a darned shame that these guys wrangle over stuff that is totally meaningless like whether the state police should enforce immigration laws. Don't they already have enough responsibilities? I bet poor Bill Gwatney is just extremely thankful Mr. Big Brain brought him into the middle of a stupid conversation on "covenant marriage." Hell, neither one of them would be willing to do anything about no-fault divorce, which is the real social problem.

Anyway, I think Asa has "big mo" and public schools are in deep trouble when there is no candidate with a clear commitment to standards. Here is my network commentary for today.

After Friday Night Lights, I headed upstairs while my more studious wife, Marie, pulled up the DVR recording of the gubernatorial debate. Sitting down at my desk, some words came filtering upstairs that sent me running back to the living room.

I had to rewind because it could not have been Democratic nominee and Attorney General Mike Beebe who just said he did not want any more consolidation. This is the same Mike Beebe that was praised in Monday’s column as having made some tough decisions on the school standards, and now he has proved that he is willing to say whatever it takes to get elected. I am skeptical of Asa’s commitment to the public school standards, but he correctly called Beebe’s hand. If you keep the standards as they are, school districts have no other recourse but to consolidate.

This is a very important issue for two reasons. First, if Arkansas ever wants one of those super plants, we must provide the most important ingredient, and that is an educated work force. Secondly, each one of us have paid dearly to improve the school system. It seems a shame to just toss aside all this progress for the sake of political expediency.

I am appalled with both of them.