I have a political-debate hangover this morning–not from alcohol but from being on campus for most of 15 hours yesterday and getting home close to midnight. I was one of several USF faculty in the press room last night for the GOP debate on the USF Tampa campus, along with usual political-reporter go-to at USF, Susan McManus, public health professor Jay Wolfson, two colleagues in my college, Anthony Rolle and Paula Cate (the two better-looking folks in the photos below), and several others. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich went after each other hammer and tongs, but there were precisely three times that any candidate mentioned education, all in passing and for purposes other than discussing federal education policy. A few reporters came up to the “education faculty placard” and asked questions afterwards, but most crowded around other faculty or the designated campaign spinmeisters (and one of the candidates: Rick Santorum showed up in the press room afterwards).
I am not surprised by the lack of focus on education in this or other debates in this campaign, but I was shocked by a collective error of omission on the part of the reporters in the press room. At the end of the debate, the candidates talked about the Terri Schiavo case, and you might have thought that one of them–one of them–might have asked if anyone at USF might have something to say, especially since there were a few folks from USF Health in the room. If they had done so, USF staff would have told them that Jay Wolfson was Schiavo’s guardian ad litem for a short time early in the controversy and thus had direct knowledge with which to illuminate the candidates’ responses. As far as I can tell this morning, no reporter tried to use Wolfson’s expertise.
But there was plenty of red, white, and blue background for the lack of meaningful reportage, and my mediocre camera took in all the hues:
And now, I need to gather my wits and get ready for work.