The Roundtable, as readers know, is one of the prime movers of the destruction of public education by attempting to put a false business model on a sector of the economy which is NOT a business:
Even within the framework of the historical traditions of liberalism, Obama's remarks testify to the total collapse of that ideology. In the Great Depression, it was taken for granted that the economic crisis signified a devastating failure of free enterprise and the mythology of American individualism. Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, conservative in his political instincts and patrician in background, felt the need to adapt his rhetoric to that powerful public sentiment.
Roosevelt frequently hurled rhetorical thunderbolts against "the moneychangers in the temple." Obama's rhetorical bouquets tossed to American capitalism would have been inconceivable for virtually any politician in Roosevelt's day.
Yet Obama's performance before the Business Roundtable signifies not just a rhetorical weakness. There is a larger issue. Obama has no program to confront the economic crisis. In all of his proposals and initiatives, he presents himself as seeking "bipartisanship" and "reaching out" to competing interest groups. In reality, Obama is inviting the various factions of the ruling class to use his office to hammer out the policies that will best advance their interests.
Speaking of Arne Duncan, more is here.
