The Daily Top Five: February 23, 2007

1. There is lots of talk about the Democratic strategy to end the war, or more accurately, strategies. Charles Krauthammer notes that the paths being considered are no way to win a war. My comments are here.

2. Earlier this week, I posted about Club 2012 in Loudon County, VA. The post generated a lot of traffic for me as well as the follow-up, in which I asked the question of whether the black subculture is at least partly to blame for the achievement gap. LaShawn Barber also has a post, in which she chides not just black Americans, but all Americans--your children, your responsibility.

Groups like Club 2012 should spring up all over the place. Black parents in Loudoun, Virginia, banded together to combat what they saw as a self-perpetuating and self-defeating cycle of underachievement. The group should serve as a model for all parents, and I hope readers send the story link to others.

Groups like Club 2012 work only if parents, not the government, care about how their kids are doing in school and do something about academic issues. Narrowing the academic achievement gap will take more than complaining and demanding money. It will take the hard and sometimes grudging work of parents getting in their kids’ business, charting their progress in school, and asking others for help, not demanding it, if they can’t manage it on their own.

There is nothing wrong with asking people for help, but these days, certain folks don’t understand the difference between asking and demanding. It may shock some of you to read this, but nobody owes you a darn thing.

Indeed.

3. Democratic leadership in the Senate had better be careful about their strategy with regard to the Iraq war. In the end, I don't think Lieberman will switch parties, he simply doesn't agree with much of the Republican domestic policy agenda, in fact he disagrees with most. But with his comments hanging over his head, he will be the most important man in the Senate, perhaps even all of Washington, for sometime to come.

4. What???

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann claims to know of a plan, already worked out with a line drawn on the map, for the partition of Iraq in which Iran will control half of the country and set it up as a “a terrorist safe haven zone” and a staging area for attacks around the Middle East and on the United States.

I will be listening to this podcast soon. Chose the CapitolCast.

5. Roger Simon interviews the Governator.

One thing Arnold Schwarzenegger said: He thinks Democrats should stop criticizing Hillary Clinton for refusing to say she made a mistake by voting for the Iraq war.

I think Hillary should say what I advise here:

The next time the question comes up, say "I voted in 2002 based on information available at that time. We know something different know and had I known then what I know now, my vote would have been different. But everyday, everyone makes decisions based on less than perfect information and Senators are no different. Do I have regrets about my vote, yes. But I don't doubt my vote at that time. I can't afford the luxury of doubting every vote I cast."