McCain Touts Bloomberg on Education

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The New York Sun

JOHNSTON, Iowa — Senator McCain is cozying up to Mayor Bloomberg at the expense of Mayor Giuliani as the Republican presidential primaries draw near, using a question at yesterday’s debate here to tout the current administration’s efforts to reform an educational system that he said had been “clearly broken.”

“In New York City today,” Mr. McCain said, “there are some remarkable things happening under Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein, who have done marvelous work with an educational system that was clearly broken.”

The Arizona senator praised Mr. Bloomberg and his education chancellor, Mr. Klein, for promoting principles that should be replicated across America: “We need more choice and competition,” he said.

Mr. McCain did not mention Mr. Giuliani in his answer but his decision to single out the accomplishments of his successor could be seen as a jab at a candidate who has made his record in New York the centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

As speculation persists about Mr. Bloomberg’s own presidential ambitions, the high praise from Mr. McCain could start talk of a possible partnership if Mr. McCain’s bid for the Republican nomination fails. Mr. McCain has returned to his maverick roots in trying to come back from his campaign’s near collapse over the summer, and he now highlights rather than hides the many times he has broken ranks with his party. Mr. Bloomberg displayed a similar streak before he took the more dramatic step of leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent earlier this year.

The two politicians are longtime friends who met privately in New York at the beginning of the campaign. The mayor has said little publicly about Mr. McCain’s bid other than to muse to New York magazine about the senator’s early attempts to run to the right.

Mr. Giuliani did not address Mr. McCain’s comments about Mr. Bloomberg, instead focusing on his own proposals in education, which also favor choice and vouchers. He said parents should be given the same options in kindergarten through 12th grade that they have when sending their children to college. “If we give the choice to parents, they can choose public school, charter school, home school,” he said. “Let them be the decider. I think we’ll see a big revolution.”

Mr. Giuliani occasionally acknowledges weaknesses in his education record on the campaign trail, saying that if there was one area in which he fell short, it was the improvement of schools. After he left office, Mr. Bloomberg succeeded in gaining state approval to take over the schools, a feat which his predecessors, including Mr. Giuliani, had tried but failed.

After the debate, advisers to Mr. Giuliani tried to stay out of a fight over Mr. Bloomberg. Asked if the Giuliani campaign saw Mr. McCain’s compliment as a dig, Mr. Giuliani’s campaign manager, Michael DuHaime, said: “You’d have to ask Senator McCain.” Mr. DuHaime declined to compare the education records of the two mayors, saying only: “Mayor Bloomberg’s done a fine job as mayor.”

A former congressman from New York who is backing Mr. Giuliani, Bill Paxon, defended Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to improve the schools. “He made some big gains,” Mr. Paxon said. “He helped the city turn the corner.”

A senior adviser to Mr. McCain, Charles Black, denied that the praise of Mr. Bloomberg implied a shot at his rival. “We didn’t mean that as an attack,” he said. Mr. Black gave Mr. Giuliani some credit, acknowledging that he “tried to get a hold of the schools.”

A spokesman for the city’s Department of Education declined to comment on Mr. McCain’s remarks.

The McCain-Bloomberg link emerged from what was otherwise a tame debate, the final encounter for the Republican presidential contenders before the Iowa caucuses on January 3.

The new leader in the Iowa polls, Michael Huckabee, did not face the sustained attacks from his rivals, particularly Mitt Romney, that had been expected heading to the debate. Mr. Romney, who had led Iowa surveys for months before Mr. Huckabee jumped past him, had released the first negative television ad criticizing the former Arkansas governor, on immigration, earlier this week.

The debate moderator, Carolyn Washburn of the Des Moines Register, focused heavily on economic issues and omitted questions about Iraq or immigration, which has become a flashpoint of the Republican race. Unlike moderators on debates held by the cable news networks, she steered clear of questions that highlighted criticism from opponents or bickering among the candidates.

The leading contenders were largely aligned in backing lower taxes, reduced government spending, and free trade. Mr. Huckabee, however, advocates a “fair tax proposal,” which would replace the income tax with a national sales tax. Ms. Washburn also stood her ground on enforcing time limits, at one point telling the candidates to be “a little snappier, please.”

One of the debate’s lighter moments came when Fred Thompson protested Ms. Washburn’s request for a show of hands from candidates who believed climate change was real. “I’m not doing hand shows today,” the former Tennessee senator said. He asked for a minute to answer the question, and when Ms. Washburn said no, he refused to answer it at all. In the meantime, the rest of the candidates on the stage all began responding at once, drawing laughter from the audience.

While some campaigns praised the issue-oriented format of the debate, Mr. Thompson’s camp did not. “I am not sure how these other candidates plan to defeat Al Qaeda when they can’t even take on Carolyn Washburn,” a campaign spokesman, Todd Harris, said afterward, before weaving in a shot at Mr. Huckabee. “The format of this debate was more of a joke than a Mike Huckabee foreign policy answer.”

Yesterday was also the first — and likely last — major debate that included Alan Keyes, a former diplomat who sought the presidency in 1996 and 2000 and who decided in September to make another long shot bid. Mr. Keyes spent most of his time complaining that he was being left out and railing about the current state of politics, saying that most elected officials were “phonies.” He was also one of the few candidates on stage to criticize his rivals directly, saying he could not vote for Mr. Giuliani because of his views on abortion and referring negatively to Mr. Romney’s shift on that issue. Asked if he wanted to respond, Mr. Romney drew laughs when he began, “I’m not sure.”
The Democratic candidates will have their final pre-caucus debate here this afternoon.


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