Of all the political phenomena in Georgia over the last several years, perhaps nothing has been more surprising than the return of our politicians’ open disregard for public education and our electorate’s acceptance of their attitude and actions.

Over the last third of the 20th century, Georgia’s elected officials, responding to the voters, at least tried to appear concerned about improving our state’s schools. Granted, their rhetoric was often loftier than their actions, and many of our public officials failed to do right by our schoolchildren over the decades. Nonetheless, pressure to improve schools from voters was strong enough that at least some priority was placed on public education. Georgians knew that our public education system could no longer be a relic of the post-Civil War plan to attract jobs by luring industrialists seeking ignorant, low-skilled workers who would toil for cheap. Politicians responded by paying at least some attention to the schools.

In the 1980s voter sentiment drove then-Gov. Joe Frank Harris, a Democrat but one of the most conservative major politicians of his day, to propose the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE), which committed the state to providing substantial funding to local school systems for basic operations, including everything from teacher salaries to text books to extracurricular activities. In fact, over the next decade and a half, state support for public primary and secondary education rose to the point where school systems received more than half of their operating funds from state QBE funding.

Could Vernon Jones be the next Mack Mattingly?

Remember 1980? Democratic bosses went to bed on election night confident that President Carter had won his home state even as he lost the country. Party gurus also were sure veteran incumbent Sen. Herman Talmadge had survived all his problems. He would be re-elected. No doubt about it. Everybody said so. An early edition of the Atlanta Constitution called it a great election victory for Talmadge. Eerily, Talmadge refused to issue any statement as county after county reported runaway totals in his favor.

Then the ballots from heavily Republican Cobb County poured in. While Carter won the state, a relatively unknown Republican Mack Mattingly defeated Talmadge, compliments of the Ronald Reagan landslide.

This may be an answer to Georgia’s woes. The University of Georgia has decided to spend a relatively paltry $1.44 million to buy a full-fledged commercial TV station and set it up in Athens.

The purpose of acquiring WNEG-Channel 32 of Toccoa is to train communication students in TV and to make money. The university research foundation is underwriting the purchase from Media General, a TV-and-newspaper conglomerate headquartered in Richmond, Va. A professional staff will oversee the day-to-day operation.

Administrators at UGA have big plans for their new toy.

As Georgia’s 2008 political campaign scene develops, the missed opportunity for state Democrats becomes increasingly clear. A recent poll showed competition in a Georgia presidential campaign for the first time since 1996.

The sorry mess made by Republicans nationally, African-American enthusiasm for Barack Obama’s candidacy and former Cobb County Republican Congressman Bob Barr’s nomination for president by Libertarians point to a perfect storm for Georgia Democrats to blow back into office. Some folks may cheer at this preview, but it is just not going to happen.

The local donkeys lack the get-up-and-go, not to mention the sound judgment, to join the comeback.

Rebranding is the latest buzzword in political campaigns. Everywhere
you look, some politician or politician's spouse is gearing up to play
the rebranding game. They try to change who they are and reinvent what
they've said. They're hoping voters have forgotten the old brand and
will only remember the new trademark on Election Day.

Michelle Obama has lined up talk shows across the country to endure
dumb interviews in which she tries to prove she would be just another
Princeton-educated first lady instead of an angry black activist in the
White House.

Emily Grace came sweeping into our house in her little pink basket Sunday to inspect her great-grandparents for the first time. She must have given Reny and me high marks. She giggled and smiled during most of the visit. She only made a face and cried when bottle time ticked around.

That Reny and I are great-grandparents makes both of us gasp, as well as smile. When I was a child, I knew only briefly one of my great-grandmothers who kept me entranced with tales of Sherman’s marauding soldiers at the end of the Civil War. Reny did not know hers at all.

I can hardly believe our present “great-grand” status. I can’t get used to a granddaughter who is a mother and a daughter who is now a grandmother. Or a grandson-in-law, who is a Marine sergeant just back from his fifth tour of duty in Iraq.

Over the last several years, we’ve seen the politics at our state Capitol become more and more like the system that has afflicted Washington, D.C., since the Nixon administration.

Members of the Republican governing majority, while certainly exhibiting increasing acrimony among themselves, still put the health of their partisan majority ahead of just about any other concern. Their focus is on building a culture that surrounds them and their supporters with the aura of government authority, and sustaining their dominance with money and manpower.

The South may be about to rise again. Republicans can’t take the region for granted any longer. To keep Georgia in the GOP fold, the Republican presidential campaign will have to spend money in the Peach State for the first time since 1996.

We can thank Barack Obama for making us important again. Notice I did not say he is likely to win the state. But Obama is going to make it tough for Republican John McCain to capture Georgia and Mississippi.

Here’s why:

“Why would we ever go back?”

That is the question Gov. Sonny Perdue posed in a newspaper article Sunday and hurled at former Gov. Roy Barnes. Across the page, Barnes had written an equal-space essay criticizing Perdue’s slipping-and-sliding education system.

When I looked at the newspaper, I thought I was already back  —  back in 2002. It looked like the Barnes-Perdue election campaign going full speed ahead, just like six years ago. 

The presidential primary season ought to end Tuesday, and I finally figured out the answer to the riddle of the ages: Why did Hillary run?

Before I share the Hillary solution with you, dear readers, a bit of background is in order.

Hillary Clinton is probably the most focused and energetic government wonk ever to seek the presidency.

She also may have had more negative marks against her than any major presidential candidate in modern history, more than even Bob Barr.