NJ Education Report

NJ’s Race To The Top debacle continues to make national headlines, including in Salon. From Salon’s political news writer, Stever Kornacki:

It’s pretty obvious what happened here. Christie, in his first seven months in office, has racked up plenty of favorable press coverage with his blunt, plain-spoken style. He’s crafted a powerful image as a common-sense governor at war with the bureaucrats and special interests that have ruined his state.

But there’s no room in this narrative for clerical mistakes that cost the state $400 million. So from the minute the story broke, the search was on for a scapegoat — and the Obama administration made for a perfect target. And it might have worked, too, had Schundler’s hearing with the feds not been videotaped. If that had been the case, then it would have been Christie’s word against Obama’s, a winning bet right now for the governor. But it was taped — something Christie didn’t realize. As Schundler himself puts it now:

I have thought about the possibility that beyond my being a scapegoat for his misstatement, the Governor might be angry at me for not telling him the interview was videotaped. In my defense, I never believed I needed to say, “Governor, stick to the truth, there’s a videotape.” Perhaps I should have.