WSJ: Jeb Bush Wraps Himself In Common Core Standards Even As Many GOPers Renounce Them

This doesn't seem like a winning strategy for GOP primaries:

Most potential Republican presidential contenders are renouncing the national educational standards known as Common Core. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has championed measuring academic achievement for two decades, is doubling down.

Resistance to Common Core is growing among the party's activists, who see it as a federal incursion into local schools. Republican governors of South Carolina and Oklahoma last month joined Indiana in opting out. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who two years ago said the initiative "will raise expectations for every child," recently compared it to Russian centralized planning and on Friday vetoed a pro-Common Core bill.

Mr. Bush, by contrast, is urging states to stick with it. 

"Pressing pause means stopping forward momentum," said a letter released Monday by Mr. Bush's nonprofit Foundation for Excellence in Education. "And when that happens, things can go backwards."

Mr. Bush's embrace of Common Core, as well as his support for legalizing undocumented immigrants, is coming to define his national profile ahead of a possible 2016 presidential bid. These stances isolate him from the conservatives who dominate Republican nominating contests. Last week, they demonstrated their power by ousting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Virginia GOP primary.

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Most potential 2016 GOP candidates have come out swinging against the standards, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. 

"It substitutes an unaccountable federal bureaucracy for state, local and parental decision-making in education," said Jim DeMint, a former senator who is president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with an active political arm. "Parents are tired of the failures and excuses from Washington."

Bush has little chance to win GOP primaries with these stances on education, Common Core and immigration:

As the GOP has shifted to the right, it is tea-party activists who are now among Mr. Bush's most ardent opponents. In addition to unhappiness with the federal role in education, conservative activists see a corporate connection to the initiative.

Since 2010, Mr. Bush's foundation has received $5 million from the Gates Foundation, and it gets donations from companies in the education industry, including Pearson PSON.LN +1.27% PLC and News Corp's NWSA -0.64% Amplify, which have contracts related to implementing Common Core. (News Corp publishes The Wall Street Journal.)

"All Common Core roads lead to K Street," wrote commentator and activist Michelle Malkin, one of Mr. Bush's biggest antagonists, referring to the Washington turf of many lobbyists.

Maybe you can't extrapolate the Cantor/Brat race to the country as a whole, but I think it is safe to say that if Tea Partiers are opposed to a particular Republican presidential candidate, that candidate is going to face an uphill climb for the nomination.

Bush will have the backing of the moneyed class in the GOP, especially if Christie is eliminated by Bridgegate and the other scandals plaguing him.

But Bush will also enjoy the animosity and hostility of conservatives on talk radio, from Laura Ingraham to Glenn Beck, conservatives with a huge Internet following, like Michelle Malkin, and activists on the ground.

Good luck trying to come out of that toxic mix a winner.

On top of that, Bush will enjoy presidential level scrutiny of his business record since he left political office.

There's a lot of funkiness around Bush, the agenda he promotes and the money he makes for promoting that agenda.

I can't see that issue being a winner with Tea Partiers either.

The Lesson For Liberals And Progressives In The Eric Cantor Defeat

Buh-bye, Eric:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated Tuesday by a little-known economics professor in Virginia’s Republican primary, a stunning upset and major victory for the tea party.

Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was seen by some as a possible successor to the House speaker.

His loss to Dave Brat, a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the tea party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.

Brat had been a thorn in Cantor’s side on the campaign, casting the congressman as a Washington insider who isn’t conservative enough. Last month, a feisty crowd of Brat supporters booed Cantor in front of his family at a local party convention.

His message apparently scored well with voters in the 7th District.

“There needs to be a change,” said Joe Mullins, who voted in Chesterfield County Tuesday. The engineering company employee said he has friends who tried to arrange town hall meetings with Cantor, who declined their invitations.

Tiffs between the GOP’s establishment and tea party factions have flared in Virginia since tea party favorite Ken Cuccinelli lost last year’s gubernatorial race. Cantor supporters have met with stiff resistance in trying to wrest control of the state party away from tea party enthusiasts, including in the Cantor’s home district.

Brat teaches at Randolph-Macon College, a small liberal arts school north of Richmond. He raised just more than $200,000 for his campaign, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Prominent national tea party groups did spend independently to help Brat.

Brat offset the the cash disadvantage with endorsements from conservative activists like radio host Laura Ingraham, and with help from local tea party activists angry at Cantor.

The teacher tenure story in California remains the biggest story of the day, but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor getting knocked off by a Tea Partier is a pretty close second.

You can bet Cantor's defeat will catch the notice of GOP insiders and party stalwarts.

Contrast what happened to Cantor tonight with the surrender the Working Families Party did on the Cuomo endorsement last month.

Until people on the left start taking these smarmy corporate Dems out the way the Tea Party just took out the smarmy Cantor, corporate Dems will continue to take the left for granted, will say anything they need to in order to get votes, then pull a full betrayal as soon as the election is over.

You start primarying a few of these corporate Dems and knocking a couple of them off and you can bet they'll stop taking you for granted.

It's a shame the left hasn't learned this lesson yet - not in 2012 with Obama, not in 2014 with Cuomo.

Maybe the left will learn it someday.

But probably not.