McCain: Still No Media Questions About Education

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, who has a new book coming out Tuesday, Aug. 14, called "Hard Call," appeared on the Today show last week, where Matt Lauer did not ask about education. He did ask about Iraq, of course, and also had questions for McCain regarding Don Imus, Barry Bonds, and whether he would be tempted to peek at his teen-age daughter's Facebook profile. (That last topic is not really about education, but it's about kids, so we'll count it as relevant here. McCain's response: "Sure. Yes, I would. I would, and I'd tell her that I'd read it. I mean, it's just like when children go online. Parents should know what our children are doing. But we tell our children that. We're not -- we need to know as parents what our children are doing. And, by the way, this issue of Internet child pornography is one of the most terrible and awful assaults on family and children in history, and we've got to fight that hard.")

Maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart will have an education question for McCain when he makes his 10th appearance on "The Daily Show" on Aug. 16.

The media may not be asking much about education, but some voters are keeping it in the public eye. GraniteGrok, a conservative blog site run by two New Hampshire political junkies, reports that an educator asked McCain about President Bush's No Child Left Behind law during a town meeting Aug. 10 in Wolfeboro, NH. McCain mostly repeated what he has said before (and what we've reported here): That NCLB is not perfect, but it's a good beginning, and that he supports vouchers and charter schools. "We need choice and competition," he said.

McCain, who skipped last Saturday's straw poll in Iowa, has spent much of his financially challenged campaign in New Hampshire. More from McCain's New Hampshire appearances can be found at GraniteGrok.com.

-- Mary Beth Marklein