By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

DETROIT – Either Vice President Joe Biden has been delinquent about checking the polls, or he’s extremely loyal to a discredited friend who may prove to be a campaign liability.

In a speech Sunday, Biden told delegates at the American Federation of Teachers convention in Detroit everything they wanted to hear.

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He said Mitt Romney and the Republican Party do not value education because “they don’t invest in it.” He said Republicans make budget cuts that affect public schools so they can give tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

He even tried to dredge up the most discredited of all arguments – teachers unions are good for education, and not the self-serving organizations they’ve proven to be.

“Unlike our Republican friends, we don’t see you as the problem. We see you as the solution,” Biden told his audience.

Of course the union leaders from throughout the nation loved every moment of his speech. They chanted “four more years!” while waving the Obama-Biden signs that were conveniently left in each of their seats by convention organizers.

There’s no doubt that if union leaders elected the next president, Obama and Biden would win in a landslide of historic proportions.

But recent polls suggest that large majorities of Americans are finally catching on to an ugly truth: Teachers unions are parasites that suck billions of dollars out of the financially struggling education system every year. And they are the defenders of a broken system that is failing to prepare America’s children for the future.

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This is particularly true of the AFT, which represents most of the teachers in America’s atrocious inner-city schools.

Voters are also learning that the Obama administration has failed to hold the unions accountable for the role they’ve played in destroying America’s schools and keeping students trapped in public dropout factories.

The unions oppose education reform that demands more accountability from teachers. They oppose school choice initiatives that would allow poor kids to escape failing schools. And they refuse to make financial concessions that would allow school boards to preserve student programs and maintain smaller class sizes.

This is all on the record, and the public is starting to pay attention to the record. Yet the Vice President still insists that the unions are “the solution” and “not the problem.”

Congratulations, Mr. Vice President. You and President Obama were the clear winners at the AFT convention. But the AFT folks are no longer respected or trusted by the American people, who will actually choose the next president.

You’re a loyal friend to an old ally, Mr. Biden. But you may not be a very smart politician.