Don’t Tell Us There Are No Substantive Differences Here

New York Times campaign correspondent Adam Nagourney, responding to complaints about the lack of substantive policy questions in last week’s Democratic debate, writes:

For all the concern voiced about the lack of discussion about issues like Iraq and health care, it seems fair to say that even the most slightly attuned Democratic voters already have a well-formed sense of the views of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama. Further, one of the central dynamics of this campaign — and why things have seemed so strained as the candidates have sought areas of difference — is that these are two Democrats with fairly similar views of the world. Thus, there is a premium on trying to find out new things about these candidates’ views and how they might react to the problems of the day.

Iraq and health care— not to mention the economy—are certainly high on voters’ minds this election season, as they should be. But they’re hardly the only substantive policy issues subject to debate. There are many other issues on which Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have made substantive, even ambitious, policy proposals, and on which there are significant differences between them. Early education is one such issue—and it’s an issue that matters to middle- and working-class parents in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Yet it’s been virtually ignored by the media in this election cycle. For example, Nagourney has written more than 80 articles about the Democratic primary campaign in the last 6 months, and not a single one of them so much as mentions pre-k or early education—despite the fact that the candidates mention it in virtually every stump speech, Barack Obama rolled out an education policy agenda in November that included early education as a central component, and Hillary Clinton also unveiled some new Zero-to-Five proposals since then.

We’re not under any illusion that early education is a front burner issue in this campaign, but if debate moderators or journalists are really looking for ways to “find out new things about these candidates’ views and how they might react to the problems of the day” asking them about their differences on early education seems like a good place to start.