I think it’s fairly clear that Mitt Romney handled himself well and that Rick Perry handled himself somewhat less well.

A quick note: Perry suggested that Romney was in favor of Race to the Top, which may or may not be true. It’s easy for me to imagine that Romney has said positive things about Race to the Top, as has Jeb Bush. I’d like to see Perry take on Jeb Bush one-on-one on the subject.

Romney stated that he in fact had expressed admiration for Arne Duncan, the secretary of education. Though Duncan has done much that I disagree with, he did give an interesting speech at the American Enterprise Institute, which Rick Hess wrote about for NRO:

Duncan opened: “For the next several years, preschool, K-12, and postsecondary educators are likely to face the challenge of doing more with less.#…#[This] can and should be embraced as an opportunity to make dramatic improvements.#…#It’s time to stop treating the problem of educational productivity as a grinding, eat-your-broccoli exercise. It’s time to start treating it as an opportunity for innovation and accelerating progress.”
We couldn’t agree more. Throughout this spending spree, we’ve worried about the pernicious effects of dumping so much cash on our already bloated schools. All this did, we argued, was prop up an unsustainable system whose revenues have grown by one-third since 1995. After three generations of steady growth in per-pupil spending, education was going to have to face its day of reckoning, and schools were going to have to start spending dollars smarter.
This was a speech unlike any we have heard from a U.S. Secretary of Education–Republican or Democrat. Duncan noted that resources are limited, emphasized the need to make tough choices, urged states and districts to contemplate boosting some class sizes and consolidating schools, and didn’t spend much time trying to throw bones to the status quo.
Duncan called for wide-ranging reforms in the name of cost-effectiveness. He said, “The legacy of the factory model of schooling is that tens of billions of dollars are tied up in unproductive use of time and technology, in underused school buildings, in antiquated compensation systems, and in inefficient school-finance systems.” He rightly argued that schooling has to abandon the notion that reform is always bought and paid for with new dollars, and that it’s essential to think of technology as a “force multiplier” rather than a pleasing add-on. His to-do list was comprehensive and spot on. He said, “Rethinking policies around seat-time requirements, class size, compensating teachers based on their educational credentials, the use of technology in the classroom, inequitable school financing, the over-placement of students in special education–almost all of these potentially transformative productivity gains are primarily state and local issues that have to be grappled with.”
In one speech, this (Democratic) secretary of education came out swinging against “last hired, first fired,” seniority-based pay raises, smaller class sizes, seat time, pay bonuses for master’s degrees, and bloated special-education budgets. Which means he just declared war on the teachers’ unions, parents’ groups, education schools, and the special-education lobby. Not bad for a day’s work. [Emphasis added]

So let me get this straight. Rick Perry thinks that it is unacceptably left-wing to have offered measured praise for an education secretary who has “declared war on the teachers’ unions, parents’ groups, education schools, and the special-education lobby.” This strikes me as curious for a conservative, though of course it is entirely possible that Perry is not familiar with the particulars of everything Duncan has done and said, much of his has been unwise.

Romney didn’t just say that he was really expressing admiration for Duncan. He also called out President Obama for opposing opportunity scholarships in the District of Columbia, and he reiterated his support for school choice.

This isn’t to say that Romney’s performance was fully satisfactory. He made reference to the importance of defending the interests of the middle class, which was shrewd and could form the basis for a larger campaign narrative. But he doesn’t have a larger campaign narrative that is sufficiently compelling, at least not yet. There were hints of it, though, which is why we can expect various left-of-center voices to raise the temperature of attacks directed against Romney. Hundreds and possibly thousands of opposition researchers are poring over every aspect of Romney’s life and record, including his years at Bain Capital, all in the hopes of derailing his candidacy.

I also thought that it was noteworthy that Herman Cain chose Romney as his running mate, in what was of course a fanciful exercise. Perry’s “Caingritch” answer was more amusing, but Cain could prove to be a valuable campaign proxy for Romney.

Many conservatives are still pining for another candidate to enter the race, with most of the attention now focused on Chris Christie. One wonders if tonight’s performance might deter candidates who would otherwise be on the fence.

Finally, I’ll say that I hope the campaigns are reaching out to Susana Martinez. Brian Sandoval has already endorsed Rick Perry, and that was a significant get. Martinez is an impressive politician and she could prove a valuable asset on the trail.