The public has had the opportunity to meet three of the four superintendent finalists. It was former Montgomery, Alabama superintendent Carlinda Purcell's turn last night. Purcell had the misfortune of being booked on Halloween night, so turnout was not as strong as it was for fellow candidates Jean-Claude Brizard and Tim Mains. And the controversy surrounding her departure from Montgomery - and the leak to the media that virtually dragged her in front of the public - may have raised the bar particularly high for Purcell. Compared to the first two candidates, Purcell had difficulty engaging the audience. While she

Carlinda Purcell may have been the candidate with the most to gain in her appearance at last night's Rochester superintendent forums, the third in the series of four. Purcell, like finalist Tim Mains, found herself in a difficult situation when her name was leaked to the media last summer.The leak was compounded by the circumstances of her departure from her last job, as superintendent of Montgomery, Alabama, schools. Following a tense conflict with her, the Montgomery School Board bought out Purcell's contract.Purcell is the only candidate with superintendent experience and title - the full package. She says that during her

The superintendent forums ended last night with finalist Ingrid Carney, a deputy superintendent with the Boston school district. Carney exhibited a forceful charm that kept the questions coming in the East High School auditorium longer than any of her co-finalists. Raising academic achievement, Carney said, is her first priority. Increasing the graduation rate, she said, would naturally follow. "Increasing graduation rates is more a result of concentrating on the core instruction," she said. "And I think that means that we have to look for ways to make that interesting and more relevant to students. We tend to think that all

People keep saying that this presidential election campaign is too long. For me, it's feeling very, very short. The New York primary is just over two months away, and I'll have to know a lot more about the candidates between now and then.Last night's debate on CNN helped a bit, in that it pushed Hillary Clinton farther down my preference list. Increasingly, she comes off as too scripted, too harsh, too calculating. And, like Kucinich, angrier than I want a president to be. And Clinton's opinions on key issues - when I can see those opinions clearly - aren't what I

"Played for a "Sucker": Paul Krugman's sharp attack in the New York Times on Barack Obama's stand on Social Security. Obama is talking about a "crisis" when none exists, writes Krugman. In his attempt to appear bi-partisan, Obama is buying into conservatives' ploy, says Krugman, and is being "played for a fool."

During the last presidential election, the Republicans' wedge issue was gay-marriage.This year it's undocumented workers.A fiery exchange between Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani dominated the early part of last night's CNN You Tube debate. Romney accused Giuliani of making New York City the largest sanctuary city in the country.Giuliani shot back that Romney ran a "sanctuary mansion" while he was governor of Massachusetts. Apparently the former governor unknowingly hired undocumented workers to help with repairs.The exchange made for good TV, but it was also a childish, schoolboy squabble about a serious national issue.The fervor against undocumented workers has