"Sir, am I invisible?"

After a 1400 mile road trip west and two debates, I can now take a minute and try to catch up on my blogging responsibilities. Hopefully, the next 99 days of pre-primary posting will be even more "entertaining" as I have an expert in blogging who has volunteered to help bring me into the fast lane.

A number of years ago I was eating breakfast at a grill up on Hillsborough Street here in Raleigh, when a young man sat down at a booth close to my table. For the next 15 minutes, waitresses delivered coffee and food to other customers, took orders from those who hadn't been served, seated other customers - all the while ignoring this young man.

Finally, he turned to me and asked, "Sir, am I invisible?" I've laughed about that story for years, but at times in this campaign I want to ask, "Are my ideas and proposals invisible?" It's been almost a week now since I announced my education reform plan linked to making the political leadership at the top of the state public school system more accountable. And at times I ask myself how a proposal for significant educational reform can be all but ignored by the press, particularly by editorial boards at all the newspapers around the state?

Yes, I know NC Spin did a segment on it yesterday and that was great. And I know that there was coverage that went out after our press conference, but part of that story ended up being whether Pat McCrory had actually come up with the idea, not really about the substance or need for the reforms proposed. It's hard to understand why that was news (the N&O ran the story with a headline "Orr, McCrory propose appointing school head" and last time I checked Pat didn't attend my press conference or sign on to the reforms proposed). And I made it clear both at the press conference and in subsequent releases that I didn't claim any originality about not electing the superintendent, but that the rest of my proposals were original.

But what's frustrating is that no editorial writer for any of the papers in the state have even mentioned the proposal - for or against it - or simply said something to the effect the it's worth debating. And to the best of my knowledge, no reporter has actually asked Moore or Perdue where they stood on the issue, despite both of them sitting on the State Board of Education. The problems with our public schools certainly aren't invisible. When real solutions to those problems are proposed, they shouldn't be invisible either.