RED STORM RISING (via ef brown):

Too Good to Win (George F. Will, November 2, 2003, The Washington Post)

Three years ago, when [Jack] Ryan was 41, he walked away from moneymaking to start his real life. Or resume it. Earlier he had been doing what his family has always done, which involves making the rest of us seem like moral slackers.

Ryan, who keeps in moral and physical trim by going to Mass and the gym each morning, left Goldman Sachs to become a teacher at Hales Franciscan High School in the heart of the huge African American community on the South Side. In an area where some schools send more young men to prison than to college, Hales Franciscan has for six consecutive years sent all its graduates -- all African American youths, most from homes poor enough to qualify for the school lunch program -- to colleges, including Notre Dame, Northwestern, Georgetown and the Naval Academy. [...]

His campaign bears watching because of what it will say about the ability of a Republican to make inroads among African Americans. If he cannot do it, it really is hopeless.

Win or lose, this probably will not end happily. Ryan has a three-to-one lead over his nearest rival in polling of Republicans likely to vote in the March 16 primary. But in the general election he probably will learn the futility -- with few exceptions -- of asking African Americans to vote for any Republican, regardless of his views or record, and he probably will lose in this increasingly Democratic state.

Mr. Ryan won't likely get many black votes; but he is more than likely to be carried in by the Bush tide. Even several rancid candidates will win (as in '80 and '94), so one who's this attractive shouldn't have much trouble.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 6, 2003 12:10 PM