You'd stretch any issue to try to score a political point. That's the true mark of a political whore. On the case of race based admissions, Bush is saying that racism in the name of overcoming racism is wrong. Practicing racism in college admissions in the name of overcoming racism reminds me of the old saying from the Viet Nam war - "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

If preferences are needed, why not base them on economic factors rather than race. That poor black or hispanic kid from the inner city has a lot of handicaps to overcome. The same can be said for a poor white kid from the swamps of Louisanna or countless other rural areas in the country.

Today, the upper middle class kids of a black doctor are considered "disadvantaged" under the Michigan admission rules, so they get preference over white kids, even poor ones. Anyone who thinks a poor white kid has some kind of economic or political advantage over a middle class black kid is an idiot.

As for Bush complaining about public schools, he helped push through legislation to increase federal funding to education last year. I'm surprise you didn't read about it. It was in all of the papers.