John Hood is warning North Carolina Republicans they should learn from their mistakes in the Wake County school board elections or risk the consequences during next year's presidential fight.

In a column today in The Carolina Journal, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that "Wake County Democrats staged the shocking defeat of the one conservative, Ron Margiotta, who wasn't a newcomer to the school board." Hood criticizes how Republicans presented their message to voters.

"For the most part, their (Democratic) candidates chose clear, persuasive messages that presented themselves as reasonable-sounding alternatives to opponents they portrayed as extreme," Hood writes. "The Republican messages were muddled and unappealing."

John Hood is citing school choice as "the single-biggest result of conservative electoral gains in 2009 and 2010."

Most of the focus of Hood's column last week in the conservative Carolina Journal focuses on the lifting the state's charter school cap and allowing tax credits for special-needs kids who attend private schools.

But Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation, also cites school choice efforts in several school districts, including Wake County.

Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon lambasted the Wake County school board majority in his 16-minute speech at Saturday's Great Schools in Wake Coalition forum.

As noted in today's article, Goodmon accused the board of engaging in poor governing practices and being ideologically focused. He chastised the board for several of the decision that have been made, including eliminating the diversity policy.

Along the way, Goodmon got repeated applause and laughter from the crowd of  around 200 people. He also found time to repeatedly plug WRAL, which his company owns.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is arguably taking out of context some of the criticisms leveled against the Wake County school system.

In a press release today, GSIW says that private school supporters are calling the school system "unpopular" and a "failure." It says these remarks "appears part of an orchestrated plan to discredit and undermine the award-winning Wake County Public School System."

“The public schools are the crown jewel of our local economy. We should be advocating for them—not condemning them,” said Yevonne Brannon, GSIW Chairwoman in the press release. “It is an insult to the intelligence of our educators and students when we suggest that one of the top school districts in the nation is a failure. If our schools are so bad, then why have they been held up as a national model of success?”

John Hood argues that "the Left" has failed in its defense of the Wake County school system's old socioeconomic diversity policy.

In a column today, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that "the Left" has failed to generate a ground swell of support for restoring Wake's "forced busing" policy. He says a big reason is that liberals don't have the data to show that the policy has improved the achievement of Wake's disadvantaged students.

"Liberals have tried to convince the public to embrace a policy that hasn’t achieved its stated goal of improving achievement among disadvantaged students," Hood writes. "And in doing so, liberals have disregarded the public’s opinions, insulted the public’s intelligence, and questioned the public’s moral character."

Here are some assorted issues raised in the NC SPIN show on Wake County's school diversity fight.

Was the socioeconomic diversity unpopular with the public, as maintained by John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation? He pointed to the higher turnout at last fall's elections and the unfavorable poll results from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling and the conservative-leaning Civitas Institute.

"The policy that the Wake County school board adopted a decade ago has never been popular," Hood said. "It has always been unpopular."

John Hood is accusing opponents of the Wake County school board majority of making up facts to stir up liberal support in political elections.

In a column today, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that "the obstructionists will seek to use the Wake busing case as a means of mobilizing liberal donors and voters for the 2010 election cycle." He writes that "such a use doesn’t require that their various allegations bear any relationship to reality."

Hood proceeds to give his own version of a frequently asked questions list.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco and the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, are going to get more television time to debate diversity in the state's largest school district.

NC SPIN announced today that Barber and Tedesco will appear on a special edition of the show that will be broadcast Aug. 15. In addition to Barber and Tedesco, regular panelists John Hood and Chris Fitzsimon will also be on the show that will be moderated by Tom Campbell.

John Hood says he's "confused by the odd behavior" of the state NAACP and its leader, the Rev. William Barber, when it comes to their opposition to the changes going on in Wake County's schools.

In a column today, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, notes all the actions that the NAACP has taekn over Wake ending the diversity policy. But Hood said Barber didn't stage sit-in protests when other North Carolina school districts "years ago adopted student-assignment policies identical or similar to the policy Wake County is about to adopt."

Conservative businessman Art Pope gave more details today about his school board campaign strategy meeting with Wake County Republican Party officials.

In a meeting today with N&O editors and reporters, Pope said that like other large donors he was given a courtesy meeting with party officials last year to discuss fundraising and campaign strategy. But he said that he only gave his advice about the GOP plan.

Critics of the new school board majority have trumpeted an October e-mail message in which Wake GOP finance chair Marc Scruggs said they had implemented "Art Pope's plan." Pope repeated today his statement that Scruggs gave him too much credit.