Arne Duncan would like people to stop talking about the time he said "white suburban moms."

The phrase was "clumsy," and he's sorry about letting it slip out. But why was it in there, capable of slipping out?

Former George W. Bush adviser Nicole Wallace asked Duncan if his comments were indicative of an Obama administration that views the nation through a lens of race.

“My point was when you dummy down standards, you’re lying to children. That affects all children, that affects all families … even in more affluent suburban areas, not just in the inner city,” Duncan said. 

So the point — and he fully intended to make it — is that he thinks white women in the suburbs deceive themselves imagining that urban black kids are the ones with the education problems.