My blog last week about Roy Barnes’ efforts to regain the governor’s office after having been unceremoniously booted out by Sonny Perdue has engendered some interesting responses. At the time of his defeat, then-Gov. Barnes was the devil incarnate with a lot of school teachers.

His friends in the media didn’t help much by blaming Barnes’ defeat on “teachers unions” instead of an ineptly operated reelection campaign. Teachers unions in Georgia have about as much influence as a turnip.

Now, teachers are telling me that maybe Roy Barnes wasn’t so bad after all. They have endured eight years of Sonny Perdue who has shown almost no interest in public school teachers – or at least not as much as he has shown in his efforts to buy land and get retroactive tax credits from his buddies in the Legislature.

To Perdue’s credit – if that is the correct word – he is unapologetic about making money while in the governor’s office. On his best day, Perdue won’t come close to Roy Barnes’ net worth, but that isn’t because he hasn’t tried. He has been helped enormously by a state media that is too lazy, too inept or too understaffed to put the heat on the governor and get some answers.

Sonny Perdue has one other thing for which he is to be commended. Unlike all of his predecessors going back to James Oglethorpe, he has made no pretense of being an “education governor.” Not even close.

Which brings me back to public school teachers. I have the sense that they may be ready to give Roy Barnes an-other chance. Something I would have thought unimaginable even five years ago.

Perdue took the governor’s office away from Barnes. He may just be responsible for giving it back to him.

Stay tuned.