When a political candidate makes a campaign promise, voters expect he will keep it. Those who don't often find their political careers coming to a premature end.

And that brings us to Cobb school board member Dr. John Abraham.

It's campaign season again in Cobb, and the Cobb County Association of Educators has made its endorsements. Dr. Abraham, who has chosen not to run this time, was obviously not among those endorsed. But surprisingly, the CCAE selected Abraham to lead a training session for the candidates it does endorse on how to run a successful campaign for school board.

We don't know whether Abraham also will offer any advice on how to perform as a school board member once elected - but if he does, we hope his listeners will either tune it out or do the opposite of whatever he recommends.

You'll recall that Abraham has set the standard when it comes to making - and later breaking - campaign promises. (Although his fellow board member David Banks runs a close second in that department.)

Abraham ran for the board four years ago as a reformer, chock full of good ideas for improving the system and raising standards.

Instead, by the time he was midway through his term, he had flip-flopped on issue after issue and become the champion of the status quo. And his position-switches became chronic.

Candidate Abraham wanted a late-August start date for the school calendar. Board Chairman Abraham cast the decisive vote for an earlier-than-ever start date (Aug. 2).

Candidate Abraham wanted increased public input into board matters. But board Chairman Abraham abruptly ordered a policeman to pull Walton High parent Vivian Jackson away from the microphone after she had the audacity to point out that flip-flop during the "public comment" period of a board meeting last fall.

Candidate Abraham wanted to shift the board's focus to academic matters, such as demanding evidence from the superintendent that the block schedules he allows many of his high school principals to choose is superior to the traditional schedule. But that turned out not to be a priority for board member Abraham.

Candidate Abraham wanted more accountability and a stronger curriculum. But board Chairman Abraham cast the decisive vote for a new, Standards-Based Report Card for third graders that many critics said rewards mediocrity.

Chairman Abraham initially favored bidding out the board's contract for legal services after this newspaper reported the board had secretly awarded its longtime attorney, Glenn Brock, with a four-year contract extension worth an estimated $8 million. But Abraham forgot that promise and the matter stayed on the back burner.

Chairman Abraham loudly touted the long-term Strategic Plan then being developed for the system and promised plenty of public discussion about it by the board. The plan would be key to boosting academics and holding administrators accountable, he promised. So what finally happened? After multiple delays, the plan was approved late in his year as chairman (2009) with next to no public discussion. Many criticized it as a "status quo" plan with no accountability, and even Abraham conceded it had been "co-opted" by the superintendent and educrats in the central office.

If there was anything consistent about Abraham, it was that he eventually would vote against most of the high-profile items he once had favored.

***
ABRAHAM IS A GOOD MAN, a retired CDC executive who came to the job with lots of enthusiasm and good ideas. But serving on the school board, and especially serving as chairman, is an all-consuming job that easily can overwhelm even the best-intentioned of people. In that sense, Abraham's dizzying contortions once in office and his failure to live up to his promises are not just disappointing but verge on the tragic - not just for him, but for the system and its students.

Abraham chose not to seek another term this year. The stress and fatigue of the job might be part of the reason, but it's also clear that he could not have been re-elected. The combination of his flip-flops and the general anti-incumbent feeling that prevails would have been too much to overcome. People are tired of those who campaign one way and govern another.

And in Abraham's case, it was "promises made, promises broken," over and over and over.