Despite his self-inflicted blunders, incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal is blaming his loss in the Republican primary to Diane Douglas on Common Core, the state’s learning standards.

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Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal has joined the barbarians at the gate.

Huppenthal flip-flopped Tuesday on his position on Common Core, saying he “never” supported the learning standards. His new stance comes just two months after he spoke at an Arizona Capitol Times Morning Scoop forum on K-12 education issues, during which he implored education and business leaders to do a better job selling the virtues of the standards to voters.

Arizona schools chief John Huppenthal sparred with his Republican primary challenger, Diane Douglas, Tuesday evening in a debate that focused on the state's new Common Core school standards but also touched on anonymous blog posts Huppenthal made that forced him to apologize.