Hmm, what was it about China that completely changed Gov. Linda Lingle's mind?

Did she visit the Great Wall and suddenly get a new sense of perspective, that feeling of being so small and impermanent next to something awesome and enduring? Did that make her think, "Gee, now that I won the battle against those impertinent teachers, I might have lost the war"?

Did she visit the Forbidden City and get spooked by words like "coup" and "revolution"?

Did one of the giant pandas at the Beijing Zoo look at her with beady little panda eyes that seemed to say, "Save the children"?

Or was it that she was in China for two weeks and was coming home with nothing but a silk jacket for Lenny Klompus and vague talk of "strengthened relations" while President Obama went to China for three days and brought back the big announcement of the APEC leaders conference to be held in Hawai'i in 2011?

Most likely, some big shot with the national Republican Party back at home in the USA Skyped her and said words to the effect of, "Linda, PLEASE, could you not attach the shame of the shortest public school year in the nation onto our party? It makes the party look bad when we're trying to stage a comeback."

In any case, her suggestion to tap the rainy day fund to pay teachers, thus putting an end to furlough Fridays, is a stunning reversal.

Whatever the influence might have been, credit should be given to Lingle for having the courage to change her mind. Too many politicians get hemmed in by their own stubbornness and can't reconsider decisions for fear of losing face.

Is it possible that the sign waving by parents, the scoldings from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the angry online comments about furlough Fridays had extra weight when viewed from abroad? Possible, but Lingle long ago gave up being a populist politician in her home state. When, during the presidential campaign, she all but disowned the Hawai'i-born Obama, she signaled that she was fine with going against the grain back home. That was Lingle's moment of Going Rogue.

But she does care what people, her party leaders, think of her outside Hawai'i.

It may be, as Lingle said, raining on Hawai'i's children, but it could be shining on Hawai'i's Republican governor.

Lingle left yesterday for the Conference of the Republican Governors Association. She listens to those people. They could be key to her future. After all, among the likes of Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and South Carolina's Mark Sanford, Lingle is head of the class. And now she can say she stepped in to save education in her state.

Hmm.