What are they going to call these folks? Reefers, perhaps?
Now that the issue of the president's birth certificate has been laid to rest (mostly), some conservatives are turning their attention to a new obsession: Barack Obama's college transcripts.
Last week, a website that already had offered a $10,000 reward for Obama's transcripts from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School, increased the bounty to $20,000.
About a year ago, Donald Trump, among the highest-profile "birthers," helped get the mini-movement started. After the president released his long-form birth certificate, Trump abruptly changed subjects:
"The word is, according to what I've read," said Trump, "that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental. He then gets into Columbia; he then gets to Harvard. ... How do you get into Harvard if you're not a good student? Now maybe that's right or maybe it's wrong, but I don't know why he doesn't release his records." He's afraid that his reputation will go Up In Smoke?
What do these "transcripters" (if we may coin a phrase) hope to prove?
"We're not convinced that Barack is as smart as you media elitists keep insisting he is," says The Trenches, the website that posted the reward. (The Daily Caller outed the responsible party as Brooks Bayne, a conservative blogger who admitted he was behind the reward.)
That rationale may strike some as a little flimsy, given that Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review, taught constitutional law, has two bestselling books to his credit and is, at the moment, leader of the free world. Nah, he's just smarter than a bunch of gullible voters who want to prove they're not racist, even if it means voting for some clown out of left field only because of his race.
We do know a few things about the president's college career.
In his new book, "Barack Obama: The Story," David Maraniss quotes Obama as saying that his grade point average at Columbia was an impressive 3.7. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, which cannot happen with poor grades. How'd he do with economics?
The president's presumptive opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, was no academic slouch either. According to various news reports, Romney graduated from Brigham Young University with a 3.97 grade point average and was in the top 5% of his class at Harvard Business School, where he simultaneously earned a law degree. Uh oh, someone with a record and multiple degrees.
Unfortunately for transcript transparency advocates, school transcripts, like tax returns, are private. They are protected by a 1974 law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
"There are all kinds of exceptions, but the rule is records may only be released with signed written consent of the individual," said Barmak Nasserian, associate executive director of the American Assn. of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The group counts more than 2,600 degree-granting institutions among its members. "Barack Obama, like every other American, is entitled to privacy rights under federal law." And he seems to be quite private about his excellent record, it seems.
In any case, said Nasserian, he doesn't see much benefit in allowing voters to peruse candidates' college transcripts.
"I am not sure looking at 20-year-old Mitt Romney or Barack Obama at that granular level of detail would make a difference," he said. "It's kind of a stretch to say performance in a particular course, or that they took a course with a professed Marxist, or they studied Russian for heaven's sakes, is going to be relevant or helpful to someone making up their mind." Fine, then you won't mind opening up those records for my perusal, right? Or did you skip logic 101?
Though it may be true that college transcripts are not determinative, they can certainly be revealing.
In 1999, the New Yorker published an apparently purloined copy of George W. Bush's Yale transcript before he became the Republican nominee for president. Bush, it turned out, was basically a C student. Was this a scandal? Hardly. He never cast himself as an intellectual or brainiac, and, despite his Harvard MBA, often made fun of highly credentialed people.
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was assumed by many to be Bush's intellectual superior. But months after he lost to Bush, his college transcripts were inadvertently sent to the Boston Globe and he was revealed to be a C student as well, earning four Ds his freshman year. (Stung by allegations that his Vietnam War service was not what he had claimed, Kerry had given permission for his Navy records to be turned over to the newspaper. The college records were part of those documents.) Can a mediocre student hope to achieve the highest office?
The answer is self-evident.
"To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done," President Bush told Yale graduates in 2001. "And to the C students, I say you too can be president of the United States."
#2
What I'm interested to see about Obumble's university records are whether he received any benefits or advantages based on being enrolled as a "foreign student". That scenrio seems reasonably likely.
#3
And who started the whole business about Bush's academic record? Oh, excuse me, that action went down the 1984 Memory Hole. It's all about push back. Someone is playing the game back into the face of those who did it and they're unhappy. One set of rules for me, another set of rules for thee.
The time for politeness is well passed when dealing with the left. If they dish it out, they'd better be prepared to take it in turn.
#7
Lone Ranger, I think he got enough points in Affirmative Action such that claiming foreign student status wasn't necessary.
And the latter can be harmful: for a number of graduate programs, foreign students are not eligible for student aid. Not sure if that's true for Harvard Law.
I wouldn't mind a look at his transcripts since he's supposed to be so smart. Remember 2004 when Kerry was supposed to be the smart one? Later, much later, after the election, we learned that the big dummy Dubya had a better GPA at Yale than did the schmart one Kerry.
So I'd like to see how Champ really did in his academics. And his bar exam.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/29/2012 10:34 Comments ||
Top||
#8
we learned that the big dummy Dubya had a better GPA at Yale than did the schmart one Kerry
Not that this "learning" really makes one bit of difference to the electorate, many of which still seems to think Dubya was no smarter than a bag of rocks, and which still doesn't mind that Jawn F'ing Kerry was only as smart as a half bag of rocks.
#10
Obama is as goofy as a $3 bill--we know nothing about him other than he was a community organizer, one-term Senator, and a doper who had composite girlfriends. Now just how does that qualify you to be President?
#11
"just how does that qualify you to be President?"
I think it's more about race, John.
What? He's obviously Manchurian....
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/29/2012 18:38 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I'm guessing that his people looked at his transcripts, realized his grades weren't as good as W's (or McCain's) and locked 'em up tight to avoid comparison. They built an illusion about him being really smart because he was good on a teleprompter when he's basically a egotist pothead who was smart enough to fly under the radar and leave minimal record of his existence until the election.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Barack Obama The campaign's over, John... is anchoring his re-election campaign around sharp attacks on Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... 's business record, but the hardball strategy also risks tarnishing the president's own political brand.
In 2008, Mr Obama ran for office presenting himself as a different kind of politician, one who would seek to bridge divides rather than open new ones, and as a purveyor of a style of politics purged of Washington's normal bitterness.
His negative assault on Mr Romney is designed to disqualify the central premise of his rival's campaign -- that as a successful businessman, he has the experience and knowledge to fire up a slow economic recovery.
But analysts say, Obama may also in the process risk damaging his own standing with voters, and put at risk the affection many voters still have for their president, despite frustration with the plodding economy.
"It's a possibility that by his campaign being very negative on Mr Romney, that could lead some people to be less approving of him personally," said Mr Robert Erikson, a political scientist at Columbia University ...contributed $547,852 to the 2008 Obama campaign. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns? And where do they get all that money they piss away buying politicians? in New York.
But Mr Obama will also be weighing whether his attacks will harm Romney's standing more than his own in a close election.
"Maybe there's a cost to the campaign, you lose something personally but your opponents lose even more if you attack them," Mr Erikson said.
"(But) if I were advising Obama, I don't think I would advise him to avoid being negative towards his opponent. I don't think that would be the wise course."
Recent polls show Obama with a slight lead over Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee in November's election, but also suggest the president has little margin for error as he shoots for a second term in November.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll found that more Americans disapprove (49 per cent) of how Obama is governing America than approve (47 per cent) and 55 per cent of those asked did not like how the president was steering the economy.
On the other hand, 52 per cent of those asked thought Mr Obama's personality was better suited to being president. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 49 per cent had a very or somewhat positive view of Obama.
Only 34 per cent said the same of Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire venture capitalist.
"In this particular election, Obama faces the problem that just being liked is probably not enough to win the election for sure," said Clyde Wilcox, a political science professor at Georgetown University.
"It looks like a pretty close election. So I think at this point that his people have pretty much decided ... Romney has pretty high negatives and they want to make sure they stay there."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A non-worthless bit of spam I received recently:
"We are worried about 'the cow' when it is all about the 'Ice Cream. 'The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching 3rd grade. The last Presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.
The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids.
I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support.
I had never seen Olivia's mother.
The day arrived when they were to make their speeches.
Jamie went first.
He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place.
He ended by promising to do his very best.
Everyone applauded and he sat down.
Now is was Olivia's turn to speak.
Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down.
The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream."
She surely would say more. She did not have to.
A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. But no one pursued that question. They took her at her word.
Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it...She didn't know.
The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream...
Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide.
Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and 51.4 % of the people reacted like nine year olds.
They want ice cream.
The other 48.6% percent know they're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess."
#3
Where are Jim, Tim, and Franklin now?
Just in case you might have wondered how their ineptitude affected their lives after they ruined so many dreams and lives.
Where are Jim, Tim and Franklin now?
Here's a quick look into the three former Fannie Mae executives who brought down Wall Street.
Franklin Raines - was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the aaccounting scandal became clear.
Tim Howard - was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million!
Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at
$28 Million.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? FRANKLIN RAINES? Raines works for the Obama Campaign as his Chief Economic Advisor.
TIM HOWARD? Howard is a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama under Franklin Raines.
JIM JOHNSON? Johnson was hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee.
#7
Guess What ? Ron Paul : Dark Horse : Might Switch To Liberal Conservative Democrat And Run As Well As Republican & Democrat & Draft From : Occupation Party ! Watch : Primary ! 4 or 5 Percent ! Still A Winner !
#8
Normally attacks might be advantageous but in this case Romney just has to point out that Obama can't run on his record which is why he's attacking and almost any attack is blunted.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
