Posted on 08/08/2011 6:50:13 AM PDT by tysonbam
The release of Governor and potential presidential candidate Rick Perry's Texas A&M transcript set off a media frenzy this weekend as commentators and columnists feasted on the underwhelming scores.While releases like this make for fun facts and cute analysis it should be asked, "Why should we care?"
College scores can be a great indicator of skill right out of college. They're helpful for getting into graduate school and ascending the ivory tower, and they indicate a student's proficiency in each subject. When evaluating a 61-year-old potential presidential candidate low grades are both meaningless and not uncommon.
George W. Bush joked about being a C student at Yale with a four-year average of 77. The "complex" John Kerry had a four-year average of 76 also at Yale. While Rick Perry, the face of the Texas economy, received a D in principles of economics, Al Gore, the face of global warming, received a D in Natural Sciences his sophomore year and a C-plus in natural sciences his senior year at Harvard. The Washington Post said in 2000, "[Gore's] generally middling college grades at Harvard in fact bear a close resemblance to the corresponding Yale marks of his presidential opponent, George W. Bush."
The point isn't to deride Bush, Kerry, Gore or Perry, but that college transcripts are only a snapshot of a person's life. Transcripts may give you a glimpse of Perry the student but they tell little about Governor Perry.
Drawing conclusions from information almost four decades old is a fool's errand.
It would be just as absurd to assess college students by when they began walking.
It would be nonsensical to observe that Rick Perry earned a D in economics as a democrat while as a Republican governor, Texas has created 37 percent of all-net new jobs in America since the recovery began according to Richard Fisher of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
While we're using old information to draw ridiculous conclusions it should be obvious that Perry is smarter and more driven than the college dropout Bill Gates.
The perversion of Perry's 39-year-old transcript is a manifestation of ivory-tower elitism at its worst.
This pervasive dogma tells us that our measured academic achievement during a four-year period is more important than all our life lessons.
It's absurd considering real world employers rarely care about college grades after a graduate's first job.
In the real world, a college degree quickly becomes nothing more than a checkmark among more important items like work history and special skills.
This dogma would have us believe Rick Perry's D in Shakespeare is more relevant than a record consisting of years as a state legislator, agriculture commissioner, lieutenant governor, and almost a decade as governor.
This dogma implies that Rick Perry's C in gym matters more than issues like Gardasil, the Trans-Texas corridor and the seven solutions for higher education.
This culture of elitism is the reason every administration has a parade of eggheads running back and forth between Washington, D.C. and the ivory tower. These experts and policy wonks are evaluated on academics by academics more often than on unemployment rates and economic growth.
That's not to say we don't need eggheads and policy wonks, every politician has them, but when evaluating a leader, an F in organic chemistry is far less important than the decisions made after graduation.
As the longest-serving current governor of the second-largest state economy, Perry has relevant points of criticism. His college transcript is not one of them.
I’m 53 and running for city council. Does the grade I got in PASCAL programming on a Main Frame computer really matter anymore?
I’m 53 and running for city council. Does the grade I got in PASCAL programming on a Main Frame computer really matter anymore?
I don’t doubt that Obama is smart. One does not get out of any Harvard grad program without facing some very stiff competition.
Just like GWB graduated from the Harvard B school. Another tough egg. And he flew jets—something idiots cannot do.
I simply wish the media could be fair and balanced about this stuff. There is no shame in having someone “smart” be the leader of the country.
My goodness, you have to be pretty smart just to get to the point where you are on the the ticket.
I does to me. I got a B.....(just kidding. I got a C, and was thankful for it.)
1. A student who completes the requirements for the J.D. degree with distinction will receive the degree cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude.
Where does it say magna cum laude is only awarded to the top 10% of the class for a JD degree?
It wouldn't matter a whit if your electoral resume was based on real accomplishments, whether in business, lower electoral office or elsewhere.
He may very well be and he may have even earned his honors from Harvard the old fashioned way.
I'm just saying that so much in the guy's past has been handed to him or created for him that I wouldn't be surprised if it included his Harvard honors graduation as well.
I also agree that there is no shame in having someone smart lead the country. Every signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution was smarter than the average bear. But, with the single arguable exception of Alexander Hamilton, I cannot name a single one who went to anywhere near the effort to hide their past that BO has done. Can you?
And Obama received no grades, but was merely “passed”, due to his commitment to activism.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a vast difference between being smart and using those smarts for good.
I think Obama must be very sharp. But the way he uses the smarts is misguided.
And I don’t disagree that it is unusual the way he hides it.
Anyone that has been a supervisor or manager of a department knows the feeling of finding themselves in a little bit over their heads. The “intelligent” ones tend to read a book and try to come up with the answer, so they are not found to be lacking.
The really smart ones ask for help, determine the best course and fix the problem, thus gaining experience and confidence.
We are dealing with the first type. He is so scared that someone will see his record for what it probably is—filled with Gentleman, Post Racial A’s in the form of passing grades.
I don't disagree with the later part of your assessment, but I disagree with your assessment that he is an "intelligent" type who will read a book and try to fix it on his own.
If he were, I'd suggest a great book like Basic Economics by Dr. Thomas Sowell which could turn the country around if the principles were applied.
The trouble with ObaMao is that he is so ideologically brainwashed that even a great author and a great economist like Dr. Sowell could not straighten out his thinking.
Still, he may very well be intelligent in the same way that Karl Marx was intelligently deceptive. Or he may just be a tool who is giving his owners what they want in return for the fun and perks of being president.
I think we both agree that one could make a reasonable argument for either case.
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