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No, I'd say Ken21 was right on pint in his criticism.

Skipping over the fact that your one piece of anecdotal evidence is hardly "proof" that Ken21's point (which I agree with) is invalid, I wonder why you conveniently left out the fact that Wilson served as governor of New Jersey prior to becoming President. He was also PRESIDENT of Princeton for many years in between being POTUS and a simple college professor.

Somehow I would think his presidency at Princeton and, more importantly, being governor of NJ raised his visibility on the national level much more than his being a simple teaching professor - which he hadn't done for years prior to entering the White House anyway.

From reading your (anecdotal) point, one would think Wilson was teaching PoliSci 101 one day and then taking the oath of office as POTUS the next.

Need to be a little better than that around here newbie.

Hmmm, so Ken21 offers no evidence whatsoever about the role of college professors in public life before World War II. I mention one very prominent former college prof who mattered deeply. And now I'm the person who's using inadequate evidence?! LOL.

I'm guessing that none of us is old enough to have been an adult before World War II, so his, your, and my beliefs are going to have to be based on some evidence other than personal experience. What's your basis for saying that college profs didn't matter before WWII? It's cheap to charge me with arguing from anecdotal evidence; pretty darn good anecdote, btw. So put up some alternative evidence.

Now, on a separate point--maybe college profs don't matter today. I actually think college profs are largely irrelevant to contemporary politics and less relevant to politics now than before World War II. That's one of the reasons why I'm surprised that anyone cares what happens to Larry Summers. If what's happening at colleges is really irrelevant, though, one must ask why so many are concerned with what's happening at Harvard? Or Columbia? Or what books Harvard University Press is publishing?