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Posted on 02/16/2015 4:26:03 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
There are plenty of things to criticize Scott Walker over. His lack of a college degree is not one of them.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has emerged as a modest front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in the past couple of weeks. This may well be a temporary state of affairs. If the 2012 GOP primaries taught us anything about the presidential nominating process in the super PAC era, it’s that every candidate will be the front-runner for a few weeks. At some point this year, everyone from Huckles to Doctor-Citizen Ben Carson will serve a brief spell as the Man to Beat. No one has even launched a campaign yet, and already this year Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush have taken their turns.
Scott Walker’s numbers may oscillate over the course of the next year, but there’s reason to believe he’s the real deal. Notwithstanding the concern that he has the charisma of a nightstand, he’s an excellent candidate on paper: accomplished in enacting conservative goals and withstanding the challenges that those efforts sparked, and able to unify the social, economic and foreign policy factions of the party.
As soon as Walker’s ascendance in the early power rankings began, I’ve been expecting, though certainly not hoping, to see a particular line of attack against him bubble up. A very predictable one that makes me groan because it’s so wrongheaded. So I’d like to thank former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean — of course it’s Dean! — for being the first prominent chump, that I’ve noticed, at least, to run with it and give me this opportunity to swat it down. From Thursday’s “Morning Joe,” regarding Scott Walker’s “punt” on the theory of evolution:
Howard Dean: This is a particular problem for Scott Walker which has not been an issue yet, but it will. Scott Walker, were he to become president, would be the first president in many generations who did not have a college degree. So the issue here is not just the issue of dancing around the question of evolution for political reasons, the issue is, how well educated is this guy?
Joe Scarborough: Are you serious?
HD: I’m absolutely serious.
JS: Are you serious?
Donny Deutsch: He didn’t finish his senior year so he didn’t get all the stuff.
JS: Because he didn’t get his degree?
HD: I think a lot of people are going to be worried about this.
JS: Do you worry about people who don’t finish college?
HD: I worry about people not knowing much about the world and not knowing much about science.
JS: Let’s name the people who didn’t finish college and who have changed this world. Did Bill Gates finish college?
HD: Bill Gates is a little different. Nobody is accusing Scott Walker of having the intellect of Bill Gates.
JS: Well nobody is accusing Scott Walker of being dumb because he didn’t finish college except you.
HD: I didn’t say dumb. I said unknowledgeable. [...]
Willie Geist: And how do you know he’s unknowledgeable? He’s knowledgeable about what goes on in his state.
JS: And what the hell does that have to do with him answering the question the way he did, or were you just taking a cheap shot?
HD: Because evolution is a widely accepted scientific construct, and people who don’t believe in evolution either do it for hard right religious reasons or because they don’t know anything.
Take heed, everyone else who’s considering levying this criticism at Scott Walker, of how quickly Howard Dean is sent on the defensive, looking like a snooty liberal snob jerk. And that’s after only the most modest pushback from the likes of Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist.
This isn’t just about the “optics” of bringing up Scott Walker’s lack of a college degree, either. If there was a strong criticism to be had that ran the risk of making someone sound like a jerk by saying it, then fine. But Scott Walker dropping out of Marquette before he completed his bachelor’s degree is not a strong criticism for why he shouldn’t be president. It is meritless.
Why do people seek bachelor’s degrees? Because that’s the only way to be learned — or “knowledgeable,” as Howard Dean would say? Please. Most people who get bachelor’s degrees do so because it helps them get a good job. Some enjoy learning as much as they can, others just take the bare minimum in credits, but the goal is by and large the same: to certify themselves as employable via this imperfect credentialing process our society has settled on. If someone like Scott Walker has been able to achieve the career goals that usually require a college degree without having gotten that college degree, then more power to him. People who don’t have a college degree shouldn’t be relegated to lower-tier economic status because they didn’t spend four years as young adults reading CliffsNotes. Scott Walker was able to get a good job without finishing his degree. If only everyone could be so lucky!
(Sure, there are questions abut whether Walker’s exit from Marquette was more unceremonious than he’d like to let on. Harping on this seems like a plain-vanilla waste of time, rather than a totally obnoxious and poorly premised waste of time.)
The idea that Scott Walker says dumb things about evolution or foreign policy because he didn’t complete the second semester of his senior year at Marquette is bogus. Anyone who doesn’t think it’s bogus — or thinks it’s a good political look for liberals to mock someone for not having a college degree! — should question the value of their own formal education. Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz, to name just two of Walker’s potential rivals, have absolutely impeccable academic credentials, degrees up to their knees, and this certainly doesn’t prevent them from saying dumb things about evolution or foreign policy.
It must not be polling well among low information voters.
In which field does Obama have a degree? Where did he earn his degree??
They’d be wiser to not make it an issue, because there are more people without college degrees than with one.
However, it’s more fun for them to ridicule the unwashed so they will probably do this.
No clue.
They can’t help themselves.
Look at the very well educated Bill Clinton who wasn’t even sure what the definition of “is” is.
.
You don’t need a bachelor degree to take a position on evolution so its a straw man argument. Its not the lack of bachelor degree that he was concerned about it having a different political position. Having a bachelor degree in law for example does not mean you have studied science
I can see the media making a big deal of this because they were so diligent about looking into Obama’s school records.
/s
A reasonable article in Salon. Now I’ve seen everything.
The left isn’t doing themselves any favors. They’re apparently protesting in front of Scott Walker’s parents home.
Twitter feed of Alex Walker.
https://twitter.com/The_Alex_Walker
HD: Because evolution is a widely accepted scientific construct, and people who don’t believe in evolution either do it for hard right religious reasons or because they don’t know anything.
here it is the new distraction for GOP presidential contenders...evolution. The Left don’t want to be challenged on Obama’s failures so they will be trolling the GOP about evolution.
What they will do is try and paint his lack of college degree and his cutting of the University of Wisconsin budgets as evidence he's anti-education.
Brian Williams in wikipedia:
Alma mater George Washington University
The Catholic University of America
After high school Williams attended Brookdale Community College, after which he transferred to The Catholic University of America, and then The George Washington University. He did not graduate, and instead interned with the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He later called leaving college one of his “great regrets”
Alma mater Marquette University (left before graduation)
Walker discontinued his studies at Marquette in the spring of 1990, leaving in good standing with a 2.59/4.0 grade point average, but without obtaining a degree (in his senior year).
—
What we are not told is that, according to MRC Newsbusters, is that Williams attended three different colleges but left without a degree after completing a total of 18 credits.
For those in Rio Linda, 18 credits is a few more than most students earn in ONE semester. (Personally I never took fewer than 18 credits per semester and as many as 21).
In the "Bizarro World," where all the MSM is controlled by snarky right wingers, the equivalent would be to get every Democrat to talk about population control, and then ask "what do you think would be the optimum population for our planet."
Thanks, Vet. I hope Howard Dean keeps harping on Walker not having a degree. It can only help Walker as he goes out and earns the votes of the 5 million conservative voters who did not vote in ‘08 and ‘12.
Poor little spoiled rich boy, Howard Dean, who came from a plaid and checked pants country club RINO Republican background, is doing conservatives everywhere a huge favor.
“What was that you said Howard? Say it again, please, I didn’t get it. Did you say Walker dropped out of college?”
I graduated high school in the late 80s and have accrued the equivalent of an Associate’s degree without the paper. The lump sum of my “higher education” is the ordination I received after completing some online work through an independent Christian ministry organization. I am currently the supervisor of a laboratory for the highest producing site of a global biotechnology company directly responsible for 15 analysts and more than 50K samples tested this past year. I may not have paper but I have experience, honesty, integrity and character. I’m guessing Walker will be OK.
Oh, and what were his grades? What was his attendance record?
Dang crickets are chirping again.
lol....now that’s a great comeback.
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