Wayne Allyn Root's Million-Dollar Challenge (He wants Obama to release his grades)

Reason Magazine ^ | September 5, 2008 | Matt Welch

[fanpd]

His African Dad went to Harvard in the 1960’s. What a story! The Editorial Board took notice. Why won't he release his test scores?

What Ressner and Smith describe at Harvard — and I've read other, similar descriptions of the HLR and of Obama’s election as its first black president — make me believe its editorial board selection was remarkably, overtly political as compared to most other law journals. How could it be otherwise, when it apparently depended on a vote among all of one's direct (same-year) peers and competitors who together made up the journal's membership?

Otherwise, though, at Texas and, I believe, most other major law reviews, the rule for members was (and I think still is): “Publish or perish, up or out.” If you didn't produce a publishable-quality note on deadline, your name was stricken from the membership list on the masthead, you had no opportunity to become an editor, and — worst of all — you became ethically obliged to call back all those employers who'd extended you job offers in part based on a résumé credential that you were no longer entitled to claim.

http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2008/06/why-didnt-obama.html

This article says it all. Obama is insecure and knows how to read a teleprompter. How did he perform in his debates with Hillary? What were his weaknesses?

[billmor]

Well i stand corrected...Found an article that Politico.com had found: it was a Case Comment by Obama to a Case reviewed in the Law review, the question being: could a fetus file a lawsuit against it’s own mother...Aside from that case comment there appears to have been nothing else written by Obama for the HLR...

Source: http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/08/obamas-law-review-case-comment-about.html

[fanpd]

Obama is incompetent.

Obama and David Axelrod are political and calculating. They've had their way all these years and just assumed with Oprah's Hollywood influence, Soros’ money and the main stream media as surrogates, the Presidency was a slam dunk.

Obama is phony and insecure. He's too calculating and wants the power for all the wrong reasons. He also continues to play the race card through his surrogates, through black radio, etc. It's not the color of his skin, it's is phoniness which is a turn off.

[fanpd]

IOW - Nothing, Nada...Nada, Nothing!!!

“He is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years.

Not a personal attack, a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada.

Nada, nothing.

The choice — the choice in this election comes down to substance over style. John McCain has been tested; Barack Obama has not.”

Rudy 9-3-08

[STE=Q]

“In a discussion of abortion itself, Obama wrote that government has more important business than ‘ensuring that any particular fetus is born.’”

“He also decried any limits on abortion, saying the government has an interest in ‘preventing increasing numbers of children from being born in to lives of pain and despair.’”

The two paragraphs above contradict one another.

If the government has “more important business than ‘ENSURING that any particular fetus is born’ than, it follows that: “Government has more important business then ‘PREVENTING increasing numbers of children from being born’”

{through abortion}

How the government has ANY interest at all in whether ‘one is born into lives of pain and despair’ as opposed to ‘joy and happiness’ is beyond me.

This guy gets more scary the more I find out about him.

God help us!

STE=Q

[IncPen]

I forgot to mention that one of the side results of this campaign may be that Political Correctness finally gets its comeuppance. And not a moment too soon.

I hope this guy gets alot of press.

[Carling]

Who cares? Elections are not won or lost on this.

Obama authored the Global Tax, which would send $835 billion in our tax money to the UN for distribution.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2075838/posts

[Plutarch]

Its the LSAT’s we really need, and the SAT’s while we are at it. They will not be messianic.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Awesome read. That needs to be put out there. Or maybe Root just verbalized what a lot of people are beginning to ask about Obama. He seems to have no "regular" friends, only liberal activists. He doesn't "do" anything but run for President.

Sarah Palin is a bush pilot, owns a float plane, has run a town and is Governor of the State of Alaska and still has time to have five children. She's run marathons. She hunts and fishes and on weekends goes out on the boat with her husband. And then there's Cindy McCain who could have sat at home and had "the ladies" over for tea but volunteered time and money to help children overseas. No publicity, just did it because she saw a need she could fill. I was wowed by the program the other night. She's a beautiful, talented, giving lady who has quietly just done her best to help others . . . and not written one book about herself.

And then you have Michelle Obama . . . complaining about the high cost of after school care. What has she ever done that she didn't brag about? What has she ever done other than attend liberal activist meetings and get angry at the USofA.

I've been a Social Worker and Caseworker for over 25 years. Michelle Obama is just like so many of my clients. UNmotivated. Waiting for someone else to suggest what she could do to make her world a better place. Obama doesn't position himself to where he can be assessed for the results of his efforts. That Annenberg Challenge had no measuring tool to prove it was effective. It was a huge waste of money. Think of all the people who could have gone to the doctor had the money been used to provide medical care to those living in South Chicago. No accountability. If they'd given all that money to Cindy McCain . . . she'd have put it to good use and there would be smiling children as a result.

Obama doesn't allow himself to be held accountable for anything. He creates an illusion of superiority. He's "above" grades or being printed in professional magazines or explaining what part of the Constitution he addressed as a Constitutional Lawyer. But deciding when life begins was above his pay grade. He was stumped by the question because whichever way he answered he was in trouble. So he avoided the question.

And maybe that's why he "hid out" in Columbia and didn't make friends . . . maybe didn't attend class or perhaps sat in the back of the room and didn't fraternize with his classmates.

This shows how insecure and ignorant he is. He never learned to relate to his college classmates. He doesn't really relate to the black community . . . he's not got but 1/16 Negro blood. He's more white and Arab-Kenyan than he is anything else. Why he didn't opt to go "white" in the "multi-cultural" Honolulu, Hawai'i, I don't know. He could have. His facial features are not at all similar to MLK or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Other than his nose being a bit smaller, his facial features are exactly like Osamas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1wT_FcO2Rk&NR=1

[Plutarch]

If it’s true that he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, then you can pretty much end this thread right here.

If Obama were a genuine HLS magna cum laude intellect, it would be more apparent, both prior and subsequent to HLS.

His SAT's would have been close to 800 verbal, and as an African American with such a score the Ivy's would have found him in HI. Instead, he goes to Occidental, which is a fine school, but Obama would have had SAT's way above Occidental's average.

Obama gets to Columbia, and his magna intellect makes no impact; he graduates without any honors.

Next, Obama materializes at HLS, makes Law Review, and is elected Editor. But Affirmative Action would serve to get him into HLS, HLR, and the Editorship.

After graduating, this magna intellect again reverts to achieving nothing. He is on the Chicago Law Faculty, and only as Lecturer, publishing only (ghost written?) biographies.

So, what doesn't fit is the magna cum laude. HLR, like magna, is for the top 10% of the class. Do Affirmative Action appointees to the HLR get an honorific magna cum laude so their degree will be consistent with their HLR status? If that were the case, this practice wouldn't be publicized by HLS, as it would apply to only a handful of students. Note that we know that Obama is magna, but we don't know his exact class rank. If he were actually in the top 10%, the specificity of graduating, say, 15th, would add to his luster.

We don't know Obama's SAT's, LSAT's, Columbia grades, or HLS class rank. If all these were truly consistent with Obama's HLS magna performance, we would know all about them.

[Floratina]

I have a feeling that his grades were plenty good. Man, the speculating on this thread is Kos-worthy.

[srmorton]

I graduated magna cum laude because my GPA was 3.87. You had to have a 3.9 to be summa cum laude and they do NOT round off GPAs. Magna cum laude required only a 3.5 GPA. As a Biology major, I totally earned mine with four years of schedules full of labs and Chemistry courses.

I think what is prompting the comments about Obama's grades is that he seems totally incapable of speaking without a teleprompter. I would expect a magna cum laude graduate who was also trained as a lawyer to have MUCH greater ability to think on his feet and speak "off the cuff" without having a prepared speech. You must admit that the contrast between Obama "the great orator" and the "uh,uh....er,er...uh,uh" Obama is stark!

[VOA]

He appears to have been “grandfathered in” to this license by
references from other IL lawyers, not by passing a bar exam.

Wow! I'd never heard of that method of "qualifying" before.
All my friends that have become lawyers had to sweat it out and
join the bar the old-fashioned way: pass the bar exam.

I learn something every day here at FR.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I disagree: “HE” is Obama, and NOTHING else about the man has proved true under scrutiny.

[cricket]

Agree; there surely were/areperhaps, still. ..serious visions of a 'Clinton Dynasty' and 'continuing legacy' per Chelsea. Sarah has changed the dynamic, no doubt.

'If only'. . .is probably Hillary's most oft repeated two words - of those that are 'repeatable' that is.

[WilliamReading]

The New York Times has sent 50 reporters up to Alaska to sift through Sarah Palen’s records, but refuses togo across town to Columbia University to find out what Obama was doing during his college years.

He has no friends from that era . . . he is an invisible man.

[PapaBear3625]

Specifically, he was willing to bet a million dollars that he earned a better grade point average at Columbia than his old classmate, and that the only reason Obama went on to Harvard Law School was the color of his skin.

Not just the color of his skin. The religion of his father I think had a great deal to do with it

Obama's Connections

In late 1988 Obama entered Harvard Law, upon the recommendation of Percy Sutton, a powerful New York politician. Why did Sutton pull strings for Obama? In an interview from "Inside City Hall, (youtube clip Obama and Khalid Mansour) Percy Sutton says he was introduced to Obama by Khalid Al-Mansour of Texas, "principle advisor to one of the world's richest men". Mansour talked to Sutton about Obama and asked Sutton to write a recommendation to Harvard, using Sutton's contacts. Percy Sutton wrote the letter to Harvard calling Obama a "genius".

Now who is this Khalid Al-Mansour, and who is this rich man he represents? Looking further, we have Africa Venture Partners announcement:

AVP WELCOMES DR.KHALID ABDULLAH TARIO AL-MANSOUR TO IT'S BOARD.

Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tario Al-Mansour is an internationally acknowledged advisor to Heads of State and business leaders in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America. He has been actively involved in structuring investments and joint ventures worldwide for over 35 years. Dr. Al-Mansour was also responsible for the Africa investment activities of Kingdom Holdings, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal's investment company. During his distinguished career, Dr. Al-Mansour has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, Bombay University, Columbia University, UCLA, University of Kenya, London School of Economics and the University of Ghana.
In addition to Africa Venture Partners, Dr. Al-Mansour sits on the Boards of: Saudi African Bank; Kingdom Holdings, Africa; Multimedia Super Corridor (Malaysia); Space Tech Inc.; AmNet Corp. International; New Avenues Fund Ltd; United Bank for Africa; United Networks; and Landmark Entertainment

Dr. Al-Mansour has authored 24 books and is listed in Who's Who in the World; International Who's Who in the Arab World; Two Thousand Men of Achievement; Royal Blue Book of London; World's Who's Who of Intellectuals and American Hall of Fame.

Dr. Khalid Al-Mansour has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University (Phi Beta Kappa) and Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of California at Berkeley.

So now it gets interesting. Obama got his push behind the scenes from an advisor to a Saudi Prince. And not just any Saudi Prince. Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has an estimated net worth of US$29.5 billion, is the 19th richest person in the world, and is the second richest man in royalty next to the Sultan of Brunei.

So this Saudi Prince's advisor somehow or other takes an interest in Obama when Obama is an unknown. Why?

Could it be that the Saudi investment adviser was making an investment in the future for his clients? To insert somebody into the American halls of power who had plausible deniability regarding being a Muslim? Remember, in Islam the son of a Muslim is a Muslim, and a Muslim who rejects Islam has committed one of the greatest crimes a Muslim can commit. Would the investment advisor to the Saudi royals help an apostate?

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Barry Obama was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review---and he didn't write a single article for it!

Interesting.

[edwinland]

Several folks replied to say that something doesn’t add up ... that Obama doesn’t appear to be magna quality.

I have no idea but it’s entirely possible that he is just very book smart, and a very good writer too. Many of the students I met at HLS didn’t seem to be able to think straight because they had no training in logic, and lots of training in leftist sophism.

But let me respond to several points raised:

1. Ivy league grade inflation ... definitely true, but not relevant. Grade inflation helps everyone (I never heard of anyone getting a C at HLS) but magna still puts him near the top of the class. This point would only be relevant if everyone graduated magna at HLS.

2. Taking easy classes. Maybe. But not very likely. Nearly the whole first year curriculum is set and much of the second year. And there’s no way you could do poorly in all those classes and make it up in electives (even if there were easy electives ... which I don’t remember).

3. Getting into HLS. I didn’t know anyone without stellar undergrad grades and high LSATs. However, it’s the job of the admissions office to spot talent, whatever their grades or scores are. You don’t earn a spot at HLS with high grades, you just prove (hopefully) that you have the aptitude to succeed there. If the admissions folks could spot someone with weak grades or scores who then later succeeded (and I would define magna as success), then that’s what they’re supposed to do.

4. Why doesn’t he release his grades? I have no idea. It does seem a bit strange. If anyone ever wanted to see my transcript I’d let them.

On the whole, I’m not defending the guy, but unless he somehow cheated his way to magna (which is the sort of crap Daily Kos would speculate about if he were conservative) I don’t think there’s going to be much to find in this story.

Better focus on his support for infanticide (which would put him squarely in the majority at HLS).