...and your point for suggesting change, Mr. Obama, is...??????
Posted on 09/11/2008 4:33:13 AM PDT by AmericaUnite
On the surface, at least, Barack Obama's single most impressive accomplishment has been his 1990 election to the presidency of the Harvard Law Review.
This position also provided Obama his only real executive experience as he supervised the law review's staff of 80 editors.
One has to wonder, then, why neither he nor wife Michelle emphasized this singular honor during the up-by-the-bootstraps biographical sections of their respective speeches in Denver.
In fact, neither of them so much as mentioned Obama's time at Harvard, this despite his vulnerability on the executive experience charge.
Their silence likely derives from one verifiable fact: Obama's record at Harvard was no more authentic than John Kerry's record in Vietnam.
Kerry was justifiably swift-boated because he fraudulently positioned himself as a war hero. Obama seems to have learned from Kerry.
In the age of the Internet, the less said about a dubious credential the better, and Obama's law presidency credential is dubious on any number of levels.
(Column continues below)
For starters, Obama did not do nearly well enough at his previous stop, Columbia University, to justify admission to Harvard Law.
According to the New York Sun, university spokesman Brian Connolly confirmed that Obama graduated in 1983 with a major in political science but without honors.
In the age of affirmative action and grade inflation, a minority in a relatively easy major like political science had to under-perform dramatically to avoid minimal honors. Obama apparently did just that.
The specifics we may never know. As the New York Times concedes, Obama "declined repeated requests to talk about his New York years, release his Columbia transcript or identify even a single fellow student, co-worker, roommate or friend from those years."
Would that Bristol Palin could get off so easily!
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Great article...very, very interesting!
Obama’s qualifications to be POTUS are non-existent. There are probably several thousand people in my metropolitan area who are better qualified. In contrast, McCain has been tested in war and politics. He is a man of high intellect, courage, sound judgment, and profound understanding of the principles upon which this country was founded.
The Obama history just becomes murkier and murkier. The more I hear about this guy the more I’m convinced he’s been “groomed” for what he’s doing now.
Well, that's psychologically revealing.
Great article, much on Obama's Moslem associations.
This needs some major legs ——— bump!
Both McCain and Palin should press the “Obama College” issue and release their own transcripts from their colleges.
Once McCain and Palin release their college transcripts Obama and Biden would have no choice but to release their college transcripts.
So What Did Obama Teach In Law School?
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/so-what-did-obama-teach-in-law-school
...and your point for suggesting change, Mr. Obama, is...??????
I am certainly no fan of Obama, but I think the author is making a big deal out of very little.
First, if Obama got into Harvard on Affirmative Action, that’s a reflection on them, not him.
Second, Harvard has always had spots for various kinds of people, and not just blacks.
Third, I really doubt that the applicants average in the 98-99% on the LSAT, that MIGHT be what is accepted on average, but last I heard, Harvard is mum on those numbers, because they can afford to be.
Fourth, the fact that he did his undergrad work at Columbia counts for A LOT. A B- at Columbia will mean more to Harvard than A+’s at SUNY.
Fifth, polysci is not that different from any other liberal arts degree (humanities, literature, sociology) and most of the people who apply to law school have those degrees, not degrees in advanced organic chemistry.
Sixth, there are honors courses and electives that can distinguish the student as well, also outside activities (both in the University and in the world at large.)
If the man got in and did the work and graduated, good for him. He might be a decent lawyer. Given history, I will pull for the University of Idaho and the Eureka Colleges over the Harvards and Yales any day.
staff of 80 editors (lemmings) - little executive experience.
From the article in Post #9: “On the national level, bipartisanship usually means Democrats ignore the needs of the poor and abandon the idea that government can play a role in issues of poverty, race discrimination, sex discrimination or environmental protection,” Mr. Obama said…
I would say that...to be honest none of the four candidates expanded any academic frontiers during their student years.
Mccain graduated very near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.
Sarah Palin went to multiple schools and finally graduated from the University of Idaho.
Biden graduated in the bottom third of his law school class at the (I think) internationally acclaimed University of Scranton.
I am totally opposed to an Obama presidency - don’t get me wrong - but I can see no academic excellence on the part of any of the candidates.
George Bush was a mediocre student at Yale - he got in because he was a legacy.
To give the devils their due - the true scholars were clearly the Clintons.
McCain and Biden have been forthcoming in releasing their academic records - as mediocre as they are.
Obama and Palin have not - to me - I don’t really care.
FIRST BLACK CHOSEN HEAD OF HARVARD LAW JOURNAL
Boston Globe - February 6, 1990
Author: Anthony Flint, Contributing Reporter
For the first time in its 102-year history, the Harvard Law Review , considered the country’s most prestigious legal journal, has a black student as its president.
Burack H. Obama , 28, a second-year student at Harvard Law School, was selected at 1 a.m. yesterday after an all-day meeting Sunday.
I’m honored by it, and I’m happy that my other editors have put that kind of confidence in me,” Obama said during an interview.
“It sends out a strong signal,” Obama said. “It says that when given the chance, African-Americans can excel in even the most competitive of circumstances.”
Being part of the Harvard Law Review — which is handled by 40 of the best and brightest of the law school’s 1,700 students — is determined by grades and a rigorous writing competition. Membership can translate into clerkships for federal judges and other jobs after graduation.
The Harvard Law Review is considered the country’s leading legal journal and the oldest publication of its kind. It is quoted in other journals, lawyers’ briefs, judges’ decisions and legislators’ bills.
In 1981 and 1982, the journal’s board struggled with affirmative action proposals to increase minority representation, which many said was lacking. The faculty opposed a proposed quota, saying candidates should be considered, as always, by their academic performance.
The quota proposal was eventually dropped, but minority candidates are allowed to include a brief statement identifying them as such and the selection committee monitors whether membership is sufficiently diverse.
The first woman to become president was Susan Estrich, former manager of Gov. Dukakis’ presidential campaign, who graduated from Harvard Law in 1977. The first Asian-American was Peter Yu, whom Obama will be succeeding.
Obama said he was “getting a lot of attention now, but really only benefiting from the hard work and attention of a lot of folks who came before me.”
He added, “People should still keep sight of the fact that for every one of me, there are a whole bunch of black kids out there who are not doing so well — whether because of poverty or drugs or cutbacks in financial aid — people just as talented and energetic and curious as I am.”
Born in Hawaii, Obama was the son of a Kenyan government minister and an anthropologist. His first job after graduating from Columbia University was at Business International, a New York financial newsletter.
He then went to Chicago to help found the Developing Communities Project, a church-based organization that provided job training for the unemployed and education counseling for disadvantaged youth. He entered Harvard Law in 1988 and wants to go into government and politics.
Obama ‘s selection as president “demonstrates the steady progress minority law students are making at Harvard,” said Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a professor at the law school.
Ogletree said the selection was also significant because members of the journal “broke down barriers without being forced to respond to some order of a judge, or some case or statute. They let their conscience and good judgment lead them.”
“It’s a wonderful event,” said Ansel B. Chaplin, vice chairman of the New England Board of Higher Education’s Commission on the Legal Profession and chairman of the state Supreme Judicial Court’s Committee on Legal Education. “The selection of a black as a leader of peers is obviously an enormously important symbol.”
(snip)
THE PRESIDENCY IS NOT
AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB FOR
AN AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION CANDIDATE
“Once McCain and Palin release their college transcripts Obama and Biden would have no choice but to release their college transcripts.”
Just like Kerry authorized the release of his military records, showing a less-than-honorable discharge? Dream on.
I am very interested in this stuff about Obama, but there is no way that much more hard information can be pried loose over the next two months. That’s ok, I’ll enjoy reading about Obama in the coming years, when he is no longer the Dems’ Manhattan Project and the security apparatus built to cover up his past switches over from paid to volunteer status.
First Black Elected to Head Harvard’s Law Review
New York Times, The (NY) - February 6, 1990
Author: FOX BUTTERFIELD, Special to The New York Times
The Harvard Law Review , generally considered the most prestigious in the country, elected the first black president in its 104-year history today. The job is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School.
The new president of the Review is Barack Obama , a 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago’s South Side before enrolling in law school. His late father, Barack Obama , was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.
“The fact that I’ve been elected shows a lot of progress,” Mr. Obama said today in an interview. “It’s encouraging.
“But it’s important that stories like mine aren’t used to say that everything is O.K. for blacks. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who don’t get a chance,” he said, alluding to poverty or growing up in a drug environment.
What a Law Review Does
Law reviews, which are edited by students, play a double role at law schools, providing a chance for students to improve their legal research and writing, and at the same time offering judges and scholars a forum for new legal arguments. The Harvard Law Review is generally considered the most widely cited of the student law reviews.
On his goals in his new post, Mr. Obama said: “I personally am interested in pushing a strong minority perspective. I’m fairly opinionated about this. But as president of the law review, I have a limited role as only first among equals.”
Therefore, Mr. Obama said, he would concentrate on making the review a “forum for debate,” bringing in new writers and pushing for livelier, more accessible writing.
A President’s Future
The president of the law review usually goes on to serve as a clerk for a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals for a year, and then as a clerk for an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Mr. Obama said he planned to spend two or three years in private law practice and then return to Chicago to re-enter community work, either in politics or in local organizing.
Professors and students at the law school reacted cautiously to Mr. Obama ‘s selection. “For better or for worse, people will view it as historically significant,” said Prof. Randall Kennedy, who teaches contracts and race relations law. “But I hope it won’t overwhelm this individual student’s achievement.”
Change in Selection System
Mr. Obama was elected after a meeting of the review’s 80 editors that convened Sunday and lasted until early this morning, a participant said.
Until the 1970’s the editors were picked on the basis of grades, and the president of the Law Review was the student with the highest academic rank. Among these were Elliot L. Richardson, the former Attorney General, and Irwin Griswold, a dean of the Harvard Law School and Solicitor General under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon.
That system came under attack in the 1970’s and was replaced by a program in which about half the editors are chosen for their grades and the other half are chosen by fellow students after a special writing competition. The new system, disputed when it began, was meant to help insure that minority students became editors of The Law Review.
Harvard, like a number of other top law schools, no longer ranks its law students for any purpose including a guide to recruiters.
(snip)
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