Thursday, September 18, 2008

Education of the Candidates

Sam's remarks, posted on MSNBC, took the words right out of my mouth. He wrote:

Subject: FW: Food for Thought

You are The Boss... which team would you hire?

With America facing historic debt, multiple war fronts, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, skyrocketing Federal spending, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, etc. etc., this is an unusually critical election year. The idea of “leadership” must be broadened from mere “experience” to include knowledge, learnedness and insight.

Let's look at the educational background of your two options:

Obama:
Occidental College - Two years.
Columbia University - B.A. political science with a specialization in international relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

& Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank 894 of 899

& Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire ?

SAM, USA (Sent Thursday, September 18, 2008 11:26 AM)

Thanks, Sam!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I, too have put this question to myself about looking at the candidates' resumes and who I would hire for this very important job.

I don't know if you have ever hired someone, but would you actually ONLY look at someone's schooling and end it at that?

Most responsible people hiring someone would look further down the resume and see what the person has actually DONE with that education.

Let me just use an example of much less import than the President of the US. How about running for say a Mayor of a medium sized city or say, Governor of a state?

Looking at the resumes of Sarah Palin and Obama, who would you say has had the better executive experience on their resume? Obviously Palin should know about how "mayoring" and "governing" works much better than someone who, despite his Ivy League education has basically been a no name lawyer and community activist. We are still waiting to hear what he ACTUALLY accomplished. Lawyers are a dime a dozen. And during his "community organizing" days, he had some pretty questionable associations.

Yes, the schools Palin attended were not the fancy, la-di-da schools of the rich. She actually had to PAY for her own tuition instead of relying on Affirmative Action to give her a hand out.

By the way, if we want to look at college pedigrees, George Bush has them all beat. He went to BOTH Yale AND Harvard.

Anonymous said...

Oh, one more thing. Do you actually see Barack Obama as the Commander-In-Chief of America's Armed Forces because he was a hot-shot at Harvard? He really had a LOT of military experience there.

Let's just compare John Mc Cain's resume to Barack's on this topic.

John Mc Cain: 22 years of service, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Barack: NADA

Yea, Obama is more qualified to be Commander-in-Chief ... in a Pig's Eye!

Citizen Jane said...

FIrst, Idna, education is not at all the only reasons that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are far more qualified to lead this nation than MaCain and Palin. But it's one very good reason. And I am not the least bit elitist when it comes to schools. In my day job, I talk every day with college reps, college students, and college graduates about their experiences in higher education. I've known some to get good educations at a community college and others who didn't fare as well at "la-di-da, fancy" schools, including Princeton and Harvard.

Secondly--and I know you didn't mean it this way--but your assumption that Barack went to Columbia and Harvard because of "affirmative action" is a racist attitude, pure and simple. He went to the finest prep school in the state of Hawaii on scholarship, got student loans for his undergraduate education, and went to Harvard Law School on scholarship, graduating cum laude. (Last time I heard, they weren't passing out the designation "cum laude based on any affirmative action formula.

At Harvard Law School, Obama was president and editor of the Harvard Law Review, a position so prestigious that it is known and revered in literary as well as legal circles.

As for McCain, I'm not saying he would never have been accepted to or graduated from the Naval Academy if his daddy and granddaddy hadn't been admirals. But to this day he makes jokes about being 4th from the bottom in a class of nearly 900. That indicates to me that he was irresponsible and impulsive as a young man--traits that are still evident in some of the decisions he's been making lately. It also suggests that he doesn't have the kind of global understanding of people and the world that a good university education can provide. And it's one of many indications that he doesn't, to this day, value education or understand his own weaknesses. (Learning from his mistakes is not a quality that's ever been attributed to McCain.)

As for Palin--the woman who believes in creationism but not global warming--don't even get me started. That "executive experience" argument is a play on words created by the Republican strategists that has played amazingly well. But remember that Alaska has about the same population as Portland, Oregon, or Columbus, Ohio.

And apparently she hasn't been governing it very well in her two years in office. Yesterday the Alaska legislature confirmed what those of us who've been following the story with open minds knew long ago--that she's been guilty of abuse of power.

Come on, Idna. You've got to start tuning to other stations besides Fox News!

Citizen Jane said...

Hello again, Idna!

Yes. I definitely see Obama as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. I know a combat-hardened Marine recruiter who looks forward to following him "to the gates" of Hell (which is probably where they'll finally get bin Laden).

I have a very good friend who is a disabled Viet Nam veteran (with all the same medals McCain got and more). We worked together for years and argued politics all the time. He never liked McCain. He was way ahead of me in seeing the man's true colors.

There are lots of retired and active-duty military officers campaigning for Obama. If you look at the kinds of decisions the two men have been making in recent weeks, it's easy to see why.