Althouse: Did affirmative action hurt Barack Obama?

November 7, 2010

Did affirmative action hurt Barack Obama?

And if so, is it because he "wasn't prepared for all the racism he faces now" or because he "wasn't prepared for the lack of racial bias"?

82 comments:

rhhardin said...: He wasn't prepared for being a moron.; 11/7/10, 12:17 PM
kent said...: "Who knew writing books about yourself wasn’t adequate preparation for the presidency?"; 11/7/10, 12:20 PM
Anonymous said...: The only meaningful racism left is in Democrat Party policy which dictates that without affirmative action black people are too dumb to succeed.

Affirmative Ass Kissing has hurt Barack Obama a lot more than any lingering vestiges of racism have.; 11/7/10, 12:22 PM
Anonymous said...: "Who knew having a second-rate domestic terrorist writing books about yourself wasn’t adequate preparation for the presidency?"

FIFY; 11/7/10, 12:22 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: No, Affirmative Action hurt the country by putting Barack Obama in a position to be considered an option.

We're stuck with this clown now - forever.

As someone recently said, he'll probably even make a worse ex-president.; 11/7/10, 12:25 PM
Fen said...: Its hurt America, not Obama.

There was a study to seek answers for why so many affirmative action admits were failing in college. The students had been placed above their level. Failing in Tier 1 when a Tier 2 would have served them better.

They grew frustrated by the course load. The difficulty. Constant frustration led to bitterness, and then blaming the "system" for their failure.

Remind you of anyone?

But no matter how much Obama's incompetence and deliberate malice destroy America, history will create a Kennedy Myth around him because he is our first black president.

Obama will be fine, its the rest of us who are doomed.; 11/7/10, 12:30 PM
Unknown said...: That's not racism he's facing, it's criticism for being an unreflective, unintelligent, uninquisitive hack who was passed along the PC chain and never was required to do any kind of real self-assessment.; 11/7/10, 12:30 PM
kent said...: it's criticism for being an unreflective, unintelligent, uninquisitive hack who was passed along the PC chain and never was required to do any kind of real self-assessment.

That is the left's definition of racism, in a nutshell.; 11/7/10, 12:32 PM
Quaestor said...: Did affirmative action hurt Barack Hussein Obama? is a trivial question compared to Did affirmative action as manifest in the career of Barack Hussein Obama hurt the United States?; 11/7/10, 12:34 PM
Rose said...: "Who knew having a second-rate domestic terrorist writing books about yourself wasn’t adequate preparation for the presidency?"

Says all that needs to be said.; 11/7/10, 12:34 PM
Rialby said...: How did it hurt Obama? It got him into Occidental, Columbia and Harvard Law School. It got him named the first black head of the Harvard Law Review. It got him the Presidency and it guaranteed that he and his children and their children will never want for anything.; 11/7/10, 12:36 PM
holdfast said...: Obama's not nearly as smart as he and his partisans think he is, but he's not completely stupid either. Problem is, he's never had to work this hard OR take any real responsibility before. I tend to think Bush was a bit surprised by how much work it was (even though his Dad probably warned him) but at least he was familiar with being responsible for things, from his time as governor. Obama was a no-account legislator at pretty much every level, and was completely carried by his party.; 11/7/10, 12:39 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: At least everyone agrees that he wasn't prepared.; 11/7/10, 12:39 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: kent: That is the left's definition of racism, in a nutshell.

The Right thinks racism means treating people differently based on the color of their skin. The Left thinks racism means not giving people preferential treatment based on the color of their skin.; 11/7/10, 12:43 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: The thing about the left that infuriates me the most is its inability to judge its own "solutions" on anything like a rational basis. Entitlements always end up damaging their recipients in the long run. Affirmative action, as its critics have noted for decades, devalues the accomplishments of those who benefit from it. Was Major Hassan a good psychiatrist? Absolutely not, but affirmative action kept him where he was. How would all you non-racists out there now feel about seeing a Muslim psychiatrist?; 11/7/10, 12:44 PM
Roux said...: It helped him get into the White House... from there it has been a disaster.; 11/7/10, 12:45 PM
garage mahal said...: Wow, sounds pretty bitter in here. Almost like you're blaming someone else for your successes, or lack thereof. Very un-conservative.; 11/7/10, 12:45 PM
kent said...: Security panic after cop guarding Obama hotel shoots self in leg...

This isn't a presidency; it's a junior high drama club production of Hellzapoppin'; 11/7/10, 12:47 PM
sunsong said...: I don't know if affirmative action hurt Obama.

My view is that he doesn't understand conservatism or conservatives. My guess is that he really thinks they don't vote in their own interest and cling to God and guns etc and now are scared and not thinking clearly.

I don't think Obama ever really ran across conservatives in his adult life and misread his mandate and what the country would accept.; 11/7/10, 12:49 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Jason (the commenter) said...

The Right thinks racism means treating people differently based on the color of their skin. The Left thinks racism means not giving people preferential treatment based on the color of their skin.

Are you seriously going to defend this load of crap?

To the contrary,

1)Affirmative action is an exclusive creation of the left;

2)Affirmative action's parameters are based exclusively on race.

QED; 11/7/10, 12:51 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I do hope that President Obama's gross incompetence, combined with a certain level of arrogance and entitlement, starts the process of weaning us away from Affirmative Action. We have now seen the affects of AA, written large, and it sure isn't pretty.

Mr. Obama might have turned into a decent leader of this country if he had gone through the sorts of training and experience that our previous Presidents have done. Instead, he was able to glide along without being really having been tested and having to grow.; 11/7/10, 12:51 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Tyrone Slothrop,

If you read my comment (carefully!), you'll see you agree with me.; 11/7/10, 12:57 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Maguro: At least everyone agrees that he wasn't prepared.

Even before he was elected Obama said he wasn't prepared, he was going to learn on the job. Remember? Biden was going to teach him!; 11/7/10, 1:00 PM
kent said...: Remember? Biden was going to teach him!

Roughly analogous to having Steven Hawking serve as your personal trainer in preparation for the Olympic decathalon.; 11/7/10, 1:02 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Jason the Commentor

Ah, my sincere apologies. Something on my spectacles, I think.; 11/7/10, 1:10 PM
former law student said...: Why would the son of a Kenyan receive affirmative action? Obama didn't even know he was African-American till he moved to Chicago. Do Egyptians and Berbers receive affirmative action? They're "African" too.; 11/7/10, 1:28 PM
jamboree said...: Hell no, it only helped him.

However, the time period for AA has passed and that should be recognized. It was meant to seed black presence in then-dominantly white arenas, and it has accomplished that objective. Now we can just get on with the regular old inherited generational privilege - like Sasha and Malia will have.; 11/7/10, 1:40 PM
Rocco said...: fls wrote:
"Why would the son of a Kenyan receive affirmative action? Obama didn't even know he was African-American till he moved to Chicago. Do Egyptians and Berbers receive affirmative action? They're "African" too."

Don't forget Charlize Theron. And Teresa Heinz Kerry would have been our first African-American First Lady.; 11/7/10, 1:43 PM
Hagar said...: I don't think so. Affirmative Action will get you a safe job in the bureaucracy, which is not what happened here.

I think Obama has been carried along and groomed for political office all his adult life, all right, and he is now in way over his head and does not realize it, but it is not Affirmative Action as such.

If Obama should remind me of anybody, it would be Alger Hiss, and Hiss was not a Black person.; 11/7/10, 1:43 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: This affirmative action of which you speak, please elaborate. What is it exactly? Explain it to me, if you will, in such a way that you do not sound racist yourself. And why are you connecting it axiomatically with our president? I'll check back later to assimilate your wisdom.; 11/7/10, 1:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Why would the son of a Kenyan receive affirmative action? Obama didn't even know he was African-American till he moved to Chicago. Do Egyptians and Berbers receive affirmative action? They're "African" too.

Jesus Christ, but you're on a roll today, fls.

What happened? Or am I misreading this post?

I imagine that Egyptians and Berbers do receive quota preference because our colleges and businesses are desperate for black faces.

Read Steve Smith. African blacks come with higher IQs and fewer problems with work ethic than southern born American blacks.

So, figure out who gets the advantage in the quota system. Our Attorney General is a good example.; 11/7/10, 1:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Excuse me. I said:

Read Steve Smith.

I meant, read Steve Sailer.; 11/7/10, 1:57 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Niether. He wasn't prepared to actually have to work. To be truly challenged instead of coddled. To be told you are the smartest, bestest, most special person in the world all your life and then realize you are an ignorant doofus who is a complete failure.

Racism is only a part of the problem. The problem part is the liberals who insist that you can eliminate 'racism' on elevating people beyond their capabilities, creating false illusions and setting minorities up for ultimate failure.

Instead of fixing the root problems of single parenthood, welfare dependant culture and incredibly AWFUL public schools that fail the children at an early age....the liberals want to slap a bandaid on the festering sore and pretend that it is all better now.; 11/7/10, 1:57 PM
Bob_R said...: AA was just one of the things about his Ivy League education that hurt Obama. It's not just the slope of the playing field but it's smoothness that doesn't translate to the real world. The real world has some bumps of racism over here, bumps of class and regional resentments over there, demands for different kinds of competencies all over the place. Obama can't handle it. (Gore can't, Kerry can't, lots of country club Republicans can't.) The modern Ivy League is not a good place to prepare for national leadership.; 11/7/10, 1:59 PM
Revenant said...: According to Obama's supporters he has never benefited from affirmative action. So how could it have left him "unprepared"?; 11/7/10, 2:15 PM
Anonymous said...: How did it hurt Obama? It got him into Occidental, Columbia and Harvard Law School. It got him named the first black head of the Harvard Law Review. It got him the Presidency and it guaranteed that he and his children and their children will never want for anything.

You asked how it hurt Obama, but then you explain how it helped him. Those aren't mutually exclusive.; 11/7/10, 2:25 PM
Hagar said...: Affirmative Action may have gotten him into Occidental College. After that, it was something else.; 11/7/10, 2:28 PM
kent said...: According to Obama's supporters he has never benefited from affirmative action.

According to Obama's supporters, the location listed on his birth certificate simply reads "MANGER."; 11/7/10, 2:29 PM
Methadras said...: This is why Erkle is a stupid, foolish man. His talk about post-racial America was code for the fact that he fully expected to use racism and see whitey call him all kinds of racist names, and specifically racism against him to propel his agenda forward. What he really didn't expect was that he was going to be fully criticized on his Marxism. You know now that I think about it, he really isn't even that good of a Marxist either. Gosh, he just sucks giant goat balls all around.; 11/7/10, 2:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Berbers do receive quota preference because our colleges and businesses are desperate for black faces.

Berbers are not black.; 11/7/10, 2:31 PM
Quaestor said...: Tyrone Slothrop wrote: Are you seriously going to defend this load of crap?

I don't understand your disagreement with Jason. Judging from the comments you too appear to me as substantially in agreement.

Furthermore, I must take issue with the style of your argument. You made two broad assertions, which may or may not be true. However, true or not these statements are logically unconnected in the predicate, therefore they demonstrate nothing but themselves. In short the dramatic QED is unmerited.; 11/7/10, 3:02 PM
Hagar said...: Berbers are very black, but not Black, which generally refers to mostly Bantu speaking peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.; 11/7/10, 3:09 PM
Anonymous said...: I blame the Liberals who created him. Period.; 11/7/10, 3:16 PM
rcocean said...: I think Obama's mistake was not listening to wise old white people like Joe Biden, Rob Emanuel, Pelosi and Reid.

Oh wait, he did.; 11/7/10, 3:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I've said it before and I'll say it again, at the time he was running for president Obama was, in terms of qualifications, basically John Edwards Lite. White liberal guilt did the rest. Without that, he'd be a footnote in the 2008 election. It's probably not the best way to choose a president.; 11/7/10, 3:23 PM
Quaestor said...: Hagar wrote: Berbers are very black, but not Black...

A Berber is a person who speaks one of the Berber languages as his native tongue. In terms of skin color some are dark and some are fair, just like a lot of other non-Berber ethnic groups. Some even have fair skin, red hair and blue eyes and could be taken for Irishmen, if one judged such things only by the coloring.

Best to drop this whole Berber meme (how the hell did it get started?) because its going nowhere.; 11/7/10, 3:36 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Quaestor

Yes, you are right. I didn't read Jason's comment carefully. And then you didn't read carefully my apology to him for not reading his comment carefully.

wv:coomin-- essential ingredient in chili; 11/7/10, 3:54 PM
Anonymous said...: I think the discourse of racism and its trumping of everything else is what hurt him.

As I've said before he's the first meta-president. It's all about being black/president/racism, blah blah blah. It's like he finally realized, oh, I have to govern too?; 11/7/10, 3:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama wasn't prepared to do any kind of job. He thought he could get over for the rest of his life even though AA wasn't intended to aid people like him.; 11/7/10, 4:14 PM
Anonymous said...: He sorta reminds me of some of my fellows I met at Columbia. They weren't prepared to do the grunt work at the doctoral level, but they were prepared to crib my work via stealing the password for my computer program (this was back in the day). Unfortunately for them, I changed all my info and my password after a prof made me wise. Affirmative action might bring you to the dance; brains and hard work will make sure you dance the night away. Obama was one of my fellows standing behind me and looking over my shoulder as I typed in my password. I aced the class; they didn't.; 11/7/10, 4:19 PM
traditionalguy said...: The assumption of this post and the comments is that Barack cannot do good work because he has never had to do any work before. OK. But Barack never planned to do a President's job. He has his sights on a World Government function like a Roman Emperor. For that role he is plenty smart enough...just create opportunities for coups until all power is his, and then give thumbs up or thumbs down to the subjects working jobs that in "Businesses that the Government Controls". Ask GM. Ask coal, oil and Natural gas energy workers. Ask every remaining Bank that now totally does whatever the Fed and Obama orders done.; 11/7/10, 4:47 PM
Anonymous said...: I didn't vote for Obama. I don't care for his policies.

But, as I said in another post, it's always a good idea to stand back and watch your opponent before he makes his next move.

Assuming that you know what his next move might be is never a good strategy.

I'm going to assume that Obama might makes some moves I can't predict.

For the first time in his life, he's faced with real opposition that won't fall over in the face of his black skin. What will he do?

We don't know yet. I suggest suspending judgment as we await his next move.

This is only good sense.; 11/7/10, 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Alinskys Rule # 7-5

5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage."

Obama, in power not quite two years is now being ravaged by his own technique.

So yes, affirmative action has left him high and dry on the sandbar of life, Peter Principled to the Nth degree.; 11/7/10, 5:20 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/7/10, 5:27 PM
Anonymous said...: "Even before he was elected Obama said he wasn't prepared, he was going to learn on the job. Remember? Biden was going to teach him!"

Barack Obama, 2004: "You know, I am a believer in … in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. Uh, and I think that if I were seriously to consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now there may be some people who are comfortable doing that, but I am not one of those people."

Oh yeah.; 11/7/10, 5:28 PM
rcocean said...: I know its all part of the political game but I dislike this implied criticism of Obama. I reminds me of the "Wow, Reagan sure is stoopid - he's just an actor" and "Wow, that Clinton sure is smart - he went to OX-ford!".

The problem with BO isn't that he's an "Affirmative Action Baby" - its that he has the wrong values and he believes in the wrong policies.

We don't need "Smart" Presidents. We need Presidents who believe in the right things, have the right values, have character, and can HIRE smart people to manage all the DETAILS. That's why FDR, Reagan, Washington, Ike and Coolidge were all good presidents. Kaus had a good line. If Reagan or FDR were the "Smartest guy the room" they told somebody to get someone Smarter in the room.

Or as Bart Simpson said to Millhouse: "
With your book smarts, and my talent for exploiting people with book smarts, we'll be a success."; 11/7/10, 5:29 PM
paul a'barge said...: You have a man totally in denial, living the life of a king in the White House which he won without a shred of real capability and he will go down in history as President # 44 and you ask if he is hurt by Affirmative Action?

We should all be so unlucky.

America is hurt by Affirmative Action. Obama? He's sucking on that teat like a big dog.; 11/7/10, 5:49 PM
Christy said...: My question is: Has Barack Obama hurt affirmative action?; 11/7/10, 6:05 PM
Quaestor said...: kcom wrote: ...Obama was, in terms of qualifications, basically John Edwards Lite. White liberal guilt did the rest.

Emphasis on Lite. Edwards, as piss-poor an excuse for a human being who has ever run for national office, at least had his accomplishments in his legal career (if you want to call glorified ambulance chasing a career) to point to as an example of competence.; 11/7/10, 7:40 PM
roesch-voltaire said...: What a bullshit question with all kinds of implications made by the person who asks the question. Chip seems to understand that all too well. As far as I know affirmative action did not play a role in his admission to college, so just where has this been a factor other than in the minds of white conservatives?; 11/7/10, 7:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Christy -- The answer is that he is now in a position that he is not qualified to be in. Barring some substantial change of direction, he's going to be remembered as a presidential failure and the country is mired in a mess.

Had Obama been an ordinary white person, like his grandmother, he'd have had to serve a full Senate term and then a term or two as governor. He'd have learned a lot in spite of himself.

Cue the Blame Bush crowd in 3...2...1...; 11/7/10, 9:32 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/7/10, 9:56 PM
Meade said...: Mickey makes the mistake of letting Bob get away with bringing the red herring of racism into the debate.

The problem for Obama is that, for the first time in his career, he's being judged simply on his merits and the red herring of racism won't help him now.

With unemployment at 15%, and with the way the universal health insurance reform bill was jammed down our throats, the 90% of the electorate for whom race doesn't matter believes his performance as president merits a big fat "D."

Unfortunately and ironically for Obama, most of America really has become post-racial. And his affirmative action extra credit is all used up.; 11/7/10, 10:07 PM
Anonymous said...: The problem for Obama is that, for the first time in his career, he's being judged simply on his merits and the red herring of racism won't help him now.

Ridiculously true. Many people are fine and good with affirmative action, especially in the private sphere. Many people are fine with having a black person rise in middle management or in some bureaucracy.

But the presidency matters. People are actually having their lives and their values and their livelihoods affected here. In this case, people are rejecting Obama because he sucks. He's ineffective.

Race helped Obama. It's not hurting him. Obama's piss-poor failure and general ineptitude will hurt the next black presidential candidate, though. That's wrong and that's bad logic, but that's the fact.; 11/7/10, 10:22 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/7/10, 10:28 PM
former law student said...: Obama's piss-poor failure and general ineptitude...

Obama can always distract everyone from his shortcomings in the established way: Start a war.

I suggest he invade Mexico, then annex it when they surrender. At one stroke the problem with illegal immigration will be slashed by 90% -- Mexicans will all now be Americans. (We'll still get Salvadorans, etc. Luckily our new southern border will be much smaller, making a border fence quite cost-effecive.) Presumably, US government agents can stop the drug cartels. Even the conservatives will sing hosannahs to Obama.

The US will become officially bilingual, but we were heading in that direction anyways. The safety of our winter vegetable supply will be assured, NAFTA will be simplified -- I'm really looking forward to it.

The war should las just long enough for Obama to be reelected.; 11/7/10, 10:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama can always distract everyone from his shortcomings in the established way: Start a war.

Your satire notwithstanding, FLS, Obama would be better off fixing his shortcomings. If he does want to start a war, though, Iran would be the obvious and sensible target.

No point in taking over Mexico. That country already pays tribute to us in the form of hardworking laborers.; 11/7/10, 11:00 PM
Unknown said...: I think the issue is beyond affirmative action. We have whole generations of people like Mr Obama: whose self-esteem has not been modulated by a word of criticism, until they waft into a position where their performance matters.

Affirmative action is one kind of free ride, but it's not the only one, and may not be the only ride that Obama took: there's the Ivy-league ride, the nonprofit-Mafia ride, the right-kind-of-academic ride, etc.; 11/7/10, 11:49 PM
Nora said...: It's affirmitive action that's hurt by Obama. This is a good thing IMO; 11/8/10, 12:08 AM
former law student said...: You jamokes should watch this list of Obama's accomplishments over his first 21 months:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-
rachel_maddow_show/#39959392; 11/8/10, 12:30 AM
former law student said...: Man, it finally struck me. The root of all this criticism, all these accusations of affirmative action, is not that Obama was ineffective but that he was successful. He hammered while the iron was hot, he made hay while the sun shone, he pulled off what Bill Clinton couldn't -- he did things for the American people.

Barack Hussein Obama -- a great American hero. He'll be ranked with Lincoln and FDR.; 11/8/10, 12:49 AM
Revenant said...: Obama can always distract everyone from his shortcomings in the established way: Start a war.

It didn't work for Bush or Clinton.; 11/8/10, 1:30 AM
Methadras said...: former law student said...

Why would the son of a Kenyan receive affirmative action? Obama didn't even know he was African-American till he moved to Chicago. Do Egyptians and Berbers receive affirmative action? They're "African" too.

Do you even understand what you are defending? What in the holy name of fuck, are you defending? And why? What are you possibly trying to gain other than clinging to your dead ideology with the last fiber of your colon polyp?; 11/8/10, 1:50 AM
Methadras said...: Sixty Grit said...

I used to work with a woman from Rhodesia. She was African. Pale as can be. Have known many South Africans who were as white as can be, even though their families had lived in Africa for generations. Facts can be confusing to liberals who don't even recognize the racial diversity among black Africans.

If we are fortunate, O****'s rise will kill affirmative action forever.

Oh, I know several white Africans who have told me in no uncertain terms that they will tell any American black they are from anywhere else besides Africa for fear of being ridiculed or worse because they have been shown utter indignation from the ignorance that many blacks in America have at the fact that a white man or woman can be African.; 11/8/10, 2:31 AM
AllenS said...: Did affirmative action hurt Barack Obama?

With out affirmative action, he wouldn't have gone very far in life.; 11/8/10, 6:26 AM
KCFleming said...: Affirmative action?
True, in part.

But I go with Samuel Johnson here:
"Keep always in your mind, that, with due submission to Providence, a man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself."

Being able to turn the world on with your smile remains his primary, if not his only, skill. His mistake was thinking that was all that was required. For that hubris, he has come undone in a flash.

'Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Barry has struck out.'; 11/8/10, 7:28 AM
Caroline said...: The most insidious thing about affirmative action is that it makes it a forgone conclusion that Obama got ahead in life due to affirmative action. It undermines whatever talents Obama has that allowed him to become a US Senator.

And while I agree that many people voted for him as President based solely or partly on his race, in spite of the fact that he had no executive experience, that's not really AA; that's people voting their heart and not their head.; 11/8/10, 9:14 AM
FormerTucsonan said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/8/10, 9:38 AM
FormerTucsonan said...: Affirmative Action? No, it didn't hurt him. Ass-kissy, Northeastern, White liberals are what crippled Obama.

They saw him as the fulfillment of all of their Legend of Bagger Vance fantasies. He was black, but not BLACK. And he was soooooo bright! So they made him head of the Harvard Law Review and a law professor and the University of Chicago. But when he turned out to be a dud, none of them had the guts to admit it. He never got enough feedback to learn he wasn't infallible.

That's what hurt Barrack Obama.; 11/8/10, 9:41 AM
test said...: Are we even sure he was an AA beneficiary? I haven't seen anything.

Regardless, identity politics is the problem, not AA. He has been encouraged in excess of his accomplishments everywhere he's been. The liberal establishment does this to prove its lack of racism, but the effect is that people confuse their background with accomplishment.

So where do we see the effects? Try Michelle's 'for the first time I'm proud of America', or 'Barack doesn't need America, America needs Barack'. What exactly has he accomplished that warrants such enthusiasm? He's a law professor? He graduated from an Ivy League school? His work as a political activist? There is nothing else that isn't shared by literally thousands of others. He won his House and Senate elections with chicanery. He did somehow manage to spend 100 million dollars without improving education at the Annenberg Foundation, but I doubt too many people see such failure as warranting Presidential aspirations.

Frankly I think it's ok to root for poor people or minorities to succeed in areas they traditionally haven't. But it's not ok to rate them on an easier scale because of it. Consider Tiger Woods. Is there any doubt many people desire success for him in part because he's black? I do. But this isn't an issue because his success cannot be effected by those desires.

To see how it effected Obama's thinking, consider his effort to win the Olympics. He gives a speech which basically says 'America deserves the Olympics because it elected me President, and aren't I great'. Everyone else thought the focus on his life was embarassingly inappropriate. But identity politics taught him that his story is an accomplishment.

Obama has moved forward faster than his accomplishments warrant because the establishment is pushing identity politics. Now Obama is in a world both domestically and internationally where people are not willing to back away for those reasons. And he's learning that without that willingness to yield on the part of your competitor it's much harder to get what you want.; 11/8/10, 9:58 AM
Ken said...: The basic result of affirmative action is that Obama, like most of the people who use it, wasn't prepared.; 11/8/10, 11:21 AM
Unknown said...: President Barack Obama:
A Magna Cum Laude graduate of The Harvard Law School; 11/21/10, 5:08 PM