Althouse: Speaking of grades...

August 8, 2011

Speaking of grades...

... have you seen Rick Perry's?

101 comments:

Michael said...: And Obama's?; 8/8/11, 7:29 AM
KCFleming said...: Perry got a D in Economics in college.

Obama got a D in Economics in real life.; 8/8/11, 7:34 AM
Dr Weevil said...: A D in real life Economics? You're an awfully easy grader, Pogo.; 8/8/11, 7:37 AM
The Dude said...: D for downgrade!; 8/8/11, 7:37 AM
KCFleming said...: Obama still has the final exam.

It becomes in F when hyperinflation hits.; 8/8/11, 7:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.; 8/8/11, 7:44 AM
Greg said...: Just a couple of observations:

1) The assumption that 40-year-old college grades are destiny is fundamentally flawed. As we know, most people keep learning past age 22 -- and Perry has shown that he has learned by doing.

2) All the folks on the Left gloating over these grades are ignoring the violation of state and federal privacy laws that go along with their being leaked. Why no calls for investigation and prosecution?

3) After 2 1/2 years as president, we still haven't seen Obama's grades -- which he is holding on to tighter than his birth certificate.; 8/8/11, 7:45 AM
AllenS said...: Ann Althouse said...
The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

Spoken like a true obama voter.; 8/8/11, 7:46 AM
Bayoneteer said...: What grades he got in college a few decades ago? Sheesh. Who cares? Judge him by his performance as governor. Grades, SAT scores, term papers, and etc. are kinda irrelevant at this point in time.; 8/8/11, 7:46 AM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Governor Perry was a Democrat when he got those grades. He has since learned better.; 8/8/11, 7:48 AM
Tank said...: While I don't think college grades are very important, I know this: If Zero had great grades in college and law school, we would have seen them by now.

With stories about grade and honors inflation at Harvard, I'm not sure any grades from there are meaningful.; 8/8/11, 7:49 AM
AllenS said...: Even if we get to see obama's grades, and we learn that he got straight A's, that will reaffirm what a lot of us see as the failure of affirmative action. He's a idiot. He probably isn't any good at golf, either.; 8/8/11, 7:49 AM
X said...: I don't care about Rick Perry's grades. I do care that he has less private sector experience than Obama and was a democrat until the 1990's.; 8/8/11, 7:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Having put a couple decades between me and school I can say that there is probably no more worthless measure of a person's real life value and abilities than their grades in college.

What that report card says more than anything is that he enjoyed his time there. And frankly I have no use for politicians who have been planning their political careers since daycare.; 8/8/11, 7:50 AM
michaele said...: All the financial shit that has hit the fan is the work product of the "best and brightest" who graduated with honors from the Ivy Leagues. I'm definitely over being impressed by college degrees. Give me someone who has proved they have a healthy dose of common sense and the backbone not to be intimated by the elites.
Rick Perry's college grades don't bother me.; 8/8/11, 7:51 AM
Paddy O said...: This is probably one of the reasons why the Constitution doesn't allow college students to be president.

Personally, I refuse to even consider voting for a 20 year old Rick Perry. He definitely needs to work on his study habits and focus on his career goals first.; 8/8/11, 7:51 AM
Rialby said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

Here we go again. I reeeeeally want to vote for a Republican but, on balance, Obama is just the more rational choice.; 8/8/11, 7:54 AM
David said...: I was a mess in college. My college grades were little better Perry's that except in history. And I was not taking any physics and organic chemistry.

Someone at U. of Michigan took a flyer on me and let me in to the graduate history program on a conditional basis. I had to perform well to stay. Somehow I figured out that required me to work. Got two A+ and one A in the first semester and discovered that I liked success better than being a fuckup. It all got a lot easier after that.

So it is possible to turn things around.; 8/8/11, 7:55 AM
KCFleming said...: "Obama is Worse" is going to be the only thng the GOP needs to say.

Update:

Perry got a D in Economics in college.
Perry got an A in Economics in real life.

Obama didn't take Economics in college.
Obama got a D in Economics in real life.; 8/8/11, 7:55 AM
Rialby said...: Let me get this straight, Perry takes "Organic Chemistry" and gets an F. Obama takes "African-American Protest Literature" and gets an A. That demonstrates his intelligence. Makes total sense.; 8/8/11, 7:59 AM
Dark Eden said...: The state Perry is in charge of is thriving.

Perry created an economic environment that created half of the jobs the entire country produced.

The country Obama is in charge of is dying.

Obama created an economic environment that lead to America's first credit downgrade.

How's that for higher standards? They're going after Perry because he's their greatest threat and he is the most dangerous candidate to them.; 8/8/11, 8:00 AM
Dark Eden said...: But yes its obvious no matter what Althouse says she's going to vote for Obama or whoever the Democrats put up again. She is a Democrat after all, she's just one that likes to hear the Republicans out and understand our ideas rather than scream in our faces that we're nazi racist terrorists.; 8/8/11, 8:03 AM
Rialby said...: Oh, and by the way, didn't we already fall for this trick once? Obama is smarter than Palin therefore Obama should be the President. What has this technocracy given us? Is Obama a better president than Reagan (Eureka College)? How about Truman (no college degree)?; 8/8/11, 8:06 AM
Paul said...: Yea Obama's?

Nah, he and his cronies will never release them.

Bush did and he outperfomed Kerry.

I wonder if some of Obama's were mail order certificates.; 8/8/11, 8:07 AM
Scott M said...: Who...cares?

I didn't give a shit about GW's grades, don't care about President Obama's either. College, specifically undergrad, is about as far-removed from reality as a person can be in just about every way that counts. It's what you do afterward that really counts.; 8/8/11, 8:07 AM
Scott M said...: Besides...what do you call the person who graduates dead last in their class at med school?; 8/8/11, 8:08 AM
El Presidente said...: So all the egg heads can feel superior now? Isn't that the point of these types of articles.; 8/8/11, 8:09 AM
FloridaSteve said...: My God Ann are you STILL harping on your vote for Obama? I guess I need to check in more. I despised McCain but there is no way on gods green earth that you can contort the facts into an argument that we'd have been worse off with him as president. Give it a rest already. You're saying that if we re-ran the election today that you'd still vote for Obama? Seriously? How bad does it have to get for you to change your mind?; 8/8/11, 8:10 AM
Tank said...: Those who are sure A will vote for Zero again are ignoring the M factor.; 8/8/11, 8:11 AM
FloridaSteve said...: Never confuse education with intelligence. It can help but it's no guarantee.; 8/8/11, 8:11 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: I got a C in economics because it was at 8 in the morning. I never went to class. I didn't need to. The entire grade was based on 3 exams. I showed up for the 3 exams and squeaked by. So it's not hard for me to come up with reasons why Perry's grades are bad besides dumbness.

I wasn't out partying, either. I worked nights and weekends at a restaurant, and I was on my school's basketball team (which provided a scholarship that paid for about 2/3 of my tuition).

I didn't know how to study. By the end of my sophomore year I was on academic probation. Then I figured out how to study and did well enough my last 2 years that I graduated on time with honors. My transcript is practically indistinghishable from Perry's.

So no, I don't give a fig about Perry's transcript. Even if he was out partying, good for him. I wish I would've had the time and money to party more in school.; 8/8/11, 8:13 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Has anyone else here taken an economics course in college? It was bar none the most boring, uninteresting course I ever had. Anyone ever had a good economics class?; 8/8/11, 8:14 AM
X said...: Perry created an economic environment that created half of the jobs the entire country produced.

Rick Perry created that? I could've sworn we doing OK before he came along.; 8/8/11, 8:15 AM
chickelit said...: Forget it Althouse. Let's suppose that Mitt Romney got an "A" in college economics. It wouldn't matter much to you. You'd just flunk him using some other litmus test.

You're like a closet Sullivanist.

__________
Said with a simile.; 8/8/11, 8:17 AM
Rialby said...: Those who are sure A will vote for Zero again are ignoring the M factor.

If only that mattered. When it comes to women, they are given to flights of fancy. My wife, who vacillates between reason and insanity, swore she would never vote for another Democrat after the John Kerry nomination. I thought my conservative ideals had finally worked their magic. And then she voted for Obama. She then moved to cursing the very ground he walks on because he's such a waste of a vote. Then, just last week, when she thought the vote wouldn't happen in the house for Boehner, she took to ranting about how Michelle Bachmann should be ostracized for life for voting against it. Btw, she works in the same field as Ms. Althouse (law not academia).

Women are mercurial beings. In the end, they do not listen to reason but emotion.; 8/8/11, 8:17 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Tank said:

Those who are sure A will vote for Zero again are ignoring the M factor.

Do you remember how Meade went all moony-eyed on Obama after they got bin Laden? M might be the problem not the solution.

That's probably why they went to Colorado, so they could kiss the spot on the ground in Denver where Obama accepted the DNC nomination in 08.

(I kid, I kid!); 8/8/11, 8:20 AM
Lucius said...: This doesn't help my skepticism with Rick Perry. Texas is doing great; but then, it's a state with a modestly weak gubernatorial office and a long-established conservative culture, so Perry hardly qualifies off the bat as the next Reagan.

But okay, the Steve Sailer question: gee, we sure see conservative candidates' transcripts awful quick, don't we?

Are those things 'classified' in any sense? Who gets access?

Still dying to see Obama's! I mean, we know he's smarter than Aristotle, Leibniz, Alfred North Whitehead, Ludwig Wiggenstein, and Thomas Jefferson *combined*.

I just, you know, wanna hold up a copy so I can work on my tan.; 8/8/11, 8:20 AM
Dark Eden said...: ///Rick Perry created that? I could've sworn we doing OK before he came along.///

Compare what Perry did in Texas to what Obama did in the US in general and its no comparison. Are you denying that?

Obsess over one word, completely ignore the point I was trying to make. Of course given what a disaster Obama has been that's all you can really do til the next election I suppose.; 8/8/11, 8:29 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: College grades, really?; 8/8/11, 8:32 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Joe Schmoe:
Econ classes were my favorite. I had about 24-30 credits in economics. To each his own I guess.; 8/8/11, 8:33 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: It's interesting that the two As he got were in education and military history. Ed courses have a (well-deserved) reputation for being easy grades. I'll bet military history was one of the few courses he was really interested in and that he worked hard in.; 8/8/11, 8:33 AM
pauldar said...: My son got a pretty bad grade his Junior year in math, and now, he is the lead software engineer for a major 500 company - My guess is that all of you have used his product at one time or another on the web.

All School does now is get your foot in the door of a business, what you decide to do from there is up to you I am one who has never called for Obama's grades to be shown, I am more interested in what have you done lately. That answer speaks for itself with the downgrade; 8/8/11, 8:35 AM
Tank said...: Rialby said...

Those who are sure A will vote for Zero again are ignoring the M factor.

If only that mattered. When it comes to women, they are given to flights of fancy. My wife, who vacillates between reason and insanity...

Hey, are you married to my wife?

Oh wait, I think you touched on some universal truth there brother.

WV: negrot - Wow, very unPC.; 8/8/11, 8:35 AM
TosaGuy said...: It appears they did not have grade inflation at Rick Perry's university.; 8/8/11, 8:35 AM
bailesworth said...: I hope the state employee who violated FERPA regulations is identified and punished.; 8/8/11, 8:36 AM
viator said...: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a candidate aspiring to the highest national office can only come from an Ivy League school.; 8/8/11, 8:38 AM
CW said...: Of course Perry received a D in economics. He was a Democrat back then.

CW; 8/8/11, 8:40 AM
Scott M said...: My guess is that all of you have used his product at one time or another on the web.

Is it that gadget that lets you kiss someone over the internet? I'm betting we've all used that one too.; 8/8/11, 8:40 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Econ classes were my favorite. I had about 24-30 credits in economics. To each his own I guess.

Glad to hear it, actually. I've never heard anyone else say positive things about economics courses. I don't personally know anyone who was an economics major, but I know plenty of MBAs and others who were required to take it in grad and undergrad programs.; 8/8/11, 8:49 AM
Peano said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

It also needs a higher standard than college grades. It is just like a blonde academic to get herself all distracted by college grades.

Never mind that Perry has kept Texas economically healthy while most states are going under. He made a D in college economics, so he can't possibly serve as president.; 8/8/11, 8:49 AM
Leland said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

Written by the person's who standard was "McCain's worse."

Indeed, a better standard is needed but beware of glass houses.; 8/8/11, 8:54 AM
Anonymous said...: Anyone ever had a good economics class?

Yes. I loved my macro undergrad class. The prof had been a little kid in postwar Germany and had traded on the black market. He had all these great real-world examples of how markets work.

Although he used the taxi medallion example in our textbook for the supply/demand discussion. I was too timid to ask what the heck a taxi medallion was. Nobody took taxis in Houston. I had never ridden in one. I should have asked, though. My stupid fault for not understanding. But the textbook was a little bit New York centric.; 8/8/11, 9:00 AM
Anonymous said...: "The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse."

I personally like "Scoreboard, bitches."

Perry: Job Creation. Obama: Well, you know.

Perry: Credit upgrade. Obama: Well, you know.; 8/8/11, 9:06 AM
ricpic said...: A students have ruined the world. Why? Because they insist on perfection. The world stumbled along in the hands of C students until brilliance trumped a modicum of sense.; 8/8/11, 9:08 AM
Jon said...: "The state Perry is in charge of is thriving."

Only if an 8.2% unemployment rate- higher than 25 other states- constitutes "thriving".

Yes, Texas is creating a lot of jobs (not necessarily high-paying ones), but not enough to keep up with population growth.

This false meme that Texas is some sort of economic miracle is being pushed by the GOP establishment,
who want the nominee to once again be an an open-borders Hispanderer like Perry, i.e. someone they can count on to do nothing to interrupt the supply of cheap illegal immigrant labor to their big business donors.; 8/8/11, 9:10 AM
bailesworth said...: A commentator over at Ace's provided a very detailed de-bunking of Perry myths. Here's a LINK to his post.

Texas Monthly also had a write up about Perry this month that is worth reading.; 8/8/11, 9:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Jon, the reason our unemployment is still high is because of immigration. Not from Mexico, but from every other state in the Union.; 8/8/11, 9:25 AM
Anonymous said...: so is no one concerned about the potential that FERPA was violated here? and if not then when will someone leak Obama's undergraduate transcripts so we can see the courses he took and the grades?; 8/8/11, 9:27 AM
Tank said...: Hey 9....

Those laws don't apply when Repub's grades are leaked.; 8/8/11, 9:30 AM
J.R. said...: I went to Texas A&M as well. I was never impressed with my grades; until now!; 8/8/11, 9:36 AM
Cedarford said...: Amazing how academia and the liberal media have managed to disclose the academic background even in some cases SATs and courses taken with respective grades - of most Dem and Republican candidates for 40 years...but the wall of protection on their Black Messiah is absolute and impermiable.
No teams of reporters and academics combing poor old Dubyas, Palin's or Romney's past and gang interviewing neighbors have ever been spotted applying similar energy to Black Messiah's past.

Most impressive work by the cabal!

Could be they are a little nervous - like initially covering for John Edwards, JFK, even their pal Bernie (in the case of NYC financial writers that went to the same synogogue or inhabited his social circles) - then as things went sour, found it even more difficult to disclose the "minor flaws" in the great man they knew and covered up for.

And a little embarassing for a "distinguished" reporter or media conglemerate or esteemed university to come out with JFKs affairs, the ones Jackie did, John Edwards lovechild, Obama's SAT scores - when disclosure will soon reveal they were sitting on the info a long time.; 8/8/11, 9:45 AM
Jon said...: @ Phil

Actually, only about 20% of Texas population growth is from people moving from other states. It is mostly driven by high Hispanic birth rates and immigration.; 8/8/11, 9:50 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Sounds O.K. to me - if Bush is any indication, in execution, they definitely should beat whatever those top of your class types come up with.; 8/8/11, 9:52 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ann Althouse,

The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

Only for you, sister.

Check out the link - it speaks to your callousness in thinking about this stuff.; 8/8/11, 9:54 AM
MayBee said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

The Democrats need a better argument against the GOP in 2012 than: Bad grades in college.; 8/8/11, 9:55 AM
Michael said...: Odd. Perry has written two books and neither are autobiographies. One was about the Boy Scouts. Neither appear to be about him.

Our President wrote two books, mainly about himself,before he was fifty. You would think that if his grades were as great as he is they would be tattooed on him.; 8/8/11, 9:58 AM
John henry said...: Pogo's comment

I really don't care what econ grades Perry got in school. Or even if he went to school

He seems to have a handle on economics now. Witness Texas economy in relation to the rest of the US.

John Henry; 8/8/11, 9:59 AM
Cedarford said...: Greg said...

1) The assumption that 40-year-old college grades are destiny is fundamentally flawed. As we know, most people keep learning past age 22 -- and Perry has shown that he has learned by doing.
========================
I am aware of credentials snobbery. I am aware that many people who were poor and indifferent or just mediocre later go on to redeem themselves from other accomplishments. And that there is nothing "wrong" with being average or even mediocre, as was said of one nominated SCOTUS judge.
But early accomplishments are still "what they are" - part of a life's resume. A Rhodes scholarship is better than 6 years spent working on an unchallenging college degree. Military service long ago of high performance beats " I partied and did a lot of skiing in Europe instead of doing a military stint".

Add that there is a difficulty in quantifying adult accomplishemnt outside a job resume, doing some notable metric like writing a good book or being a good mayor or making a ton of money through ability or connections.

Early grades, sports accomplishments, military service are much easier to present and understand because they are quantifiable.; 8/8/11, 10:00 AM
MAJ Arkay said...: Perry himself released his transcripts several years ago. HuffPo just "discovered" Perry's release and is trying to claim credit for it.

A Texas Democrat, until the late 1980s, was a fiscal conservative and social moderate. When the national Democratic party went left beyond their comfort zone, the Texas Democrats had no real choice but to move to the Republican party. Please do not confuse an older Texas Democrat with today's loonies.

Those who claim Texas' economics is somehow "less" than other states are lying. Period. From your own left-leaning sources, Texas' economy was number 1 in the nation for 2010, and if Texas were still an independent nation, would have the 14th or 15th strongest GDP in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Texas
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37642856/CNBC_s_Top_States_For_Business_2010_And_The_Winner_Is_Texas
http://econpost.com/texaseconomy/texas-economy-ranking-world

Those who snark about lower incomes in Texas fail to recognize that the cost of living is lower in Texas, some 27% lower than in the other high flying state, Virginia.

I could go on and on, but the point is your trashing Texas is crap, and you've been caught out in your lies.

As for Perry, I do not care what his grades were at Texas A&M, which was a very tough school in the 1960s, by the way. Whoever claimed he has no business experience, though, is wrong. He was a cotton farmer before he went into politics. He has real life experience in the military, in farming (a harder life than the military, in my opinion, so I left farming for the military), and in politics.

I still have reservations about him running for president, but in comparison with the current president, he comes out far and away better qualified to handle the practical day-to-day responsibilities of the Executive Branch.

The fact that he's a Texan simply sticks in some people's craws, so you climb up on your elitist high horses and make up crap about Texas. Again. Y'all are so predictable - and boring.; 8/8/11, 10:02 AM
John henry said...: Tank:

I didn't vote for Obama (or McCain) but I think that we would have been much worse off with McCain.

Would we have the Tea Party?

Would we have the fight over the debt ceiling?

Would we have had the turnover in house and senate?

Short term Obama is a disaster.

Long term, by providing the wake up call and getting us off our collective asses and involved in making change happen, he is a Godsend.

John Henry; 8/8/11, 10:05 AM
mariner said...: It's interesting that it's been almost 4 years since Obama became a Presidential candidate and no one has seen fit to leak his transcripts.

Perry isn't even a candidate yet and his transcripts have already been leaked.; 8/8/11, 10:10 AM
JAL said...: Tell HuffPo to get their sticky fingers on BHOs.

He never TOOK economics. Or history.

Much less triginometry. Not to mention he can't add, subtract or divide. His multipication tables must have been like no one else's.

And they can find his scholarship info and passport from the early 1980s while they're at it.

Hilarious that they think Perry's grades matter when their champion The Won spends millions blocking access to his information.

After watching the left denigrate Buch and elevate Gore (!) and Kerry (!) and Obama (?) for their intellectual superiority and prowess the net impact is no one gives a rat's fanny about what someone did in college (Palin included) 20 - 30 years ago.

Can they add and subtract and do they love America for who we are, not who they think we have to be to justify our existance.; 8/8/11, 10:15 AM
jimbino said...: Perry's lack of decent background in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Econ would qualify him for service on the Supreme Court.; 8/8/11, 10:25 AM
Saint Croix said...: heh. I made a D in Economics.

You're a kid, you're drinking and having fun. Chasing girls. It is typical for a lot of men to resist and challenge authority (particularly when we are boys).

This is why girls do better in school, and in many careers, actually. They are far better at following and pleasing authority than men are. And much of scholastic and job success has to do with making the authorities happy.

But that's not actually an education.

What passes for school in most places is this:

1) authority tells you something.
2) you write it down
3) you spit it back out on the test.

Making a D in that scenario might mean you are stupid. But it could easily mean that you are smart, unmotivated, and rebellious.

When I see somebody like Rick Perry or Sarah Palin with a checkered education, I don't think "stupid." What I think is that they were unmotivated when they were young. And also, at a certain level, hostile to indoctrination.; 8/8/11, 10:28 AM
Thorley Winston said...: I think that the reason Ann is focusing on Perry’s college grades is because this was so key to Obama’s “qualifications” in 2008 (graduated with honors from Harvard and had “executive experience” as president of the Harvard Law Review) as opposed to what he actually accomplished in the real world since then. Some of us thought that anyone in his forties who still cited his college grades as a reason for giving him a job was a sign that he wasn’t qualified and I think we’ve been proven right since then.

Also am I correct in assuming that releasing a former college student’s transcript without their consent is a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act? Or is this just now par for the course like getting a friendly judge to unseal your opponent’s divorce records?; 8/8/11, 10:29 AM
Saint Croix said...: I honestly felt like I never had a thought until I went to law school. It totally woke my brain up.

Law school has no text book. And you are positively required to challenge authority.; 8/8/11, 10:30 AM
Saint Croix said...: On the downside, it kinda turned me into an asshole. I was definitely nicer, pre-law school.; 8/8/11, 10:32 AM
jimspice said...: For a (R), this is a badge of honor. Anti-intellectual, anti-science, no-better-than-me candidates seems to be the norm for the past 20 years.; 8/8/11, 10:33 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I think that the reason Ann is focusing on Perry’s college grades is..."

It's just something that was in the news. I've blogged news stories like this about other candidates. Including Bush and Kerry (to Kerry's disadvantage).; 8/8/11, 10:40 AM
Saint Croix said...: Albert Einstein flunked high school math. Think about why.

From wikipedia:

"When the family moved to Pavia, Einstein stayed in Munich to finish his studies at the Luitpold Gymnasium. His father intended for him to pursue electrical engineering, but Einstein clashed with authorities and resented the school's regimen and teaching method. He later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning. In the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note. During this time, Einstein wrote his first scientific work, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields."

Barack Obama was fully indoctrinated by the authorities who taught him. As a consequence he is unable to think creatively or independently.; 8/8/11, 10:45 AM
bailesworth said...: For a (R), this is a badge of honor. Anti-intellectual, anti-science, no-better-than-me candidates

It's kinda funny you're spinning the "Republicans are anti-intellectual, anti-science" meme when talking about a candidate who was a hard science major.

ps: My Ph.D. is in developmental biology from the University of Chicago. 'Care to share your credentials?; 8/8/11, 10:46 AM
Saint Croix said...: For a (R), this is a badge of honor.

Sometimes it is!

Not easy to challenge authority. You'll get your hair messed up and a black eye or two. They will do everything they can to keep you down. Authorities don't like it when the people under them show them up.

And sucking up to authorities does not make you a good leader. At all.; 8/8/11, 10:47 AM
Peter said...: What this is about really is teaching productivity. It's hardly a secret that tuition at practically all colleges and universities has risen at rates well above inflation for at least 3 decades now.

Now, perhaps higher education is getting better every day, in every way. Then again, perhaps it's pretty much the same product it was 30 years ago. Yet, it costs more. A lot more.

And so, outsourcing grading might be one approach. Think (for example) of a medical doctor's office: just about everything which does not have to be done by the physician is done by someone else.

Of course, it's hardly surprsing that for-profit schools have been most concerned about teaching productivity, since anything they don't spend on instruction, marketing and overhead becomes profit.

But, it's something that will have to be addressed everywhere. As they say, if something can't continue then it won't. And the annual above-inflation increases in the cost of higher ed. cannot continue forever as someday they'd eiher consume the entire GPP, or only one student could afford to go to college.; 8/8/11, 10:50 AM
Saint Croix said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

How about: I'm to the right of Obama?

Works for me.; 8/8/11, 10:54 AM
Saint Croix said...: The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse.

How about, Obama, he won't even show you his grades.; 8/8/11, 10:57 AM
Saint Croix said...: How about, Obama, the race riots are starting to suck.

Obama, I would like a job. That's a good one.

Obama, please stop arming drug dealers. Thanks.

I could do this all day.

Obama, how could we screw it up more than you?; 8/8/11, 11:10 AM
Cedarford said...: MAJArky -

"The fact that he's a Texan simply sticks in some people's craws, so you climb up on your elitist high horses and make up crap about Texas. Again. Y'all are so predictable - and boring."
==============

No dig on Texas, but the big shadow of LBJ doesn't help, nor the more recent crop of Dubya, Jim Wright, Halliburton, Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, Albero Gonzales, Godfather of Wall Street Dereg Phil Gramm Texans..and all the junior Texas mafia figures that got appointed positions within the White House and Congress from 2000 until the nations debacle in 2008.

After Jimmy Carter, the country needed a break from the Georgia mafia. Same with the Texans.

It isn't an absolute obstacle...but the country outside the Texas and Chicago mafia zones probably does want a break from it...like they didn't want Jimmy Carter's Georgians around in the 1980s.
And Perry may suffer from Dubya comparisons.; 8/8/11, 11:12 AM
Saint Croix said...: Obama, he's better than C4.; 8/8/11, 11:27 AM
sorepaw said...: Rick Perry's transcript is nothing to brag about.

Coming from 1968-1972, it also predates two or three major waves of grade inflation in American universities.

And Perry has had 39 years to compile a track record since he graduated from Texas A&M.

Anyhow, he released his transcript several years ago.

An example all candidates for high office should follow.

Big media outlets can easily obtain the transcript of any politician, whether they're getting it legally or not.

They haven't obtained and published Barack Obama's transcripts because they haven't wanted to, and they still don't want to.

I wonder whether Barack Obama took Organic Chemistry....; 8/8/11, 11:31 AM
Scott M said...: They haven't obtained and published Barack Obama's transcripts because they haven't wanted to, and they still don't want to.

But there ARE those that have a vested interest in getting them and presenting them in spite of that fax, right? Breitbart, et al?; 8/8/11, 11:33 AM
chickelit said...: Have you seen junior's grades?; 8/8/11, 12:05 PM
FloridaSteve said...: Well if the enemy of good is perfect then isn't this a plus?; 8/8/11, 12:30 PM
Tank said...: John said...

Tank:

I didn't vote for Obama (or McCain) but I think that we would have been much worse off with McCain.

Would we have the Tea Party?

Would we have the fight over the debt ceiling?

Would we have had the turnover in house and senate?

Short term Obama is a disaster.

Long term, by providing the wake up call and getting us off our collective asses and involved in making change happen, he is a Godsend.

John Henry

I too voted for neither.

I don't think we disagree.; 8/8/11, 12:42 PM
DaveW said...: No, I haven't seen Perry's college grades, but I've never seen Obama's either. And in the school of hard knocks Obama gets straight Fs and Perry has been getting straight As for some years.

I'm really glad nobody judged me on my college grades. The idea that you can predict someone's performance at 45 or 50 based on what they did as a teenager strikes me as fundamentally flawed.; 8/8/11, 12:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Albert Einstein flunked high school math.

He also taught himself calculus when he was 12. So who cares if he flunked algebra II?; 8/8/11, 1:05 PM
Amartel said...: Perry gets an "A" in Job Creation.

College grades are a very minor indicator, especially if they're that far in the past. Life experience and real results are what counts. I'll take Palin over Obama on that alone any day even if Obama actually earned that "honors" at Harvard. And I do wonder about whether those honors were earned or embellished. Unfortunately, no transcripts have been released. Alas, too bad, so sad. Palin clearly worked for her degree while Obama seems to have been helped along (going from Oxy to Columbia? Really?) and probably took a bunch of PC courses in social justice etc. The real story of this story is how every successful conservative is immediately and indelibly branded an idiot (or if they've got good grades, crazy), gets their grades "leaked," (hey, ain't that there aginst the lawr?) and somehow anonymous sources are found willing to speak to the media about what dolts the conservative was 30-40 years ago, like s/he was the first person on the planet to screw up organic chem. You'd think someone outside of the tuned-in media world would notice the droning tedious regularity with which this occurs. But maybe they have noticed, and maybe it's just not that big a deal outside media world. I know there's a general consensus (now don't get all defensive) that school is frequently bullshit and a waste of time, and a developing consensus that the media is frequently bullshit and a waste of time. Maybe stories like this do have an impact and it's not what the writers want.; 8/8/11, 1:41 PM
Alan said...: When I was at Texas A&M some 17 years after Gov. Perry, the 1st and 2nd semester Organic Chemistry classes were "weed-out" classes for several majors, and had been for a long time.

I know several very smart people who received lousy grades in several of the classes Gov. Perry took. All it says is that they were tough classes.

I'm no great Perry fan (as a Texan, as fiscal conservative, and as a fellow Texas Aggie), but I've seen worse transcripts from other Ags who went on to very successful careers. It's far easier (and far more relevant) to judge Perry on his public record and his rhetoric than on a forty year-old transcript.; 8/8/11, 2:10 PM
Chase said...: All the financial shit that has hit the fan is the work product of the "best and brightest" who graduated with honors from the Ivy Leagues.

Not only winner of the thread, but also WINNER of the Day.

Take THAT Intellectual Superiors and their Worshippers; 8/8/11, 2:55 PM
Synova said...: "The GOP needs a higher standard for 2012 than: Obama's worse."

I don't think they do.

Oh, sure, it would be nice, but the word "need" has a meaning.

As for Perry's grades: I'm not alarmed by his poor grades. I'd be much more interested in his policies and leadership ability. Only a complete idiot thinks that a President supplies the role of subject-expert in any field, much less all of them.

As for Obama's grades: It's amazing how little we know about Obama and how much we're supposed to swallow.; 8/8/11, 6:08 PM
sorepaw said...: But there ARE those that have a vested interest in getting them and presenting them in spite of that fax, right? Breitbart, et al?

Getting Barack Obama's transcripts is too big a job for Andrew Breitbart.

It's not the remnants of ACORN that are guarding them.; 8/8/11, 10:09 PM
Synova said...: Maybe Breitbart is actually an honest guy.

There is no real reason for Obama not to simply make his grades public.

Or rather, there is a reason not to. One is, when you've set all your hope on someone because they are so much smarter than the rest of us, no one wants to see his feet of clay. No one wants to know that he's not that much more brilliant (or any more brilliant) than us normal folks.

I'm convinced this is why Kerry wouldn't release his military records as well -- his complete records would include the equivalent of his IQ score and it was certainly lower than Bush's.

(I also wonder if Obama's acceptance at Harvard wasn't AA, but Legacy... didn't his father go there?); 8/8/11, 10:20 PM