April 8, 2014

What should Scott Walker — if he's a presidential candidate — say when they ask him whether a President needs to have a college degree?

1. Express his understanding of the importance of education and of the good reasons why some young people interrupt their education to engage in other pursuits that are also important, such as business opportunities, family responsibilities, military service...

2. Explain the work he has done, as Governor of Wisconsin, in supporting the University of Wisconsin's FlexOption, which facilitates the completion of a degree by those who have interrupted their education.

3. Describe a hypothetical excellent presidential candidate who does not have a college degree, the sort of person that we would need to be embarrassingly snobbish to reject.

4. Suddenly, but modestly, reveal that he has in fact earned that college degree.

I know the most recent news report on the subject has a Walker spokesperson saying that the UW FlexOption doesn't have the right program for Walker and making it sound as though he's done nothing toward completing the degree. But I have this idea that he could be working toward the degree in some other way. If he's going to run for President, he's going to need to bone up on a lot of presidential topics — notably history and foreign affairs. I like to think of him having worked out a way to be earning college credits, and to be able to announce — to the consternation of those who are planning their didn't-even-finish-college attacks — that he has his degree.

116 comments:

Michael K said...

Maybe you should ask Bill Gates. Too late to ask Steve Jobs.

Revenant said...

What should Scott Walker [...] say when they ask him whether a president needs to have a college degree?

"No."

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"3. Describe a hypothetical excellent presidential candidate who does not have a college degree, the sort of person that people who have to be embarrassingly snobbish to reject."

5. Describe an actual disastrous president who does have a college degree, the sort that people must have been embarrassingly deranged to have accepted.

Examples abound.

jimbino said...

Why don't we just cite all those inventors and innovators who didn't bother with a college degree, like Andrew Carnegie, Wright Bros, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zudkerberg.

Though I do have advanced degrees, nowadays I wouldn't bother on account of the high tuition and debt, and the fact that a real education can by had by travel and on-line courses.

I know so many "educated" Amerikans who not only don't know other cultures, but who don't speak a foreign language and don't even speak proper English.

Gahrie said...

He should attack all the elitests who think that a man without a college degree is incapable of governing this country and point to our former presidents who didn't:

George Washington
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Grover Cleveland
William McKinley
Harry S. Truman

Meade said...

If he gets his, I'll have to finish mine. Last I looked, I'm about 22 hours and a senior thesis shy of aBachelors.

Of course, then I'd have to finish learning to play the piano... write my novel... get a job in the meat department at Whole Foods...

...raise a couple more kids... and paint my masterpiece.

mesquito said...

Shit. I have a degree in Government and History without ever been assigned Madison, Hamilton, or Jefferson. I've had a bellyful of Fanon and Rawls, though.

The Godfather said...

If Walker has enough free time to obtain a college degree while governing the state, it would suggest that he isn't taking his day job seriously enough.

I hope he doesn't think that not having a college degree would be a serious hindrance to a presidential run -- the performance of Obama, with degrees from two prestigious Ivy League universities, has severely undermined credentialism.

Michael said...

We would have to be embarrassingly snobbish to stipulate that the president has to have a college education.

If you cannot recognize a person's success by the time they are eligible to be president then you are an academic or a journalist both of which professions harbor people who believe they would be wildly successful had they not chosen their own special way to help the world.

Brando said...

The issue will help him, so give his critics enough rope to hang themselves on. The very question--considering he's made it to the governorship and has been successful prior to that without a college degree--will alienate both those without college degrees (who tend Democratic normally) as well as those who have college degrees but are offended by educational snobs.

n.n said...

What is in a degree? Is there certitude? No, it is to earn the academic sanction.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Finishing his college degree is something Scott could do after he has served as President, like George took up painting.

Michael K said...

I have an MD and an MS from Dartmouth but never got a bachelors. Got accepted to medical school too soon.

Walker could turn that question around and I'll bet he has figured out how to do it.

campy said...

He should say, "Yes. Preferably Ivy League. That's why I'm not running."

Clyde said...

At this point, given the wonderful success our nation has enjoyed under Ivy Leaguers like Obama, the Bushes and Clinton, I'm sure that everyone, left and right, would just as soon we take a break from Ivy League elitists.

Chef Mojo said...

So, what are you saying, Althouse?

A tradesman can't be president?

My. How elitist!

Rusty said...

5. I won

tim maguire said...

I wonder how effective those attacks would be in the first place. Some percentage of people, whether college graduates or not, would be receptive to the idea that the president needs to have a college degree. Some percentage of people, whether college graduates or not, would be repelled by the implicit assertion that people without degrees aren't smart or aren't capable or can't be trusted with authority.

I suspect that, like in the Pelosi Cyrus threads, how the issue is handled is more important than the issue itself.

dbp said...

No. A degree serves mostly to show an employer that you are smart enough and work hard enough to accomplish a fairly hard task.

If you already have a successful employment history, as Walker does, then nobody should care about an entry-level credential.

chuck said...

Certified BS free.

Thorley Winston said...

I think for someone running for the most important executive position in the world, we ought to be more interested in what they have in the way of previous executive experience than a college degree.



Ignorance is Bliss said...

5) As chief executive, I can hire as many ( or as few ) people will college degrees as needed.

Sigivald said...

"Look at how well the idiots we've had with Ivy League degrees have worked out and ask me that question again."

Cheapened credentials aren't qualifications.

damikesc said...

He could go the Obama option and just say "It's nobody's business".

Joe Biden has a college degree and is functionally retarded.

Todd said...

he's going to need to bone up on a lot of presidential topics — notably history and foreign affairs.

The country is currently full of individuals with collage degrees that don't know squat about history or foreign affairs. As others have noted, he should simply point out the recent Presidents and the credentials that they have as well as a few of the more household names that do not have degrees.

Bob Boyd said...

What should Scott Walker — if he's a presidential candidate — say when they ask him whether a president needs to have a college degree?

He should say:
College schmallege. Ann Althouse calls me "My darling Scotty". I'll put that up against any degree, from anywhere, any time.

Phaedrus said...

Based on our current president a law degree sure didn't help the country much.

Rae said...

U.S. Presidents without college degrees include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman.

Hagar said...

What on earth for?

lemondog said...

No and why and relate his equalizing life experiences, then appeal to the weighted average of 72.8% who do not have Bachelor’s degree or higher.

See Wisconsin #25 at 74.4%.

john said...

Meade said...

Of course, then I'd have to finish learning to play the piano... write my novel... get a job in the meat department at Whole Foods...


It's Meat & Poultry, you pullet.

WH clientele value that distinction when they pay for their boneless/skinless/organic/freerange/flavorfree chicken breasts and pick up a free Meat is Murder bumpersticker for their daughter's Prius. They are college educated. You should be respectful of that.

Browndog said...

6) Debate any college grad that questions his intellectual abilities..any time, anywhere.

Let the chips fall where they may..

Anonymous said...

1: He should say "it's very sad when we judge people by credentials, rather than by their actual abilities and accomplishments. I've been governor of WI for over fours years. Instead of judging me by the pieces of paper I own, I ask you to judge me by what I've done, and what that says about what I'm likely to do as President of the United States."

Anonymous said...

"No."

Though he could use the issue as a springboard to discuss how the old have betrayed the young by turning colleges into wealth-sucking rackets, and to berate the older generation for their obscene negligence in advising the inexperienced young to take on life-destroying amounts of debt for degrees that either do not any longer provide the advertised ROI, or are completely worthless.

For the life of me I don't get why I'm supposed to care if someone has a college degree or not. It's not like this credential is needed for a voter to distinguish an intelligent, able, educated person from an ignorant incompetent. Particularly these days when many of the latter have the credential. If anything, "credentialism" has lowered the standard of public servants.

Meade said...

Pullet yourself, john.

Hey, I just want to cut, weigh, and wrap meat and firmly hand it over the counter with a friendly smile to strong healthy carnivores who appreciate my art.

Guess I'll stick to serving dogs.

PB said...

I'd go with "No".

Just because you don't have a college degree, that doesn't mean you don't know quite a lot about history, economics, science, foreign affairs, etc. This is just as merely having a college degree doesn't validate you as competent in any of these areas.

Here's a guy who's been elected governor of a state, controlled costs, lowered taxes, and gotten the schools out from under a horrendously expensive healthcare contract that was merely funneling cash to the teacher's union.

He has way more experience and evidence have having contributed than Obama ever had, and some might say more than Obama has today.

PB said...

People should not be embarrassed they never went to or finished college if they've gone on to be successful and self-sustaining members of society. How much of what you learned as an undergraduate do you use today (or even remember)?

john said...

Meade said...

Guess I'll stick to serving dogs.


Then WF won't hire you. You'll have to get a job with the Korean butcher.

Meade said...

I'd serve man but I think the dogs would rather have beef, lamb, and pork.

rhhardin said...

College is signalling. It proves to employers that you can stick out an unpleasant task.

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...


Unless there is a legal requirement for a degree, no job really needs one. It is a sorting tool to weed out job applicants when you have nothing else to go by. Walker's record (or any governor's) is what they should be judged by.

Larry J said...

The best president of my lifetime graduated from Eureka College. The four presidents that followed him all had one or more Ivy League degrees. Each of these four was worse than his predecessor. The Ivy League brand isn't looking so good right now. DC is full of highly credentialed people who're systematically running the country into the ground.

Real life experience trumps college credentials except for some holdouts in HR departments. A neighbor of mine was a machinist with decades of experience. When he lost his job last year, it took him months to find a new one because some HR department dullards couldn't look past his lack of a college degree. Are they so stupid as to think a very expensive piece of paper was more relevant than decades of experience?

Bob R said...

I like your plan. On advantage is that if someone can get a college degree while serving as governor of a pretty large state it highlights what a shallow credential the degree is. I find that among the college educated there is an inverse relation between how much one "values" a college degree and the rigor of one's major field.

On the other hand, your point is really good. There is some much shallow knowledge that is actually useful to the president that college courses are probably an efficient way to study it.

wildswan said...

He has to acquire foreign policy credentials. He should be talking to Condoleeza Rice, George Bush, Henry Kissinger, Cardinal Doyle (the worldwide Catholic viewpoint), English leaders, ally leaders and even enemy authorities like Putin if possible. And say he is more up-to-date because he learned that way than if he was working with outdated ideas acquired before the Millenium. Like Hilary.

And work the idea that college is good but also there are other ways to become educated especially now. For instance, we all have to do life long learning these days. And Walker should be very positive about being in the mode of 21st century learning - not excluding college but not limited to that kind of credentialing.

exhelodrvr1 said...

What does it matter at this point?

john said...

I would have been much more impressed with Sarah Palin's governmental hiatus period had she shown curiosity and some book-learnin' in history, foreign affairs, and even constitutional law. Not necessarily credentialed, but some record of accomplishment. Since she apparently wants to retain credibility on the national political stage, being more than a half-term former governor and a current celebrity/reality TV host should be her aim.

Browndog said...

Who better to understand the grind of daily life in America than the perpetual student?

Age old adage: I just don't understand women-

New Age adage: I have a degree in Women's Studies.

Browndog said...

Meade said...

I'd serve man but I think the dogs would rather have beef, lamb, and pork.


Actually....they'd rather have fish. Smoked fish.

Try it sometime...

RecChief said...

A president without a degree? Why..that's nearly as bad as... A Farmer. From Iowa. Who Doesn't have a Law Degree. And Never practiced Law. As Chairman. Of the Judiciary Committee.

Michael K said...

I guess you could ask Michael Dell, too.

Mark said...

Now that he has appointed a Chancellor and had his old campaign manager hired as a top administrator, do you think any flex degree will be considered legitimate by his critics?

I don't.

Mark O said...

He could say, "I will answer that question the day after Obama releases his transcripts."

gadfly said...

Nine Presidents did not have college degrees but most of these used apprenticeships to attain career educations. Jackson, Van Buren, Fillmore, Lincoln and Cleveland practiced law and Andrew Johnson became tailor after serving as an apprentice.

There were three who never relied upon education were strong leaders. George Washington said his education was reading, writing, arithmetic and surveying. Zachary Taylor was a war hero as well, fighting Mexico for land but his place in history was quashed when he died of cholera just 16 months into office. Then there is the only 20th century President without a degree - "Give 'em Hell" Harry Truman attended the Kansas City School of Law but never graduated and never practiced the profession. As best that I can determine, none of these presidents wallowed in self-pity and apologized or attempted to justify their lack of educational attainments.

Interestingly, the only president who was self-denigrating about his education was Bush 43 who told kids that he was living proof that "C" students can become president. and need I remind you that Democratic attacks on GWB's educational attainments made no difference in two elections.

Browndog said...

Michael K said...

I guess you could ask Michael Dell, too.


I attended one of his seminars, long ago--he made no bones about it-college would have limited his scope of thinking; He arrived in a tricked out H1 Hummer; joked about that too (butt hurt greeney's)

Ann Althouse said...

"So, what are you saying, Althouse? A tradesman can't be president? My. How elitist!"

You're calling me elitist based on what? 2 questions that you made up? My. How strange!

Ann Althouse said...

My point is: Everyone's getting ready to nail him on this. It would be hilarious if after all that prep work, he makes them look like snobs for having the question AND reveals it doesn't even apply to him.

Double win for Scott.

If he runs.

Not saying he will or should.

We need him in Wisconsin.

Levi Starks said...

It simply isn't possible for someone who is a product of an institution of higher learning to conceive that someone who hasn't graduated from college could have possibly obtained the same knowledge through other means...

Swifty Quick said...

Lets get real. We can do that be recapping recent election history:

2012 - BHO (Columbia, Harvard) vs Mitt (Stanford, Harvard)

2008 - McCain (USNA) vs BHO (Columbia, Harvard)

2004 - W (Yale, Harvard) vs Kerry (Yale)

2000 - Gore (Harvard) vs W (Yale, Harvard)

1996 - Clinton (Yale) vs Dole (Kansas)

1992 - Bush I (Yale) vs Clinton (Yale)

1988 - Bush I (Yale) vs Dukakis (Harvard)

You have to go all the way back to Reagan to find a non-Ivy League educated winning candidate. Even amongst the losing candidates, only two were non-Ivy: McCain and Dole.

And, you have to go back to Truman to find a president who lacked a degree. Do I need to point out that 1948 was a totally different era? Or that, even with it being a different era, it's noteworthy that Truman ascended to the presidency through succession from the VP position upon the death of FDR, then ran in 1948 as the sitting incumbent. There is NO reason to believe HST could've ever won the presidency for himself in any other way.

In 2008 the mainstream media, libtards that they are, pilloried Sarah Palin every chance they got. Included on their list of fun was mocking her because her degree was from the University of Idaho. Remember that? I'm sure they still have the play in their playbook.

By the time the leftard media gets done with Walker his name will be a puchline for umpteen different jokes, including over his lack of education. Walker supporters who fantasize otherwise are whistling past the graveyard, at the very least. Delusional is more apt description.

lgv said...

Help me out here. How many credits shy was he? What were his grades like?

5) Better an A student who didn't finish than a C student from Columbia maybe.

How an honorary degree from the University of Phoenix?

Anonymous said...

Walker could point them to this article:

Students at many of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a "D+" average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.

According to a report released yesterday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average college senior at the 50 colleges and universities polled did not earn a passing grade....

At universities such as Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Berkeley, seniors scored lower on the test, available here, than freshmen...

The average foreign student studying in an American college learned nothing about the country's history and its civic institutions, according to the study.

Michael said...

Around 28% of Wisconsinites have a four year or post graduate degree.

Really smart politics to suggest to the other 72% of the population that not having a four year degree is the sign of laziness or soon-to-be indictedness.

NCMoss said...

What are the chances we can elect a president who's majored in honesty and industry?

Gabriel said...

Lots of US Presidents didn't go to college. Lots owned slaves too. At one time that was okay. The question is, is it okay now and why not?

I personally would rather the President be selected at random from the phone book, than have gone to college. The majority of voters, in the mistaken belief that they can pick politicians better than chance can, despite a century of evidence to the contrary, will disagree with me.

RecChief said...

you know, with one party's messiah walking around with sealed college records, why should this matter?

n.n said...

I didn't doubt your motivations for a moment, Professor Althouse. I appreciate academics and laypeople alike, each in moderation.

And now for some gentle ribbing.

Althouse, Althouse, let down your blond locks.

A little ivory tower humor.

Ann Althouse said...

"It simply isn't possible for someone who is a product of an institution of higher learning to conceive that someone who hasn't graduated from college could have possibly obtained the same knowledge through other means…"

You have an absurdly low standard of impossibility.

garage mahal said...

We need him in Wisconsin.

We need more Walker like we need the clap. On the other hand, maybe Walker/Clap just needs to run its course.

mesquito said...

The most important thing I learned in college was just how vicious and insular liberals are. Surely the Governor has figured that out by now.

Owen said...

"persiflage mahal said...

5. Describe an actual disastrous president who does have a college degree, the sort that people must have been embarrassingly deranged to have accepted.

Examples abound.
4/8/14, 12:41 PM"

Thread-winner. Done. Over.

Tank said...

He should say no, but first he should use the opportunity to discuss serious changes in the way we educate people for their adulthood, what is necessary (and affordable) and what is not, and why concentration on credentials of various types is often misleading. He should certainly discuss how successful experience is more predictive of future success than a particular degree earned years before.

RecChief said...

"You have an absurdly low standard of impossibility."

Actually I'm not sure that it is.

People often mistook me for being uneducated simply because of job and my work clothes (Army). Imagine their surprise to find that I have a degree from a somewhat well known private school, at least here in the midwest.

You should see the change in attitude when they find out this factoid. One of my wife's friends is an agronomist who just gained tenure, imagine his surprise when I could hold my own in a conversation with him about hybridized corn. Some of that I learned growing up on a farm, some in the mandatory biology classes in HS and college.

Mayeb in your neighborhood, Althouse, but I live close to a state university, and there is definitely a tendency by faculty to look down their noses at those of us that they think are not credentialed.

Browndog said...

Levi Starks said...

It simply isn't possible for someone who is a product of an institution of higher learning to conceive that someone who hasn't graduated from college could have possibly obtained the same knowledge through other means...


Nutshell.

Back to the programming already in progress...

Ann Althouse said...

My point is:...


Indeed. Nothing could be worse for Academia than to have to their snobbish insistence that their overpriced Obamaloans for their functionally useless degrees be put on trial via a national political debate. Convinced, the young graduates, that the only way they can obtain their self-worth to society is by seizing it from the 1%er's.

Chance said...

Isn't it worse that he almost finished, but didn't, than if if had quit earlier or done something else from the start?

I believe he claims he was only one semester short of graduation.

Another interesting question is even if he did graduate from Marquette wouldn't that be an inadequate school in the face of Harvard and Yale, both of which have dominated in recent years? Even Nixon had Duke Law to bolster his Whittier undergrad, and Reagan's acting probably made him exempt.

mikeski said...

He has an impossibly low standard of impossibility.

I have a BSEE, and I work with degree-free folks who have worked up to "engineering" from lab-tech type positions. Clearly they have the same sort of knowledge that I do without having earned a degree.

Now, had he said "people with a post-grad degree in victim's studies cannot conceive that someone [...]", then maybe. :)

sdharms said...

I dont think Harry Truman had a college degree.

Browndog said...


You have an absurdly low standard of impossibility.


More likely a rhetorical statement on academic groupthink-

If you're getting defensive, you should.

Lorenzo said...

Well, Walker has a better excuse for not making his transcripts public than Obama did.

Anonymous said...

He needs to attack. Attack, attack, attack.

In that light, the best response would be the Larry David response:

"I reject the premise of that question."

With a follow up along the lines of, "Are you saying someone without a college degree is too stupid to be President?"

Put them on the defensive.

Rumpletweezer said...

He should reject the premise of the question.

Lydia said...

If non–Ivy Leaguers need not apply, the GOP’s in trouble. I think of those currently being considered for the presidential nomination, only Cruz and Jindal have Ivy degrees.

Fen said...

If he'd gone to college he would have been indoctrinated and brainwashed. Walker would be a Libtard.

Rumpletweezer said...

Someone needs to develop a Presidential Aptitude Test. At least two of the living Presidents shouldn't be able to pass it if it's reliable.

garage mahal said...

He should reject the premise of the question.

Or just say he won't answer the question at all. "It's in the past". Works in Wisconsin. Other states might not be so gullible though?

Browndog said...

Blogger garage mahal said...

We need him in Wisconsin.

We need more Walker like we need the clap...


I hear ya-

In Michigan, the Democrats are running Mark Schauer against Rick Snyder this fall (Governor).

This is who he chose as a running mate (everyone clap!)

Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown

The Crack Emcee said...

"What should Scott Walker — if he's a presidential candidate — say when they ask him whether a President needs to have a college degree?"

Nobody running a ghetto needs a college degree,...

Browndog said...

I'd rather have military service over an Ivy League education.

You can't "cite" your way to world piece.

Obama tried....still trying-

leading from behind...

Roger Sweeny said...

"My point is: Everyone's getting ready to nail him on this. It would be hilarious if after all that prep work, he makes them look like snobs for having the question AND reveals it doesn't even apply to him.

"Double win for Scott."

That scenario really bothers me. In fact, it symbolizes so much of what is wrong with politics: nice sounding rhetoric without being willing to "put your money where your mouth is." "I strongly believe in public schools, but I'm sending my kid to Sidwell Friends. "I strongly believe in limited government, but I will never vote for a bill that gives less money to farmers."

If he tries that strategy (talk about how unnecessary a degree is but get one anyway), he won't "make[] them look like snobs for having the question." He'll make them look RIGHT. And (at least to me), he'll make himself look phony.

Gahrie said...

Well, Walker has a better excuse for not making his transcripts public than Obama did.

How the hell do you know?

Freeman Hunt said...

I think the strategy outlined in the post is a winner.

Anonymous said...

Anglelyne said...

For the life of me I don't get why I'm supposed to care if someone has a college degree or not.


Because with the insane way "discrimination" lawsuits go, companies have to have "objective" measures to justify their employment decisions. You can't hire on IQ, you can hire on diploma. So everyone has to have a diploma in order to get hired/

Freeman Hunt said...

It has not been my experience that, as a rule, people with graduate degrees or Ivy League degrees look down on those of similar ability who do not have degrees. But Walker's lack of degree will still be used against him, so it's best for him to be prepared.

Mountain Maven said...

He should ask how the last 4 Ivy League presidents worked out and remind the voters that demonstrated successful experience and character are more important than credentials. Then he should ask whether HRC has any of that stuff.

Drago said...

garage: "We need more Walker like we need the clap."

Sorry garage.

This thread is for college graduates only.

Adios.

CWJ said...

I agree with Althouse that thie issue could be turned to a major win for Walker should he run,

Just look at the electoral ramifications. What percentage of those who thought this important (read snobs) would have voted for him anyway if he had a degree. I would guess no more than say 10%. After all, W's ivy degrees bought him no innoculation against "ChimpyMcHitler." So no great loss. The more they harp on it, the more it builds Walker's cred with everyone else.

Handled amiably in a Reaganesque fashion and its a big win. Remember, trying to tar Reagan as an "amiable dunce" actually played to his strengths.

Unknown said...

He should say this,

"No you don't. Next question."

On honest and factual answer, especially in light of the last four Presidents.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Walker should get Mike Rowe to campaign for him.

Bill S. said...

I would say "look at the current occupant of the White House and ask yourself how a college degree worked out for him."

cubanbob said...

This country doesn't need yet another lawyer as president. We need someone who has real world experience in running a business and from there running a state successfully. Walker has the experience as governor. Hillary has nothing and has learned nothing.

MaxedOutMama said...

He should reply "No" and move on.

Look, I have no prejudice against higher education. I have degrees, my spousal unit has degrees, my whole family has degrees. But I have met so many credentialed failures that the issue has less than no importance for me.

To be blunt about it, if you are successful without a college degree, you have a lot going for you. It's unlikely that you are not continuously learning and a problem solver. Those are good characteristics to have in a president. And, as far as I can tell, in a governor.

Now if he were to respond to the question by pointing out that the focus on college degrees is actively harmful to our country and our economy, he'd get my vote. But I bet he wouldn't get the votes of a lot of people who are afraid of losing their positions in the college boom. So that would be a political no-no.

But someone has to say it. Someone has to point out that many degrees nowadays are worse than useless.

Titus said...

I realize having a college degree is awful in some conservative circles but it does mean you actually completed something.

Sam L. said...

I can just see him suckering in people on that aspect. And persiflage mahal at 1241pm. #5 is a beaut! Gonna frost them Dems.

CWJ said...

Titus,

Really?

I've never replied to you before, and I get that your shtick is snark, but that was just low, I mean below the belt, I mean sucked, I mean bite me.

Oh well. I guess there's no way to mock you. You are who you are.

Just don't get lost in the smug.

PfMoen said...


allegedly having Ivy degrees hasn't helped the Mocha One

ken in tx said...

Presidents get honorary degrees all the time. He should say, OK I'll get one after you vote me in, and a Peace prize too probably.

Hagar said...

In private practice at least, an engineer is supposed to recognize when he is getting out of his depth on some problem and seek expert advice on the matter, while a technician is not held responsible for recognizing his limitations.

In college we are taught a little about a lot with this in mind. Then you go to work and learn by practice and more studying to become proficient in your particular field of practice, and then apply for Professional Registration, but you must still continue to learn and always be alert for what you don't know.

That you have graduated from college is only a guarantee that you have been taught some elementary skills and have been exposed to some learning once over easy, but it sure is no guarantee that you will ever really be any good.

cassandra lite said...

Woodrow Wilson wasn't just a college grad, he was also president of a university. Enough said.

Drago said...

Titus: "I realize having a college degree is awful in some conservative circles but it does mean you actually completed something."

Of course, this is true nowhere.

On the other hand, it's hard to understand how obama could be so stupid as to think "Austrian" was a language.

Has Walker ever made a "mistake" that egregiously ignorant?

C R Krieger said...

I believe that when Eisenhower graduated from West Point they were NOT giving degrees.  Only later, in 1933, were degrees granted (and they box topped a few classes just before degree granting started).

Add Eisenhower to the list.

Regards  —  Cliff

C R Krieger said...

I don't believe Eisenhower had a degree, other than honorary.  When he graduated from West Point they didn't award degrees.  That wasn't until 1933, and while they Box Topped a couple of classes, they didn't go back as far as Eisenhower's.

Regards  —  Cliff

kellygreen said...

Oh, please. By 2016 some university will have given him an honorary degree. Or maybe he can buy a degree. His actions prior to his unfortunate student election debacle, indicate that at one time education was important to him. Unfortunately, when it comes to higher education, his wife is an inverse snob. Check out the interview with Tonette on Channel3000--she bristles when she's asked about post high school education. If she weren't the wife of a governor and a man who desperately wants to be president, her reaction would be laughable.

Brennan said...

Woodrow Wilson wasn't just a college grad, he was also president of a university. Enough said.

I had such a poor opinion of President Wilson before learning this. Now I have even less of an opinion of him.

Anonymous said...

"I would say "look at the current occupant of the White House and ask yourself how a college degree worked out for him."

One of the gotcha portions of such a question to Walker is to twist his answer to make it look like he is insulting either

A: Those without degrees

or

B: Those with degrees.

He has to understand that the media isn't out to help him, or even to report on what he says, they are out to destroy his candidacy, as they are for every Republican candidate. This means purposefully misconstruing anything he says in the most negative of lights.

Which is why he shouldn't answer, but instead, attack.

test said...

Drago said...
Titus: "I realize having a college degree is awful in some conservative circles but it does mean you actually completed something."

Of course, this is true nowhere.


In addition to simply not being true, you'd think the accomplishment of balancing the budget without the tax increases the left claimed had to be made would be so vastly more important the accomplishment of the degree would be essentially meaningless. But the left doesn't evaluate that way. They simply reorganize their priorites so whatever statement they need to make at that moment is supported.

The left are lemmings. Great example; John McCain. He's the left's favorite Republican for a decade, routinely used to attack Bush and establish the critic's faux reasonableness. I couldn't count the number of times I heard "If only McCain were president maybe it would be possible to deal with Republicans, but..." Then he's the nominee and the lemmings are following the NYT lead pretending McCain had soemhow changed positions.

No lady (I'm thinking of someone specific), your cue changed, not McCain. And they're not even smart enough to be embarassed about it, which means you have to be embarassed for them.

n.n said...

A degree only offers initial certification. It is not a demonstration of fitness. This has become glaringly clear with the recent production of substandard graduates who otherwise meet the qualifications of their schools' programs. Success in an academic utopia does not correlate with real world achievement. They still have to prove their mettle under fire.

pfennig said...

Can't he pick off a mail order degree from UW-Superior like Arnold did?

Big Mike said...

Maybe UW-Madison can offer him an honorary degree?

(Those clicking and swishing sounds in the background are from the ice skating down in Hell.)