Everyone is almost certainly aware by now that Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin does not have a bachelor’s degree. He left the University of Marquette, and in his words, "I'm someone who went to college, had the opportunity in my senior year to go and take a job full-time job (…)like a lot of folks in America, you know, your family and your job take the time away from you finishing it up."Walker was using a hoary old trope. On my list of old-man expressions that no one uses anymore is: I graduated from the School of Hard Knocks.
In that same recent interview, Walker stated, "I've got a master's degree in taking on the big government special interests, and I think that is worth more than anything else that anybody can point to."
Gov. Walker was unable to finish college. There are plenty of websites and blogs out there full of accusations about why he left Marquette, but we're not exploring that today. This is about how he has the audacity to suggest that he has a master’s degree when he does not even have a bachelor’s degree....
Now, maybe Anderson does understand the old trope but he's just weirdly bugged by the specification of a master's degree. Since Walker — last I heard — has no bachelor's degree, he ought to have limited himself to saying "I've got a bachelor's degree in taking on the big government special interests." That's some strange umbrage Anderson is taking. I had to laugh.
By the way, I said "last I heard," because my prediction — made here last April — is that Walker will at some dramatic point reveal that he has acquired a degree:
What should Scott Walker — if he's a presidential candidate — say when they ask him whether a President needs to have a college degree?ADDED: If you read Anderson's whole piece, you'll see that he goes on to talk about his own struggles to get through college and to acquire a master's 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.
I was a 40-year-old single father when I received my bachelor’s degree. I sacrificed a lot to earn that degree to give my family a better life. I worked full time and went to school full time. I gave up time with my then-wife and son to complete assignments. I had a lot of sleepless nights and missed weekends. I had to write papers while on the phone with a divorce attorney...Perhaps what really triggered Anderson's rage is Walker's statement that "your family and your job take the time away from you finishing it up."
Three years later I decided to work towards a master’s degree in communications to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a writer.... Writing my thesis was one of the most difficult things I have ever done and it cost me the love of my life—she could not take coming in third after my son, and after my thesis. I cannot blame her, she did not sign up for the sacrifices—I did that.
When I look back at what my education cost me, precious time with my son, and a relationship with a woman I loved deeply, I am filled with rage when I hear that Walker claims to have a non-existent master’s degree....
Anderson put finishing his degree ahead of his wife, he says. He lost the love of his life over his dream of becoming a writer. We all make our choices, but when you look around and see other people who have made other choices, who had other priorities and achieved different results, and you become "filled with rage," you don't look like much of a source of wisdom.
Posts
119 comments:
"This is about how he has the audacity to suggest that he has a master’s degree when he does not even have a bachelor’s degree...."
I have a Doctorate and a Masters and no bachelors. The guy was trying too hard. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
What on earth for?
This idea that a college degree = education is maybe necessary for college professors to believe, but is not born out in life outide the ivied walls.
Yep, as political lies go, that is right up there with "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan, period.", NOT.
For those the dislike Walker, no slight is too small to be overblown into a big deal.
He should say "Voters choose and evaluate leaders in democratic countries, not university professors. And we make our choices now, based on current events, not 30 years ago, based how things went when we turned 19."
Present company excluded I laugh at anyone dumb and foolish enough to read the Daily Kos. Actually, I pity the fool.
If Mr. Anderson has a degree, it's certainly not doing him any good.
The graduation ceremony is like the High School Prom. Only nerds don't get to go.
I remember Palin was despised for getting a Degree in several attempts at several schools as she worked and transferred. So perseverance is no exception to the slander.
Walker wants to get this ace in the hole slander out there ASAP so it can go away sooner. That seems to have made the slanderer mad about his talking about now it in an undamaging and Walker friendly way.
Claiming to have graduated from the School of Hard Knocks isn't all that far away from having a scrunched up crying little face.
Here's the thing about the School of Hard Knocks: there is no actual school. No building. No teachers--and no teachers' union. No administrators. No diversity program.
The Daily Kos is already preparing an outraged essay.
Truman never earned a college degree, he didn't even attend any college. And I'd put him right up there with the greatest leaders we've ever had.
I think the main problem, if there be one, is that Walker dropped out of college after attending for several years. One and done would be more understandable. Was he on scholarship? That would be a lot of money down the drain out of pocket.
I think the main problem, if there be one, is that Walker dropped out of college after attending for several years. One and done would be more understandable. Was he on scholarship? That would be a lot of money down the drain out of pocket.
"The school of experience is the best; as it should be when you consider the tuition cost!"
mccullough: That would be a lot of money down the drain out of pocket.
Well, of course. It's not like he got to keep the knowledge or anything. No diploma means you got nothing for your money, absolutely nothing.
Otis Sistrunk, Old number 00 on the KC Chiefs, claimed he went to the University of Mars.
Perhaps KOS is investigating.
Writing my thesis was one of the most difficult things I have ever done and it cost me the love of my life
His rage towards walker is misdirected, clearly. That story could have gone to a completely different place, about the importance of family over a piece of paper (that I doubt he needed to write!).
I dunno.
I'm partial to answering that question with "Blow me."
But that's just me...
I hope Scott didn't secretly get a degree.
I'm dying to see the Walker commercial featuring Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Harrison Ford, and every other successful person who dropped out before finishing college.
Plus, feel free to attack a man for not having a college degree in a country where the majority of people don't have one either.
Three years later I decided to work towards a master’s degree in communications to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a writer....
Fat lot of good it did him, eh? Lost his wife, but writes a "diary" for Daily Kos! What a great trade!
Too bad that Hemingway fellow didn't have a Master's degree -- he might have amounted to something with the proper credentials.
Keep it up. Because the snobby college graduate vote is what really counts in America.
This guy would be filled with rage about something else if it were not this. Rage is all the rage among the lefties.
" Writing my thesis was one of the most difficult things I have ever done and it cost me the love of my life"
Proving that education does not make you intelligent. At the least, it did not do so for Mr. Anderson.
Governing experience vs the "college experience".
As a second major, I have a political science degree from UW-Madison..and if it comes up I am ready to distance myself from it. i.e. "Don't take that the wrong way"
Although...it was an eye opening introduction to higher ed indoctrination camps.
Even I think Garage can lay claim to a Master's Degree in Being Wrong on the Internet.
I think the lack of a college degree will have little bearing on Walker's presidential candidacy.
It does, however, almost certainly exclude him from the list of V-P running mates, should someone else cop the nomination.
As to the question, Walker simply should respond, "As a constitutional conservative, I am running because I fulfill all the requirements for President outlined in the Greatest Document Ever Written...I am over 35, a natural-born citizen, a male, and white, at least as that term is understood currently."
The base would go crazy, and the rest of the Republicans could just pack up and go home.
Too bad that Hemingway fellow didn't have a Master's degree -- he might have amounted to something with the proper credentials.
He had a masters degree in living in gorgeous places, boating, 6 toed cats and pissing off his ex.
Unfortunately, since Truman, the snootification of our country (or at least of the political class) has proceeded apace. If you ask the Obama administration, it's not a college degree that matters, it's only one from the Ivy League that is even worth looking at, and with a big edge to Harvard. It's really spun out of control. There's plenty of wisdom in the country that never passed through Harvard. Previous generations understood that. The old boys club is not the Dems vs. the Repubs, it's arrogant political class from the Ivy League against everyone else.
Forget the bachelors. Be like our greatest president and just get a surveyor's certificate.
... You know, now that I've read this, I have to wonder... do you think Doctor Pepper... isn't a real Doctor?
Quick! We need Mark Anderson to tell is if Dr. Love is properly credentialed!
This speaks to the nervous defensiveness of the Progressive elite - insisting that the sign of a meritorious life is acquiring a series of official credentials, as they have. Walker was making a little joke, and also stating that he has actually mastered something in the real world. But validating that means devaluing all those fancy pieces of paper, which is quite threatening. Personally, and I do have a master's degree (OK, MBA), I think both should be respected.
Walker running without a college degree would create high comedy on the Left, and a good bit on the Right. Credentialism, anyone? They do love their framed pieced of paper. But if you have accomplishments, no need to rest on petty laurels.
And he was correct in saying he had a Master's degree, instead of a Bachelor's degree. His field of study was highly specific and detailed, not basic and general.
Will Mark E. Anderson demand Walker release his college transcripts?
Here is a very good explanation from professor turned author Percy Marks back in 1923:
"The idea is, of course, that men are successful because they have gone to college. No idea was ever more absurd. No man is successful because he has managed to pass a certain number of courses and has received a sheepskin which tells the world in Latin, that neither the world nor the graduate can read, that he has successfully completed the work required. If the man is successful, it is because he has the qualities for success in him; the college "education" has merely, speaking in terms' of horticulture, forced those qualities and given him certain intellectual tools with which to work-tools which he could have got without going to college, but not nearly so quickly. So far as anything practical is concerned, a college is simply an intellectual hothouse. For four years the mind of the undergraduate is put "under glass," and a very warm and constant sunshine is poured down upon it. The result is, of course, that his mind blooms earlier than it would in the much cooler intellectual atmosphere of the business world. "
That, to me, would be an excellent position for Walker to take on college education. As for himself, he attended long enough to acquire most of the "intellectual tools" college matriculation has to offer.
... actually, I feel kind of sad for the guy. All that effort to lose the most important thing in the world to him?
... not worth it, man. Not worth it.
He should tell them to look around at the world carnage caused by those with advanced degrees and little practical knowledge of the world. It's a VERY fair observation. He might want to mention Gruber's name somewhere in his response.
And he could talk about the problems caused in even industry by executives who are clueless about worker's lives, and therefore clueless about their domestic market.
He could go further, and talk about the oddity of infusing trillions into banks to lower interest rates when the problem was that the workers were overloaded with debt. As a strategy, it was doomed to fail.
He might want to refer to the article that was published a few years ago about President Obama's confusion about why his economic stimulus didn't work, and his insistence that the numbers MUST be wrong when talking to his economic czarina there, and then quote President Obama's rueful recent admission that there is no such thing as a shovel-ready project.
Drawing policy advice from an increasingly incestuous group of highly credentialed individuals who mostly only talk to each other is doomed to fail when the problem is on Main Street. Our domestic policies don't work well largely because they are targeted at imaginary people. Then, when the policies don't work, they decide the problem is that people are too stupid.
He should not run in the first place, since he can't win.
Otis Sistrunk, Old number 00 on the KC Chiefs, claimed he went to the University of Mars.
Actually the Raiders
Obama has degrees. And he's the most incompetent and mendacious, president we've ever had. And the economic recovery really sucks, compared to recent others. Obviously, degrees are not an indicator of Obama's ethics, values, or competence.
Some comfort: at least one third of Americans know he's incompetent.
"Never let 'schooling' get in the way of a good education"
----------Mark Twain
what do they say? being credentialed doesn't mean being educated.
Walker got what he needed out of college and it wasn't worth it for him to finish up just for a piece of paper. It's the education that counts, not the degree.
"SteveR said...
Otis Sistrunk, Old number 00 on the KC Chiefs, claimed he went to the University of Mars.
Actually the Raiders"
Raiders yes, but actually Jim Otto.
0tt0 hence the double zeroes.
Looked at his bio:
47 year old veteran, lifelong Progressive Democrat, Rabid Packer fan, Single Dad, lousy guitar player, and Full-time IS worker. Member National Writers Union.
The fucking douchenozzle isn't even a professional writer.
I suspect that Mark E. Anderson could be outraged -- OUTRAGED -- at just about anything Scott Walker said.
No Degree rates a big Who cares from me.
College is not for everyone (another reason to be scornful of free tuition for Community Colleges).
There are people who have more degrees than the proverbial thermometer who are dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to dealing with the real world. There are people who never even finished high school who are in fact quite wise about life. Walker doesn't have a degree but he has a lot of real world experience at defeating Democrats.
Degrees are credentials. The credential-letting business is quite large. Those in it - especially at the Ivy League - will greatly resist any effort by Governor Walker to win higher office because his success would undermine the importance of credentials. They attacked Sarah Palin because her credential wasn't of the right pedigree, so "obviously" she wasn't qualified. Her success was a threat to their racket, so she had to be destroyed at all cost.
I'll gladly vote for someone with real world experience doing the job over someone with pretty credentials but no real-world experience like Obama, Hillary, Warren, and quite likely Jeb Bush.
The University of Phoenix could probably grant Walker a B.A. in bitchslapping teachers' unions, based on solely on life experience.
Just because you think the phrase "School of Hard Knocks" should go away does not mean the actual School of Hard Knocks will go away. It's still out there, still chewing up people struggling to reach lower-middle class, or people desperately clinging to the fringes of it. Especially the good people - because they follow the rules more and this can make the knocks seem even harder when they come, and they will come.
I, too, feel for the Kos fellow; how blinded in his own little world he must be not to have realised how petulant his diary must sound.
Which faculty awarded the Doctor his degree? this game is amusing, though.
Larry, Larry. Hillary! and Jeb both have considerable experience, each in his/her "real world."
"University of Marquette"
Ain't no such place.
I assume the author went to college. Shouldn't a college-educated person be capable of doing basic research?
Made me think of a post from Bryan Caplan today:
Have you ever dreamed that you're suddenly one class, credit, final exam, or semester short of graduation? Many people, myself included, have this recurring nightmare. There a whole reddit on it. A typical case:
"I've had this kind of dream very frequently over the past several years. Even though I graduated college 10 years ago, I dream that I'm back in college but not the one I went to (oftentimes several credits short of graduating) and begrudgingly have to do one more year or semester, and feel very disappointed. In my dream I'm back in school at my current age, with kids who are at least 10 years younger and I feel uncomfortable."
In contrast, I've never ever heard of someone dreaming about suddenly forgetting whatever job skills they learned in school.
How should we interpret these stylized facts about the dream world? Most plausibly: Belief in the sheepskin effect is extremely deeply rooted. When you're stuck in this nightmare, you're often confused by the discovery that you failed to cross the educational finish law. But the idea that failing to cross the educational finish line has dire consequences doesn't confuse you at all. Whether awake or asleep, you take the power of the sheepskin effect for granted (unless, like many labor economists, you're struggling to talk yourself out of the obvious).
Furthermore, people also have a deeply rooted belief that crossing educational finish lines has a big effect on employability but little effect on job skills. The nightmare isn't that you suddenly can't do your job. The nightmare is that you're the same person you were yesterday, but society throws you into limbo because your papers aren't in order.
Dream evidence is obviously easy to dismiss. Human capital purists may even say I'm desperately grasping at straws. But these reactions strike me as dogmatic. At minimum, sheepskin nightmares highlight the fact that educated humans, no matter how competent, have pronounced anxiety about their official educational status. Why would they have this anxiety if they firmly believe that competence, not credentials, rule the social world?
lots of links at
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2015/01/the_sheepskin_n.html
Ah...Progressives and their fondness of nuance rears its head again.
Keep it up. Because the snobby college graduate vote is what really counts in America.
Also, higher education is held in such high regard. Just tie Democrats to the worst excesses of academia and slaughter them with it.
Walker is governor of Wisconsin. The author lost his family for his pursuit of a piece of paper.
Yeah, Walker is the idiot.
Three years later I decided to work towards a master’s degree in communications to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a writer
Who the [unrpintable] needs a Master's in Communication to be a writer?
The man's a walking, writing example of why a degree is often a pointless waste of time and money.
How dare you belittle my achievement. I'm a degreed writer, damnit. I reside in the ivory towers. All you have is your wife and children, and real-world experience to show for your efforts.
Pretentious city bubba. Anderson probably thinks that human life is the product of spontaneous conception too. Think of the children. Abort.
In fairness to Mark E. Anderson, he has a PhD in being an ass and thus lacks any vestigial common sense.
Which came first, the doctorate or the PhD committee?
"I decided to work towards a master’s degree in communications to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a writer"
Are we supposed to take this at face value?
Did you ever see a book-jacket blurb, or book ad or review, that suggested you'd find it worthwhile to buy and read the book because the author had a master's in communications?
Perhaps a master's in communications might be useful if one aspires to write marketing brochures, or ad copy, but other than that whatever would make one think obtaining that degree would be a necessary or even desirable goal on one's path toward becoming a writer?
Best man I ever knew didn't graduate from high school. Not too rare back then. Smart, honest, skilled with his hands, a natural at math and successful as a manager.
I got my degree and a couple more letters (that I don't use) after my name. But it was HIS lessons that have aided me the most.
Thanks, Dad.
Geo. Washington - privately tutored, no degree.
James Monroe - attended William and Mary, left without taking a degree taken a commission in the Continental Army. Never returned.
Andrew Jackson - various frontier academies, studied law privately, admitted to the bar in 1787
Martin van Buren - virtual ditto of Jackson's formal education
William Henry Harrison - studied medicine at University of Pennsylvania, dropped out for lack of funds.
Zachary Taylor - no formal education to speak of, described as "near illiterate."
Millard Fillmore - frontier academy, autodidact, admitted to the bar in 1823.
Abraham Lincoln - autodidact, admitted to the bar in 1836.
Andrew Johnson - privately tutored by his wife, no degree, no law practice.
Grover Cleveland - autodidact, admitted to the bar in 1857.
William McKinley - one year at Allegheny College, privately tutored in the law, formal law schooling for one year, admitted to the bar in 1867.
Harry S. Truman - no degree.
*************************
Degreed and Failed
*************************
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Barack Hussein Obama (education questionable, no transcript)
So, I googled Mark E. Anderson. He has an MD, PHD, and is a well respected Doctor. You guys should have more respect......oh, wait, wrong Anderson. Went to Kos to check him out. Hasn't done much with that education, apparantly.
campy wrote: He should not run in the first place, since he can't win.
Puerile sophistry. Given Walker's proven ability to win repeatedly in a Blue state, and his middle class background, he's more viable than Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney.
The ludicrous umbrage derives from fear.
I gave up time with my then-wife and son to complete assignments. I had a lot of sleepless nights and missed weekends. I had to write papers while on the phone with a divorce attorney...
Related, yes?
And...
Writing my thesis was one of the most difficult things I have ever done and it cost me the love of my life—she could not take coming in third after my son, and after my thesis.
Did Anderson get a master's degree in Poor Life Choices? Maybe Walker would be willing to mentor him.
Why should anyone want a college degree to be a writer ?
Joseph Conrad didn't, Hemingway didn't.
A lot of the best didn't.
At best it seems to be a way to obtain credentials for a day job.
John Majors former PM of England did not graduate from university. he went straight from HS into a bank training program IIRC
Hey, at least his son took priority over the thesis. I think a wife could have accepted, maybe even encouraged, being second to the kid.
He got a master's degree so he could be a writer? Writing is practically the definition of a thing that you don't need a degree to do. Just sit down and pick up a damn pencil!
"Writing my thesis was one of the most difficult things I have ever done"
Really?
Writing a thesis to get a Masters in Communications is one of the hardest things you have ever done?
Hell, I was working full time when I did my Masters in Information Assurance and I had to produce professional level work for an actual large organization where I did an audit of all aspects of their computer security (OS hardening, encryption, password auditing), network security, disaster preparedness, continuity planning, operations security, etc.
It was a lot of work and my wife did get annoyed over all the time I spent working on it, but I don't think it was the hardest thing I have ever done.
I would put most of the training I did in the army as the hardest things I ever did. Security audits are done in clean warm rooms. Most army training is done while crawling through mud and snow in the middle of the night with little to no sleep in the last 24 to 48 hours.
Althouse,
I think you cite the wrong cliche. I suspect Walker had the old "I'm a past master at ..." cliche in the back of his head when he made his comment.
Given what Gov. Walker has done, and winning 3 (three) elections in a row over an enraged (aren't they always) Left and their union workers and money, I'd certainly say he's Mastered them into the ground.
The guy complaining gets no sympathy from me.
Three years later I decided to work towards a master’s degree in communications to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a writer....
What an asshole. Writers are people who write.
I've thought that Walker's lack of a degree would be a show-stopper. But if enough credential-fellating demonstrable losers come out in full hyperventilation about it, they may make the point for him that parchment is no magic ticket to accomplishment.
JAORE said...
Best man I ever knew didn't graduate from high school. Not too rare back then. Smart, honest, skilled with his hands, a natural at math and successful as a manager.
I got my degree and a couple more letters (that I don't use) after my name. But it was HIS lessons that have aided me the most.
Thanks, Dad.
I have a brother-in-law like that. He's a retired pipe fitter, rancher, very good with his hands and his mind, financially savvy, and has given me very good advice over the years.
Thanks, Everette.
The loves of this idiot's life: son, ego via degree, ex.
Order is important, and all I know is the ex is number three.
Wikipedia gives an aggregate ranking of the most significant presidents taken from various sources. In order they are:
1) A. Lincoln
2) F. D. Roosevelt
3) G. Washington
4) T. Jefferson
5) T. Roosevelt
6) W. Wilson
7) H. Truman
8) A. Jackson
9) D. Eisenhower
10) J. Polk
40% of the first quartile of top presidents had no college degree.
One must keep in mind that these lists were compiled by left-dominated institutions. More enlightened thinkers would have ranked Washington first or second and demoted FDR perhaps off the Top Ten all together.
"Just because you think the phrase "School of Hard Knocks" should go away does not mean the actual School of Hard Knocks will go away."
I didn't say I thought it should go away. I just said it's an old-fashioned expression that you don't hear any more, and that there's a larger trope that life itself is an educational institution, and that's kind of old-mannish and corny, but I'm not saying it needs to be banished. I'm implying that Scott Walker is kind of old-fashioned, bland, and corny, but I don't think that's bad in a politician. I think Anderson is dumb or disingenuous not to recognize the expression for what it is and what it means, and I don't know why he's displaying rage over it.
It's kind of old-mannish
It needs to be banished
(Feel free to steal that rhyme.)
"I don't know why he's displaying rage over it."
Because he lost everything worthwhile in his life in pursuit of a credential, and Walker is a demonstration of how little value that credential holds?
Just guessing.
Anderson, like many libruls, is a shrieking nutbag.
No way he secretly gets a degree. There isn't an institution of higher learning out there that wouldn't blow the whistle if they knew what was going on.
"Truman never earned a college degree, he didn't even attend any college. "
Neither did Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I don't know about Paul Allen.
Our current president is living proof that academic credentials are not a prerequisite to successful presidential leadership
the wolf said...
Our current president is living proof that academic credentials are not a prerequisite to successful presidential leadership
No, he just shows that academic credentials are not sufficient for successful presidential leadership
Well, I'm liberal
With a masters degree
I want everybody
To be free
But if you think
I'd let Scott Walker
Move in next door
And marry my daughter
You must be crazy
Wouldn't let him do it
For all the old cars in Cuba..
I like to think that Scott Walker remembers Dr. Science on Public Radio. "He has a Masters degree... in SCIENCE!"
Writing a thesis is the hardest thing he's ever done? I would suggest that he has not done enough hard things, then.
Gates and Jobs both attended college (Evergreen and Harvard) .So did Allen, who dropped out of Washington State. Poor devils never finished.
SAT Scores (supposedly)
Allen: 1600
Gates: 1590
Jobs: Undisclosed
People that smart don't necessarily need college, according to Peter Thiel (perfect SATs, Stanford, Stanford Law).
My favorite quote, from the comments:
"Walker is successful. I don't see how people can stand to be around the guy. Just the way he looks - if you ran into him, even in broad daylight, on a used car lot you would run away screaming, rubbing at your skin, desperately needing a shower."
The question is: Does reading DailyKos make you nutty? Or do you have to be nutty to want to read it in the first place?
You know, by the time BO is done we'll have had nearly three decades of Presidents with Ivy League degrees in a row. Isn't that enough for now?
Time for a mechanic and not a architect?
Wikipedia gives an aggregate ranking of the most significant presidents taken from various sources. In order they are:
1) A. Lincoln
2) F. D. Roosevelt
3) G. Washington
4) T. Jefferson
5) T. Roosevelt
6) W. Wilson
7) H. Truman
8) A. Jackson
9) D. Eisenhower
10) J. Polk
What I don't get is how Washington isn't #1?
He turned down being KING. The reason we have always ahd fairly smooth transitions of power was because Washington started the tradition of leaving office willingly.
" 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. "
Why? The current occupant knows nothing of these even after 6 years.
I read some of the Kos thread. I do that very rarely.
Political obsessives making each other crazy over partisan contests. Everybody needs to argue with someone of a different opinion.
Happens here too of course.
Some people commented sensibly over there, so its not quite an insane asylum.
What I don't get is how Washington isn't #1?
He started the Seven Years War while a British subject which ended with Britain in command of the largest empire the world had ever seen. OK, I am not 100% on my facts there. But he should be the primary hero of the Anglosphere.
I once stayed at a motel, because the online reviews all complained about how small the tv int he room was. I figured that if that was the worst thing that the reviewers could complain about, it must be a good motel room[and it was.And who wants to sit in a motel room and watch tv when you are at Gettysburg PA?]
I mention this, because all the Democrats seem to be able to criticize Walker on, is his lack of a college degree.I myself don't have a college degree. And I wish that this was my worst fault.If its Walker's worst fault, then he has my vote
[although im rooting for Kasich for right now]
Anderson suggests that its his quest to become a writer that cost him his marriage. That may be so.But im guessing that his " "Rage" at little things that don't deserve any sort of "rage", probably didn't help his marriage any
Normal, intelligent people (who've been through the School of Hard Knocks) understood his meaning.
It took me nearly 20 years to get my Bachelor, which was in an area that I don't at all work in. I am so damned proud of my, on first look, totally useless BA.
I have a masters degree in liberal bullshit detection.
By saying that I'm not stating I have literal degree.
Figures of speech people. Stop getting panties in wads over bullcrap you crybaby liberal wusses.
I dropped out of college but I got a masters degree in street smarts. Would anyone really think that saying that means you got an actual degree in street smarts? Which doesn't exist as a degree?
Going to school used to be about becoming an educated person. Now it's either supposed to prepare you for the workforce or give you an ego boost. So if you're able to do something like become governor of a state without a degree and your ego doesn't need it, what exactly is the point? Being educated / having a life of the mind can be an important component of living a fulfilled life, but I don't think you can look at education as being coextensive with having a degree (and that goes for Harvard as much as it goes for Midwestern State). If you are not to some extent an autodidact, I question whether or not you are really educated.
A couple of things:
1. Anderson and the rest who have given themselves a case of the vapors over Walker's turn of phrase are simply being purposely stupid. The lastest 2 minute Hate when it comes to Walker
2. Anderson put himself first, lived his dream, and lost the love of his life. Is he pissed because choices have consequences? He was selfish, and paid a price for that. And he's pissed off at Walker because Walker made another choice?
The Kos diarist's name is "Andersen", with an "e".
By the way, according to one of his social media profiles, Andersen's Master's thesis was titled, "The Wisconsin Uprising: A View From the e-trenches."
I was a little uncertain about the nature of the heroic struggle known as the "Wisconsin Uprising," though I had my suspicions. Apparently, that's what some lefties and union folks call the anti-Walker protests from 2011.
Of course, I think that Walker's multiple elections and legislative victories are more accurately considered an "uprising" than the reactionary behavior of the unions, but I've never been all that hip to the revolution.
"Walker is successful. I don't see how people can stand to be around the guy. Just the way he looks - if you ran into him, even in broad daylight, on a used car lot you would run away screaming, rubbing at your skin, desperately needing a shower."
I think comments like this are a marker of social standing. they convey that the writer is of the "correct" tribe. I have an acquaintance who said of Joni Ernst, "she makes my skin crawl. Literally." I notice this language comes from people who easily swallow such concepts as "Dude that was like two years ago," and "settled science". The nice thing is, while such language is a marker for members of their tribe, it also marks them for those of us who are disgusted by their tribe.
Well, at least he admits he came short of a degree! We are not even allowed to know to whether our President was a successful student in college, other than the administration at Columbia gave him a piece of parchment.
"Hard Knox And Durty Sox"
Blackadder:Something's going on, and I think I can make an educated
guess what it is. Something which you, George, would findhard to do.
George:Ah, true, true. Where I was at school, education could go
hang as long as a boy could hit a six, sing the school song very loud, and take a hot crumpet from behind without blubbing.
Blackadder: I, on the other hand, am a fully rounded human being with
a degree from the university of life, a diploma from the school of hard knocks, and three gold stars from the kindergarten of getting the shit kicked out of me...
Steve R and Curious George: As I recall it was Alex Karras who said that Otis Sistrunk of the Raiders was from the University of Mars
"ganderson said...
Steve R and Curious George: As I recall it was Alex Karras who said that Otis Sistrunk of the Raiders was from the University of Mars"
Yes, it was. I was just saying the 00 player was Jim Otto, not Sistrunk.
"I've got a master's degree in taking on the big government special interests,..."
I was going to say the author might want to check his supposed "how to think" he attributes to his credentials. But then I realized there may actually be a university that offers a Master's in big government special interests these days. You can get a Bachelor's in Event Planning, so it isn't far fetched...sadly
Herp McDerp said...
Three years later I decided to work towards a master’s degree in communications to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a writer....
Fat lot of good it did him, eh? Lost his wife, but writes a "diary" for Daily Kos! What a great trade!
Too bad that Hemingway fellow didn't have a Master's degree -- he might have amounted to something with the proper credentials.
1/21/15, 11:04 AM"
Gosh that was truly a brilliant twist of the knife. Just for fun, post that on the Daily Kos.
I have nothing against the Ivy's, I'm putting my kids through them but not all degrees are of equal value and not all previous experience is of equal value. Walker has been elected to the same post three times, a post that is the most suited to the needs of being a president. So far none of the presumed Democratic candidates has anything on their resumes that comes close to Walker's in terms of job qualifications. Hell Obama after six years on the job and with with two Ivy League sheepskins is still utterly unqualified. Sarah Palin is better qualified than Obama today and Walker is even more qualified as a practical matter than Palin.
Andersen is a loser who's ego can't admit he screwed up big and wants to make himself feel superior to Walker who is a winner, a success and didn't lose his family on a foolish ego driven quest to be credentialed. I almost feel bad for him until I remember he is just a an envious, jealous jerk who deserves his mediocrity.
jr565 said...
I have a masters degree in liberal bullshit detection.
I think we went to the same school.
In my experience there are two industries that focus obsessively on college degrees: academia and the press. The obsession with credentials in academia is understandable; it’s their business to create credentialed people. Not wise, just credentialed. Can you say Gruber? But I was surprised to find out how much the typical newspaper reporter or editor used college credentials as props. And by props, I mean as a way of “propping up” their self-esteem, using a Master’s degree as a way of claiming superiority over others. When I see that I should feel sorry for them, but they are typically such big assholes that feeling sorry really doesn’t become part of the emotion.
I really don't see how a governor not having a college degree is a negative for him--if anything, it's more impressive to get to that stage without the degree.
It could probably hurt if he already had a reputation as an "idiot"--usually due to a few gaffes well exploited by opponents. It can be harder to overcome an impression like that when you don't have education credentials (or some other credential) to counter it. For all the grief Bush got, he does have two Ivy League degrees (and just because you're rich and connected doesn't mean you can get through competitive schooling--Ted Kennedy couldn't get into Harvard despite his father practically owning it, and his idiot son went to Providence College which may be a nice school but isn't as hard to get into as Harvard).
If Walker proves a quick study on foreign affairs and gives an impression of intelligence and being well-read (not Faulkner and Shakespeare, but current events and things pertinent to the presidency) his lack of a degree could work to his advantage.
Walker could always get a ThD:
Wizard of Oz: They have one thing you haven't got: a diploma. Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitartus Committiartum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of ThD.
Scarecrow: ThD?
Wizard of Oz: That's... Doctor of Thinkology.
Ludicrous Umbrage sounds like a character in a young adult dystopian novel series.
I don’t know why, but I jump straight to master’s degree too. On the first day of class, I have students in my freshman business course introduce themselves. There will always be a couple of nontraditional students who have had long careers in something or other. Sometimes the nontraditional student is a mother who has raised four successful college graduates, other times it’s an entrepreneur who has had a string of successful businesses. Last week it was a woman who had managed a restaurant for 25 years. When I started teaching, these students would be older than me, and perhaps in an effort to make them feel more comfortable in a room full of 18- and 19-year-olds, I would say to each nontraditional student: “It sounds like you already have a master’s degree in ________.”
One of my best professors in college, a history professor, had no high school diploma and no BA. He had a MA and a PhD. So you can get a master's without a bachelor's degree.
I have a degree that is typically a post graduate one, without having attained a BS. I am never quite sure which box to check off on surveys and things which ask for your highest level of education.
What should Scott Walker — if he's a presidential candidate — say when they ask him whether a President needs to have a college degree?
"No. Next question?"
Can anyone name a really good writer, who got a degree in "communications"? F. Scott Fitzgerald dropped out of college. Mark Twain did not have a college degree. J.D Salinger dropped out. Hemingway did not have a college degree. Two top Russian writers, Chekhov and Bulghakov had medical education. Leo Tostoy dropper out of college. Pushkin only finished high school. Sergey Dovlatov dropped out. Joseph Brodsky did not go to college.
I honestly cannot point to any good writer who had a university degree in writing, the closest is Vladimir Nabokov, who studied languages at Cambridge (not communication major, of course).
You should slightly edit you comment to read" On my list of old-man expressions that no one {I know} uses anymore is: I graduated from the School of Hard Knocks.
Some of us hear it a lot. I don't hang around a lot of degreed people.
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