Ol’ Perfessor Glenn Reynolds argues that America needs a college dropout like Scott Walker in the White House dammit, because really we’re a country of stupids rock-ribbed salt-of-the-earth types who need a stupid man of the people to lead us.
Though Walker attended Marquette University, he left before graduating, which has caused some finger-wagging from the usual journalistic suspects. After all, they seem to believe, everyone they know has a college degree, so it must be essential to getting ahead. As the successful governor of an important state, you’d think that Walker’s subsequent career would make his college degree irrelevant, but you’d be wrong.
And that’s why a President Walker would accomplish something worthwhile the moment he took office. Over the past few years in America, a college degree has become something valued more as a class signifier than as a source of useful knowledge. When Democratic spokesman Howard Dean (who himself was born into wealth) suggested that Walker’s lack of a degree made him unsuitable for the White House, what he really meant was that Walker is “not our kind, dear” — lacking the credential that many elite Americans today regard as essential to respectable status.
Instagoofball goes on like this for a while, but the bottom line is a tenured law professor is arguing that the leader of the free world really doesn’t need a degree because really, only elitists view “education” from a “university” or “college” as “valuable” compared to experienced governatin’.
In other words, America really needs to set its sights lower than that elitist Ivy League snob George W. Bush to get a Real American(tm) in the White House. He was terrible, so what we really need is somebody less educated than him.
Perhaps a Walker/Palin ticket would guarantee the lack of elitist thinking that’s been holding America back these last several decades. After all, if we can’t expect the President of the United States to finish college, why should we go out of our way to make sure any of you have the opportunity for it, either?
You don’t want to be an ivory tower egghead, do ya?
Rex Tremendae
Well, he is right about the college degree as a class signifier, and about it being stupid to think his lack of degree disqualifies him. And Walker isn’t less educated than Dubya just because he didn’t go to college.
My Truth Hurts
Yeah I don’t want someone dumber than me in the White House ever. Not because I can imagine what will happen but because of GWB I know what will happen. I was never a fan of Clinton or Obama because they are not progressive enough for me but at least they aren’t clueless fucking idiots filling a suit.
Baud
To be honest, I don’t care that much about his education level. His policies would be abhorrent to e if he had a college degree, and the Democratic nominee’s policies would be much better even if the nominee did not have a degree.
That said, if the roles were reversed, I have no doubt that the GOP would use the lack of a degree against the Democrats. So whatever works.
My Truth Hurts
@Rex Tremendae: college is not just a sign of class it’s a sign that you have learned how to think. That may change in a few years but for me that’s what it means. Education is important, being President is a lot more complicated than being a truck driver and requires many skills, a lot of which are learned in college.
Bobby B.
The National Review claque love to endorse lack of college in a republican. The whole ivy-league cocksucking lot of them.
Spinwheel
Oh the irony.
You didn’t exactly finish college either, Zandar.
greennotGreen
I also don’t care about whether an individual has a college degree, but I very much care about the devaluation of education. But then, it’s so much easier to instill fear in the ignorant masses. That’s why for Republicans defunding education is a win-win.
Glidwrith
Gads, even if Walker had finished his last year of college, he would still be a corrupt, google-eyed homoculus for the Koch brothers (h/t Charles Pierce). GWB also showed that even the most blue-blooded of education will still give you ruinous results for governing.
I do find it quite interesting, however, that it is the aristocracy that is advocating that folks’ don’t need no educashun.
NonyNony
@Baud:
But Republican political tactics don’t generally work for Democrats. Because Democratic voters vote for different reasons than Republican voters do. So this is a tactic that will either be pointless or backfire as there’s nothing that Americans like more than when a salt-of-the-earth success story sticks it to the egghead elitists (see any slobs vs. snobs movie ever made).
@Spinwheel:
Okay your stalking of Zander is seriously getting creepy. Like “restraining order” creepy.
Comrade Dread
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho 2016!
Walker would still suck even with a college degree, but his lack of respect of educational institutions is pretty clear in his policies. Maybe if he had actually stuck it out in college, he’d see things differently, but probably not. For many Republicans, education is only important in so far as it creates a new class of workers for business and industry and any subjects or pursuits that are not going to generate a profit are not worth pursuing.
Baud
@NonyNony:
Oh I agree. I’m not saying that this will work (I don’t know whether it will). I’m saying that I have no problem with making this argument if it is effective, even though it’s not something I personally care about.
Gin & Tonic
The ghost of Roman Hruska rears its head and laughs.
japa21
Although I agree that a college degree is not the end all or be all, I wonder if Reynolds was one of those calling for the release of Obama’s transcripts.
Just a couple other points. To say Walker is a successful governor means the only criteria for being successful is winning reelection. By every other criteria, Walker has been a failure as a governor.
And to say a college degree is a class signifier is so ridiculous.
greennotGreen
@Comrade Dread: My late father was a conservative, and he once told my sister and me that he didn’t understand why we would pursue careers that wouldn’t make money. Because my father made a reasonable amount of money, my sister and I both had good educations and were able to go into biomedical research, something I suppose that’s completely frivolous…unless you have a disease we’ve found a cure for.
Gin & Tonic
@NonyNony: salt-of-the-earth success story
A salt-of-the-earth success story would be someone who couldn’t afford college and thus never went, but made something of him/herself anyway. Somebody who matriculated at an expensive private university and never completed it is a quitter (unless they left it to start a multi-billion dollar company.)
Davis X. Machina
Bad idea for Democrats to actually run on this.
Let it go viral.
There’s a seething pit of class resentment and crab-bucket-ism that is the strength of Walker’s campaign narrative, and making a big deal of this is to reinforce it, and play right into his hands.
Craig
Your fighting spirit has gotten the better of you. Please step away from the keyboard and go for a walk. Glenn Freaking Reynolds is entirely correct on this point, and you are entirely wrong. I’ve known plenty of brilliant people who dropped out–even flunked out–of college. I’m sure you can name a few yourself. And your implication that anyone who didn’t manage a gentleman’s C in the Ivy League is obviously on a lower intellectual plane than George W. is beyond ridiculous. You’re endorsing every parody of academic snobbery that is ever thrown at the Left. Please stop.
Pogonip
There’s a grain of his truth in his argument. Many of the things that have destroyed this country can be traced back to educated fools such as the Chicago Boys. However, replacing the educated fools with uneducated fools is not going to help.
Frankensteinbeck
GOP identity politics at its finest. Their base are a bunch of ignorant assholes resentful of everyone who points out how wrong they are. It is inextricably tied to their frustration from a lifetime of knowing they’ll be shunned for calling someone a nigger.
@Glidwrith:
Never underestimate the ability of the aristocracy to delude themselves into thinking they’re just Regular Merkins who succeeded because of a better work ethic. The legacies also resent anyone who didn’t have to cheat to get through college, and think a degree is a joke, since it had nothing to do with their getting rich.
@Rex Tremendae:
Out of 300 million people, I think we can and should pick a president who has everything, genius and education and honors and a proven track record of helping people. Unfortunately, these are all things Republicans resent.
boatboy_srq
@japa21: Hammer. Nail. Impact. It’s good to remember, though, that for the GOTea attaining and retaining public office is success in itself: the actual governing is impossible so should not be attempted. So “success” here depends on which side of the aisle you’re doing the measuring.
@Spinwheel: Says the troll whose grammar shows s/he didn’t finish high school.
Belafon
This is an argument you’re not going to win by arguing that the presidency requires an education. This is an argument you will only win by allowing Walker to make a fool of himself by opening his mouth and talking.
Remember, most of the American people believe, somewhere down in the lizard part of their brain, that anyone can be president, and that means it’s not a job that requires you to be a rocket scientist. You are never going to get around that.
debbie
I still think an education counts, if only to learn that there are points of view (despite what Conservatives think of higher education). Unless one is driven to self-education (like Lincoln), and I’m not sensing that kind of intellectual interest in Walker.
Pogonip
@japa21: No, it’s not. It very much is.
boatboy_srq
@Glidwrith: They have to keep the membership limited; otherwise it has no value. It’s one more reason to shred funding for those pesky state higher-ed institutions: too many degrees get handed out and soon there’ll be another Uppity Person who thinks s/he can lead the nation. Aren’t these the same people who demand “Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline” be among the required qualifications for nearly every job opening? Their groundskeepers and nannies all need a BA – but FSM forbid their candidate for pResident have one.
HeartlandLiberal
We are seeing the culmination of two threads that run throughout American history.
Anti-intellectualism and Know-Nothingism
From Encyclopedia Britannica (does this sound familiar?):
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/320530/Know-Nothing-party
The classic work on anti-intellectualism was a book by Richard Hofstadter published in 1963 that won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_American_Life
rikyrah
They asked for Barack Obama’s college transcripts..
yet, it’s ok that this College Dropout be a credible candidate.
Zandar, did you even approach Rand Paul NOT graduating from Baylor?
GregB
The big question for me is this.
Is the extent of Scott Waker’s supposed success consist of having been elected to various political offices and carrying out a wingnut agenda?
I mean we were told ad nauseum that Obama had accomplished nothing in life because much of his career involved holding political office.
So is Walker a lifetime pol?
flukebucket
No need for education. No need for contraception. No need for vaccination. I am beginning to wonder just how deep we can dig this damn hole.
Spinwheel
@Craig: Please keep in mind that Zandar being totally wrong is his default option.
Pogonip
I just remembered: in the mid-20th century Vance Packard was writing about the ill effects of a “diploma elite,” and all I remember of what he predicted, a few years before I was born, has come to pass. Hardened class lines, little common interest binding one class to the other, businesses wrecked by people running them who had not worked their way up from the bottom.
A lot of the hostility towards the diploma elite, incidentally, comes from people who’ve worked for educated fools. We don’t want to work for uneducated fools, either, but in the 21st century that’s unlikely to happen unless it’s a family business.
Amir Khalid
One should assess the candidate rather than his academic credentials. Scott Walker is unfit to be POTUS, not because he has no university degree, but because he would run America for the benefit only of the Koch brothers. George Walker was unfit to be POTUS, not despite his two Ivy League degrees, but because he was content to have the title but not motivated to work the job.
Anya
Walker’s elections makes me not take Wisconsin very seriously. I don’t understand how they voted for Walker twice.
Citizen_X
@NonyNony:
Actually, at least half of those stories are of the smart misfit kids who stick it to the rich-brat legacy frat boys.
Bobby Thomson
@Rex Tremendae: this. You don’t have to think Harold Carswell was qualified to think Harry Truman was. This is a really bad line of attack.
Mike in NC
Rick Santorum also made a speech saying people shouldn’t go to college.
USA Today is some worthless fishwrap which showcases the genius of Cal Thomas, Jonah Goldberg, Don Campbell and sundry other wingnuts in addition to Instadouchebag.
Alex S.
@Davis X. Machina:
Yes, Nixon campaigned on resentment before.
Bobby Thomson
@My Truth Hurts: it’s that kind of “thinking” that would spot the Republicans 20 points. College is an expensive cover charge and has little to do with intelligence.
RSA
Reynolds’s link isn’t to finger-wagging. It’s to a report on the question of why Walker dropped out of college, which for someone in his current position is unusual and interesting, i.e., newsworthy.
On the general point that accomplishments matter more than a college degree, sure, I agree. But Reynolds seems to be making the odd claim that electing a President who is a college drop-out would be positively a good thing, in that it sends a message to the “mandarinate.” That’s kinda stupid, I think.
Spinwheel
Look, Zandar.
Just admit you walked right into this trap, because you’re less intelligent than Glenn Harlan Reynolds. It’s okay to admit you’ve lost (as so many people in this thread have pointed out).
Move on to your next failure.
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid:
Exactly. What a fifty-year-old candidate for President did or didn’t do thirty years earlier isn’t a big deal. How they spent the intervening thirty years is more important.
Bobby Thomson
@Craig: yup.
The Gray Adder
@My Truth Hurts: This, and the fact that our current Harvard-educated President was most definitely not born on third base.
Alex S.
To specifically point out that he dropped out is a losing strategy. But maybe it can be used to construct the narrative that Walker receives his orders from the Koch brothers, meaning that Walker might be lacking in intellectual independence.
Woodrowfan
there’s a difference between not finishing college because you don;t quite fit in or have a brilliant idea and don’t want to wait to start trying it, and not finishing (or barely finishing) because you’re a dumbshit. Walker is the latter… Does anybody really think Bush II finished because he had the brains rather than who his Daddy and granddaddy were
Dave
This is not a good line of attack. Walker would be terrible because his policies are terrible that would be true regardless of degree level. Education absolutely is valuable and formal education is often most useful for either very in depth and narrow study and/or for teaching how to evaluate sources etc. I know brilliant people that aren’t educated in the sense that they aren’t credentialed. The degree is at best a very rough stand in for knowledge. And absolutely if someone has experience and has demonstrated solid thinking that is radically more important than if they have a degree. Obviously some fields are such that not having a degree is pretty close to demonstrating the individual doesn’t have competence in that area but honestly governance is probably not one of them. The flip side of this is that it is very possible to be formally educated and have the degree and really learn almost nothing from it.
That said education is vital. And we should absolutely respect it and make it more accessible and generally do a far better job than we do. I’m anti class based elitism and credential-ism not anti knowledge or expertise which will more often than not come with a degree.
Now as to why it’s a bad attack well it pretty much plays into the salt of the earth (Walker isn’t but that will be the vibe and to pretend otherwise is silly and borderline delusional) vs the asshole elitist. And that is not a disagreement that Democrats win. And frankly you are engaging in a bad form of elitism (not a form that says we should respect knowledge wisdom etc but one that says we should respect credentials) here. It’s the same form I would see in Afghanistan where individual mistook education level (not effective education which aren’t really the same thing) for intelligence and knowledge and would basically have their knickers stripped off by village elders who coded as ignorant (they were of many things but so is everyone), dumb (most aren’t after surviving the last forty years), and yokel (true but in their environment the outsiders were actually more often the yokel). So really bad line of attack that actually forces me to think Glenn Fucking Reynolds is actually more correct on this than you. And that makes me sad.
gvg
There are exceptional individuals who manage to become educated without actually attending a school. They are rather rare however. Most people learn much more efficiently at an institution. If walker wants to argue he is educated enough to be president without having graduated from college, let him demonstrate. I haven’t heard anything so far that convinces me though.
I don’t approve at all with the hate higher education know nothings. They aren’t simply people who didn’t get the opportunity, they are people who refuse to learn and act like knowledge is always wrong compared to their gut. That makes them too random to be reliable. They are also antagonistic to real experts. Any president needs to have a lot of good help. A know nothing won’t pick good help, he’ll pick brown nosers. In fact that is one of the Bush failures-picking incompetents who said nice things about him.
If Walker is actively seeking out this kind of support, that reflects badly on him.
Some of this type really hate education because it reflects something bad at them beyond not having gone.
BGinCHI
What’s wrong with white people?
http://edgevillebuzz.com/news/man-charged-with-attempted-murder-in-andersonville-walgreens-shooting
Would this guy be alive today if he was black?
Mandalay
@Craig:
Well said. Not only is there no need to go down this path. The argument itself is a pile of elitist shit without merit.
Britain’s Prime Minister John Major was a mediocre student. He left school at 16. Australia’s Prime Minister Paul Keating left school when he was 15. I think Walker would be really bad for the country if he became president, but his lack of a degree has absolutely nothing to do with whether he is qualified to run the nation – it’s what he has done in the past few years that disqualifies him.
cmorenc
True, George W. Bush had a B.A. in history from Yale (1964-1968) but that was back in the era when legacy/wealth/prep connections of themselves carried far more sway in Ivy League admissions for kids who otherwise would not have been anywhere near competitive on the basis of academic performance- whereas now, while those sorts of connections are still helpful to someone who also has very strong high school/extracurricular performance, they help you get picked from among five or ten other applicants with equally strong academic records, any of whom they could easily pick instead. Ditto getting into the Harvard MBA program back in the early 70s despite a gentleman’s ‘C’ average while at Yale – very doubtful GWB could have pulled off getting into ANY elite MBA program today, even coming from Yale, but some props must nevertheless be given for his having completed the Harvard MBA program with a degree.
GregB
Yep. Other than working for IBM during his truncated college stint, Walker entered politics at 23.
Most accomplished man ever! Politics is important you know.
It was the same cognitive dissonance that had people giving Palin credit for her great accomplishments as a mayor and ridiculed Obama for being a community organizer.
Dave
@Amir Khalid: This absolutely the truth and said much more concisely than I was able to manage.
PurpleGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Heh, great reference, G&T.
Glidwrith
@Davis X. Machina: “There’s a seething pit of class resentment and crab-bucket ism in Walker’s campaign.”
Yep, and the best thing we can do is say, ‘yes, you can be successful without that college education, but it sure makes it easier’ and point out that Walker is making damned sure they and their kids can’t get that education, because the aristocracy doesn’t want them to have one.
I also think we need to say ‘aristocracy’. Our heritage is such that nothing will provoked a more deep- seated hatred than yes, they do think they are better’n you.
Spinwheel
Wow. I don’t think I’ve seen a front pager get this embarrassed since Angry Black Lady was run out of here.
Maybe you should take another year long vacation there big guy.
Bmaccnm
A basic principal of professional education (nursing, medicine, law, architecture, etc) is that there is a body of knowledge that one must master in order to be successful practitioner of the profession. Is there no body of knowledge that one must possess to be a successful political leader?
And, Spinwheel, get a room. You embarrass yourself.
Dave
@Glidwrith: This is completely true. Using the route Zandar is going here actually play right into the hands of a Walker campaign. It really is an elitist in the bad sense argument.
And your point about aristocracy is also very cogent. The approach advocated by Zandar would actually point that deep-seated hatred away from the Walker campaign and at the democrats.
Monkeyfister
How DARE you want the Smart One in charge, Zandar. What’s next? Toilet water for the plants? That don’t got electrolytes what plants need.
Keith G
Since Walker will not make the final cut, his lack of a college diploma is an issue for Cheese Heads and it seems they have already whey-ed in.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Spinwheel: You really are the personification of a syphilitic pustule. Derf – fuck off and get a life.
Sorry folks for getting pissed off at the troll.
Woodrowfan
@NonyNony:
Yep. it’s well beyond the “Dude, get a life” point.
SiubhanDuinne
@Keith G:
Gouda one!
gene108
@japa21:
For modern conservatives the ONLY measure of success is winning election and re-election. Everything else is just fluff for campaigns.
By this measure Walker has been a huge success. He won the first election governor, won the re-call election and won re-election. That’s three times a winner and he’s managed to bust unions and piss off liberals to boot, which are added plusses.
But you have to member Bush, Jr. was sold as a salt-of-the-earth Texas rancher. His inability to talk coherently and form complete sentences were sold as proof he was not an Ivy League educated rich guy.
I can only imagine the powerful people trying to pimp Walker’s lack of college as a good thing, given how hard they tried to sell GWB’s stupidity as the sort of manly charisma that would “make you want to have a beer with him.”
BGinCHI
Only a career politician from WI who doesn’t believe in the federal government can change the federal government.
JPL
I think education is important and the current Governor of Wisconsin doesn’t. It has nothing to do with his education level. It has to do with his state budgets that cut spending in education.
If he manages to cut 300 million from higher education funding and freezes tuition hikes, how do schools budget?
Is it possible for state colleges, to recruit more out of state students and fewer in state students?
dmsilev
@Spinwheel: And yet, somehow, you come out the loser vs. Zandar. So, what does that say about you?
Kay
I’ll be the counter-point to this, because it’s the same thing they tried with Palin and I think it is actually an elitist attitude when it comes from people who have degree(s), as it always seems to.
The thing they missed with Palin is that everyone wants their kids to succeed and while “succeeding” isn’t defined by having a college degree it’s a marker and that marker isn’t limited to “elites”.
They make what I think is an elitist assumption that working class and middle class people don’t have a lot of the same aspirations for their children as pundits do, and that isn’t true.
Keith G
@SiubhanDuinne: Darn, I missed that one and could have used it too.
walt
You look at the smart (and vetted) person in the totality of their career. College is one aspect but it’s hardly dispositive. Scott Walker’s career, or Paul Ryan’s, is troubling precisely because it’s paid service on behalf of the wealthy and powerful. Right-wing populists who like Walker instead see someone who’s fighting political correctness and liberal credentialism. The Republican mind fuck says that if you’re salt of the earth, then all your pandering to the 1% is okay. Critiquing Walking here is legitimate not because dropping out of college disqualifies him but because it disguises what ought to disqualify him: his relentless advocacy for people who make life difficult for everyone else, including right-wing populists.
Dave
@gene108: I agree that the stupidity and ignorance as good things is terrible but the approach suggested in the original post comes off as everyone without a degree is dumb. In other words it’s a stupid argument because it’s wrong and ineffective. That may not be the intent but it is how it will play. Hell I don’t have a degree yet, derailed for the last decade by a lot of silly SW Asia related activities and I feel that. I’m very pro-education, pro-knowledge, anti lets celebrate ignorance and not thinking and Zandar’s post pissed me off (Not enough that I would vote for Walker of course because no member of the modern Republican party will ever get my vote or support unless that party undergoes significant reform). And that’s a pretty good indication that it’s not an effective argument and actively detrimental.
JPL
@gene108: You do have to win in states that Obama won, though. It’s why Huck doesn’t gave a chance.
Spinwheel
And yet you’re all ripping into Zandar for the reasons I keep bringing up, like shoddy research, obvious click bait subjects, and playing right into the hands of conservatives.
It’s nice of so many of you to prove my point.
Seanly
It’s just the flavor of the month. When Gov Arnold hadn’t even warmed up his desk chair in Sacremento there were GOP elites wondering if we should change the Constitution to allow immigrants to be elected President. There are several Presidents who never attended or graduated from college.
I’m a college educated “elitist” by some accounts. I would prefer a well educated President but not necessary. Being uneducated and proud of it (different than being proud of succeeding without an education) or being against education are big turn offs. Walker’s policy views are abhorrent to me regardless of how many degrees he has or doesn’t have.
If a Democratic hopeful had the exact same college record as Scott Walker at this exact same time, these same pundits would write a story tomorrow about how important a college degree is while talking about the Democrat. Then the next day they would be back to fluffing Walker. This is nothing but the standard fluffing (in the urban dictionary meaning) of the Republican flavor of the day. If Cruz becomes the lead candidate, we’ll be hearing how only an Ivy Leaguer can lead us.
It is harder & harder to be successful without a degree.
Dave
@Spinwheel: There is a difference between thinking someone is wrong on a given topic or even generally substandard and what you do which is deeply unsettling and obsessive. I don’t know if he ran over your puppy or some such but “Zandar is wrong about this” or even “Zandar is wrong about everything” does not logically follow into your very questionable online behavior. That’s the only response that I will make regarding this.
Ben Cisco
The obvious has probably already been stated, but on the off chance it hasn’t:
– Plenty of competent people have been successful w/o a degree.
– Both Sarah Palin and G-Dub got degrees and I would consider neither successful OR competent (nor any unreasonable facsimile thereof)
– The people pimping the “just folks” bit are ALWAYS products of the exact opposite system. The next prominent non-Ivy Leaguer who promotes this dreck would be the first.
That said, please proceed, Mr. Instaputz.
Kay
@walt:
It would work as “populism” if Walker were saying the elite were overpaid or their work was over-valued and then went to why the work of people who don’t have a degree should be valued, except he doesn’t and Republicans don’t.
They devalue everyones work. It quickly devolves into “cheap labor” which isn’t a mystery to me because that’s what it’s about. They don’t want to pay people for anything.
Linnaeus
@Anya:
Three times, actually, if you count the recall.
WereBear
Why yes, yes they are! However, that’s as much a way of funneling money to bankers as it is training the workforce.
SatanicPanic
Not attending college is exactly why this dude is intellectually uncurious. That being said, lack of intellectual curiosity hasn’t always been a disqualifier in the past. But who cares, having and (R) next to your name in 2016 will be disqualification enough. Dude has no chance.
Bobby Thomson
@Spinwheel: I disagree with this post but go back under your rock you racist piece of shit.
Spinwheel
@Dave: So when I point out the numerous logical flaws and poorly written posts it’s “bad”
When numerous other people do it, that’s “Balloon Juice readers making comments”.
No problem.
BGinCHI
@Spinwheel: Yeah, that’s it exactly.
No one here is smart like you. Hold on why I measure you for your crown.
Sherparick
I admit that Howard Dean particular line of attack struck me as so dumb. Whether Walker has a college degree or not is really irrelevant. What is relevant is that he is a very mean, corrupt, and cynical politician who runs racially polarizing campaigns and is the closest thing to Richard Nixon in American politics. It is also amazing how Reynolds and Walker, while advocating and implementing policies for the .1% in all they do, and paint the Democrats as the party of the elite. The problem with Dean’s attack is that this is what it sounds like and he was instantly put on the defensive trying to explain it. Talk about Walker’s sale of Wisconsin assets and state contracts on a no-bid basis to political donors. That type of corruption is easily understood and a causes the other side to start talking about context and excuses.
Glidwrith
@JPL: Yes, colleges have been actively recruiting more out of state students, since they can charge them more and hence, why student debt is so out of control.
I am also reminded, Walker has also destroyed the K-12 system by turning the schools over to private for- profit unanswerable-to-the-public corporations. Kay has talked about this extensively.
We need to make sure people understand that Walker will be taking their stuff away on behalf of the aristocracy.
Bobby Thomson
@Dave: they know each other IRL. Zandar got a job shitheel wanted.
gelfling545
@Spinwheel: I had not heard that Zandar was running for President.
Baud
@Sherparick:
There are elitist Democrats, just as there are elitist Republicans. The difference is that Democratic elitism is portrayed as directed toward white working class, while GOP elitism is portrayed as directed at minorities. Hence the difference in the reaction in the media and on the right.
Dave
@Bobby Thomson: Well shit then. Every time someone that I feel is less qualified than me has gotten a job I applied for I’ve made it a point to hunt them down after destroying everything they care about. It’s really the only reasonable response. Fine; I get being upset or butthurt or any number of things for a while but this obsession is just sad.
JPL
@Glidwrith: Thanks, so Walker’s plan will create fewer opportunities for the state taxpayers. I can see why the repubs like him.
Bobby Thomson
@Dave: and pathetic.
WereBear
Yes. We only exist for the extraction of any current or future assets.
I no longer take any predictive value from what our media pronounces. Everything a Republican does is defended as good. Everything a Democrat does is painted as bad.
But to notice that someone would have to pay attention. And no one does. They are only noticed by each other.
The sad part is that the public is not only uninformed, they are cynical. Which is now a pundit’s purpose.
Glidwrith
@WereBear: “They don’t want to pay people for anything.”
In essence, slaves. They want slaves.
NonyNony
@Spinwheel:
No – when you comment on Zandar’s threads and make everything personal about your intense hatred of Zandar it’s creepy and weird. And like I said – starting to enter restraining order territory at this point.
When other people disagree with Zandar they are engaging with his ideas. When you do it you’re making a personal attack. If you can’t see the difference between those things that’s another thing that makes you creepy and weird (your obsession with Zandar is becoming more troubling by the day – you might want to get some help) .
kc
@Baud:
It would backfire, IMO.
Original Lee
@Amir Khalid: Exactly. Also keep in mind that this is the (il)logical extension of anti-European sentiment. Back in the day, the Europeans were very derisive of Reagan as an uneducated barbarian. Aside from making fun of the U.S. because we had elected an actor as president, one of the main memes was that all the sensible countries elected PhDs or LLDs as leaders. How can one take a country seriously if the leader lacked academic gravitas? Etc.
Their feelings were hurt then and they still haven’t gotten over it 30 years later.
Kay
@WereBear:
It isn’t a perfect comparison, but they really did use the same kind of rhetoric for Palin, back when they thought she was a big success. I just remember how she was portrayed before the consensus that she was a loser came about.
I also remember how they thought “moms” would appreciate her travails with her children and “identify” there, and I thought that was BS too. They may have sympathized (I hope they did) but no one wants to be in that club. No one wants to be in the “parent of a pregnant teenager club”- I don’t care how poor they are. No one aspires to that. It’s elitist to believe people would say “my kid will probably get pregnant because I’m lower income so that gives me something in common with her”. It’s not income or class dependent. Not on the aspiration list for parents. Any parent.
Morzer
@Spinwheel:
Not an extensive category, but you and Sarah Palin ought to feel right at home there.
Scott S.
@Spinwheel: Republican troll says what?
debbie
@Kay:
But then how do you explain, as someone has pointed out, Conservatives’ demand to see Obama’s college transcripts?
ShadeTail
I have to laugh at those of you who completely missed the boat on this post and are attacking Zandar for things he didn’t write. At no point did he say that lack of a college degree is a legitimate issue, or that it disqualifies Walker from the presidency, or anything like that. He’s (rightfully!) attacking the incredibly hypocritical snobbery of the anti-education elitists on the right who are the only ones making this any kind of issue. There are no loud voices on the left claiming this is important (including Zandar), because to us it isn’t.
Seriously, folks, reading comprehension is your friend regardless of your level of education.
Kay
@debbie:
They were hoping to find “affirmative action”, right? I just assumed that was the hook there. Were they even subtle about it?
opiejeanne
@gene108: Ugh. My dad actually parroted that line about W being the guy you’d want to have a beer with, and Dad didn’t even like beer. (sigh)
Morzer
It’s certainly interesting to see Rand Paul busted for lying to big up his academic credentials, while at the same time Derpublicans insist that Scott Walker’s failure to finish college is somehow a virtue.
Scott S.
I’m a little depressed that a college degree *is* now seen as a class or elitism issue. My sibs and I all got our degrees in the ’90s from a small state school in New Mexico, and we got full-ride scholarships. They handed those out like candy. Nowadays, kids have to plan on taking on massive debt for increasingly corporate-based education. That’s just discouraging.
Botsplainer
@Spinwheel:
Dude, your obsession with Zandar is reflecting only on you. At this point, he could be a goat fucking child molester who votes GOP straight ticket reflexively, nods along with Limbaugh, listens to Bill Bennett in the shower and buys Ann Coulter books on the way to political strategery meetings at his Evangelical Fundamentalcase megachurch, and he’d STILL come off better than you.
Seek inpatient treatment.
Glidwrith
@debbie: Because they want to pick the courses apart. Everything from look, he got a ‘C’ in that course, to see those courses weren’t so hard-so that uppity guy really isn’t all that smart.
Alex S.
@Morzer:
I think that’s because Rand Paul wants to appeal to the republican establishment by looking to be more qualified, while Scott Walker wants to appear a little less bland by emphasizing his biography. They are on opposite trajectories, sort of.
Kay
@debbie:
Democrats have a bigger problem than “Walker”, specifically. Republicans will have a lot of governors running. Democrats have no field. Republicans will have months and months to dominate and define the debate around “what is the winning formula for conservatives?”
Democrats probably have to do better than Howard Dean and Ed Rendell on cable shows as a rebuttal.
chopper
@Spinwheel:
your entire reason for living is to try to convince others to hate on zandar. yet all it has done is convince everyone that you’re a pathetic stalking loser.
and yet he’s the failure. right.
Violet
The reason you can’t pick on Scott Walker for this issue is the same reason it doesn’t work in comedy–it’s punching down instead of punching up. If people slam him for not having a college degree it’s picking on a “hard working American who couldn’t afford to finish college.” Whether that’s true or not, people today can certainly relate to dropping out of college because it’s too expensive. And plenty of people didn’t finish college. That doesn’t make them stupid or lesser. But beating up on someone for it comes across as punching down.
When you slam on “ivory tower academics” it’s punching up. They got the highest level of education and somehow think they’re smarter than everyone else–or that’s how they’re portrayed.
Punching up works. Punching down will backfire.
Unabogie
@Spinwheel:
I think you really need to seek help. You’re coming off as weird and creepy. Seriously, are you off some sort of meds?
Hunter Gathers
All this consternation over a guy, even if he gets the nom, who is going to get the holy living shit kicked out of him in November of 2016. Can Walker, or any of the other Clowns in the Car, increase the GOP’s share of the minority vote?
Survey Says: Hell Fucking No.
But go right ahead with the hand wringing over a cross-eyed dullard who is peaking 10 months before a single primary vote is cast.
blueskies
@Rex Tremendae: A college degree may be a class signifier. I’d argue that having the financial wherewithal to attend college certainly is.
Apparently Walker’s parents indeed had the financial wherewithal for him to attend 3 yrs of a pretty danged nice private institution.
The inability to FINISH a program of study when you have the financial/social capability of doing so, now THAT is a signifier. Around here, that signifier is called “a red flag.”
NB: I have no idea why Walker wasn’t able to finish his degree. Possibly he had to dropout to take care of a sick parent. Possibly he was just a slacker. Or something in between.
MCA1
@Gin & Tonic: That’s the angle to take, if any. I agree with the emerging majority in this thread that it’s hard for Democrats to publicly say just about anything about Walker not having a college degree without coming off as “liberal elitists” and helping push the resentment/martyr buttons on the Republican base. But, if one could come up with a pithy way of marrying the quitter idea to the lifelong service to The Man in politics theme, it might go somewhere. The guy literally couldn’t wait to finish college to go start a professional political career. He’s been doing nothing but campaigning for the uber-rich ever since.
In fact, here’s the angle, I think. You both re-inforce the burbling under the surface question of “WTF, I’m supposed to vote for a guy who didn’t finish college for POTUS?” without actually saying anything to that effect, and you slam his Kochsucker credentials: “We all know an advanced degree, while usually of great intellectual value, isn’t entirely necessary for success in some fields. The same way Bill Gates had learned enough about programming computers without finishing his degree at Harvard, Scott Walker had figured out enough about how to suck up to the powerful at Marquette before graduation day. I don’t blame him for quitting. He had the skills he needed for his chosen profession, and he’s now been practicing it for 30 years.” Then you play that tape of him being pranked into thinking he was taking a call from David Koch during the heat of the public union battles.
Kay
@Hunter Gathers:
I don’t think he’s going to win the primary because Jeb Bush is just as much a wingnut as Walker and their money people will be more comfortable with Jeb Bush. The money people in the GOP are pro-immigration and pro-Common Core and pro-defense and all of the other fake issues that the second tier will run on. They don’t care about those things. They can get everything they want with Bush, and it’s a sure thing because they know him and he’s the same class they are.
Mandalay
Famous, Rich, and Successful People Who Were High School or College Dropouts
Morzer
@Kay:
Jeb has a few heresies and weaknesses of his own – and he’s done nothing to fix them on the evidence of his campaign so far. He’s going nowhere in Iowa and his speeches are getting panned as uninspiring and vacuous. Then, of course, there’s the fake Texan elephant in the room – Brother Bumblehead. Jeb’s already taking the line that he’s not interested in talking about the past. That’s not going to cut it in the primary or in the big game.
Glidwrith
@blueskies: He quit to run for political office.
Hunter Gathers
@Kay: Another Bush V Clinton POTUS election is going to make 2008 and 2012 look like exercises in restraint. There are going to be ads, backed by the RNC, the Koch Brothers, and Citizens United literally calling Hillary Clinton a ball busting, ugly, crusty old bitch. And our MSM betters will justify all of them, in order to get another sweet, sweet, Bush tax cut.
Fred
@Glidwrith: But slaves you gotta feed. Employee rabble can just eat their own shit, until that runs out.
Kay
@Morzer:
His speech in Detroit really got panned. I don’t think it went well.
I just think if you’re a money person in the GOP, Walker is a risk you don’t have to take. Jeb Bush will be just as vehemently anti-union as Scott Walker, plus you get immigration and foreign policy and trade and deregulation and taxes.
Arguably. Jeb Bush invented what Walker runs on- the anti-public education rants CAME from Bush. Jeb Bush was Chris Christie on public schools before Chris Christie was famous :)
Morzer
@Hunter Gathers:
They’ll go a step beyond that. You wait for the “Bill Clinton is a friend of Jeffrey Epstein the pedophile” meme to really take off. The New York Post has already run a trial version of that story.
Mandalay
@Kay:
Well money will certainly be a huge factor, but there is plenty of that to go around in a hypothetical match up between Bush and Walker, and Bush won’t automatically win. For example, Wall Street will hedge their bets, Adelson will finance whoever loves Israel most, and the Koch brothers will go with Walker.
Bush may have the overall advantage in terms of $$$, but I doubt that he will have sufficient dominance to financially obliterate the opposition (which is exactly what his brother did in 1999).
John M. Burt
And then of course there’s the fact that his term as Governor has been an utter disaster, or as Instapundit would say, a “success”.
Morzer
@Kay:
I think Jeb is more of a risk. He’s got a very mixed track record, doesn’t seem to have great judgment and is mostly known for heresies on immigration, Terri Schiavo and, of course, being That Guy’s brother. Plus, he’s been out of the game for a while and seems to have learned very little in his time away. Walker’s relatively fresh, isn’t a Bush and has done all the corrupt, hateful things the base loves. If I were a GOP sugar-daddy buying a candidate, I know which risk would make more sense to me.
Denali
Scott Walker is just another place holder for Jeb. Sad, I know. But the ones with the money seem to be lining up behind Jeb. He has the right connections. Scott may end up as the Vice Presidential candidate. The idea is to get him known on a national level.
Jeb seems to be running on his education reforms in Florida. But if you read the New Yorker article, the take away is that Jeb supported the formation of Charter Schools for profit. Charter Schools are not as accountable as public schools and do not have to take all students. No wonder test results have risen.
Kay
@Mandalay:
I just split GOP issues into two piles: the pile that affects people with a lot of money and the pile that doesn’t. The second pile doesn’t matter, except to bring out the base.
So, taxes, labor, immigration, deregulation always trump abortion. same sex marriage, “federalism”, states rights, civil liberties, etc.
You just have to ask “does this issue threaten people with a lot of money?” If the answer is no it goes into the second pile.
Mandalay
A FAILURE! A DUMBASS! UNQUALIFIED! UNELECTABLE!
catclub
@Hunter Gathers:
Sounds like an ideal method to get lots of women to vote for Hillary. Lots and Lots.
In contrast talking about how much Hillary seems to like war and intervention, is an unavailable tactic to them, since they want more of that. Too bad.
I think Hillary is at least smart enough to us ethat line that GOP strategist came up with : The GOP screwed up the economy twice and the Democrats fixed it twice. Why would you give the GOP a third shot?
Sherparick
@Baud: A good point in how the media portrays it. Atrios yesterday mentioned the myth of the “Secret Welfare System” for Black people and Brown people that is so big in the Conservative Narrative. This meme, which plays especially well in “Hard Times’ (and Wisconsin has suffered a lot of hard times the last 30 years even when the economy was booming on the coasts) is how Walker has been elected 3 times over the last 5 years in the State that produced the LaFollettes, Gaylord Nelson, William Proxmire, and Russ Feingold. That he is not to underestimated and far better attacks are to be found in articles like this. http://wcmcoop.com/2015/02/15/president-walker-primer-4-things-you-should-know-about-scott-walker-before-its-too-late/
Ultimately what Dean did was a sign of laziness, picking out a minor fact in the NY Times stories on Walker about him not graduating from college and not reading beyond the horse race/Maureen Dowd celebrity coverage of the MSM on politics.
Mandalay
@Kay: Gotcha. I think Jeb Bush will get the GOP nomination, but my point was that he won’t achieve that by simply obliterating the opposition with money as GWB did in 1999, and Romney did (to a lesser extent) in 2012.
Fred
@Hunter Gathers:” Hillary Clinton, a ball busting, ugly crusty old bitch.” That is a slogan that just might get a lot of votes.
Kay
@Morzer:
The entire business community that will back Jeb Bush is pro-immigration and they care not one iota about “social issues”.
They just have to get him thru the primary (like they did with Romney) and then the GOP base will vote for him.
He’s lower risk as President.
JaneE
A college degree in and of itself doesn’t signify much of anything. But it does imply at least a token nod to the value of education, and an awareness that it makes one more marketable to future employers for any type of responsible job. Quitting, with no apparent reason, reeks of “get out of town before they get you”. If there was a legitimate reason to quit before graduation, why not just say so. Even flunking out because you were partying too much is better than a vanishing act, if only because the speculation as to why will probably be even worse than reality.
ruemara
@ShadeTail: pretty much. Liberal reading comprehension often has the same issues as the conservatives we mock.
debbie
@Kay:
I think this governor thing is overrated. First, being an executive of a state is compared to being an executive of a company, and that’s been proven not to always be a good thing. Second, I think being head of a state makes you myopic to the country overall. What works in Ohio, Mr. Kasich, won’t get you squat in California or in Idaho. (Assuming it’s even worked in Ohio…)
Kay
@Morzer:
They really want to win. I’m doing some (non political) legal work for a local Republican politico and he tries to talk politics all the time. He was telling me Kasich got 25% of the AA vote in 2014. They don’t want a base election. They want to win.
Xenos
@cmorenc:
Nope.
The HBS case study method involves groups putting together joint work projects. Someone with adequate connections could easily find people to let him join their study groups and coast through nearly all the work needed. And W exactly the person to do this.
srv
I surely hope there aren’t any other Ivy leaguers here. That Levenson guy is ok, he at least puts up some fru-fru art so I know not to bother with his posts.
Violet
@debbie:
Doesn’t matter. It makes it easy for them to say “Chief Executive” and “CEO experience” and if the Democrats can’t counter it’s a problem.
brantl
@My Truth Hurts:
Nope, not by half, I have met any number of people who have been to college, who couldn’t think their way out of a paper bag. It is by no means an indicator that you have learned how to think. Shrub thought like shit, couldn’t string a coherent sentence together, and couldn’t logically parse any argument without someone else writing it for him.
pseudonymous in nc
@Craig:
And I’ve known a lot more thickies who never got there in the first place. Your point being?
Scott Wanker’s educational past isn’t that relevant. The fact that he’s a walking corruption investigation is.
As for Reynolds, who receives $163,870 from the state of Tennessee as a full-time university educator, fuck him. (Full-time? Who knew?)
brantl
@Spinwheel: Hey, Spinwheel, kiss my ass, OK?
rea
I don’t care that he doesn’t have a degree. I care that he’s never in his life shown the slightest interest in learning anything.
Glidwrith
@Violet: I’ve rather thought they use those terms to blur the line between governing and running a business.
A good ploy would be to point out that in a business, an employee has no rights, save what the government imposes from without. No freedom of speech, no voting rights, no security-and THIS is what you want running the country?
trollhattan
@Scott S.:
Exactly. If li’l Scotty quit college post haste to pull his mama out of a fire, then go on to rebuild his childhood home using repurposed shipping pallets or something equally noble then yes, you go Mr. Walker! He’s the next Bill Gates!
But of course he plays the anti-intellectual role so beloved by Today’s Retrograde Republican Party, which questions ‘elites” at every turn (never mind they’re actually run by the Elites’ Elites). He “punts” on evolution? If this doesn’t send deep chills down the spine of each and every one of you, then recalibrate your radar. He is a dangerous, dangerous man and bland enough to become the nominee. That he dropped out is feature, not bug territory. I await the plaid shirt and pickup truck.
boatboy_srq
@ShadeTail: Too right. And there are far too many “anti-education elitists on the right” to begin with.
brantl
@Spinwheel: No, it’s because you are an out-and-out dick. Glad we got that straight.
boatboy_srq
@Scott S.: Higher ed became “class-identifying” the moment the GOTea decided that haahr eddycayshun was too expensive for the state to fund properly. Mind you the same could be said of awl eddycayshun: FL, for example, has been fussing with school budgeting for at least the last 50 years or so (they seem committed to being 48th best in the US). Reichwingnuts are a funny breed: they’ll go broke sending Junior off to get a degree from the best school they can afford, but they won’t be taxed a penny for the neighbors’ kids (who’ll be their MDs, home health aides, social workers, accountants and any/every other support occupation once they hit retirement age, and from whom they’ll no doubt demand exceptional competency).
@trollhattan: Is it just my reading of Walker, or did he just decide one day that reading all those books was just too much work, and that he could be as successful as he wanted to be if he just sold his soul to some rich w#nkers who want to run the planet? Because that’s not anti-intellectual – it’s just effing lazy.
Howard Beale IV
@Spinwheel: As the mystic saying goes: “He who tastes, knows.” Seems to me the best Instapundit can do is lamely try to ride on the coattails of those who have actually done things.
Remeber: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t do, teach.”
Which makes the Instapundit fall squarely into the second category.
MCA1
@Violet: I think the easy counter to this with Walker is to turn any discussion about his credentials into “no private sector experience whatsoever.” The underlying point being that he’s been a politician since the day he left Marquette without a degree, and has never had what most people think of as a normal job, or created a damned thing, in his life. Could be a boon to HRC, who’s long been derided as attaching her own ambitions to Bill’s coattails her entire adult life. Even she could point at her prior law practice and say “That guy’s done NOTHING in the real world. Ever. Literally.”
boatboy_srq
@WereBear: SO: to clean their pool, you need a BS in chemistry, and to write their letters and make their coffee you need a BA in English; but to be their candidate for pResident, you just have to be Very Serious. Whodathunk the quantity of chlorine and the frequency of running the Pool Blaster, or finding the powerswitch on the iMac and measuring the grounds-per-pot, took more know-how than running a country.
Howard Beale IV
@Alex S.: Walker is no autodidatic-unless the material he’s presented to him hasn’t been 100% vetted by Koch and CATO.
MCA1
@JaneE: Agreed. Should Walker win the nomination, there’s gonna be a crapload of oppo research going on – the dude’s got a ton of corruption-variety skeletons in the closet – but his mysterious dropping out of Marquette less than a year before graduating and after he had previously been sanctioned for violating campus rules on student body government campaigning would no doubt be one of the big areas of focus.
Bill
For those saying Walker’s lack of education doesn’t matter, I disagree. Certainly, what one does with his life matters more than his diploma, but we live in a world where increasingly you can’t get a retail assistant manager position without at BA. It’s becoming the bare minimum education for most jobs. Are we really OK with the leader of the free world having less education than the claims adjuster who looks at your leaky roof? That seems ridiculous.
If you are going to run for president without a bare minimum education, you better have done something really extraordinary with your life. Being a two term governor who runs his state in to the ground doesn’t qualify. In other words, Scooter isn’t Bill Gates.
As a Wisconsinite I can’t wait for the national press to dig around in this Walker’s background in a way our local press hasn’t.
As a Marquette alum, I’m so damn happy this guy never graduated from my school
gelfling545
I don’t see how having a degree can NOT be a requirement for president when it seems to be a pre-req to get an entry level data entry job at $8/hour, no benefits.
Actually there are relatively few jobs in this world that can’t be done without it but “college” had been made the holy grail. That said, I can think of, again, relatively few jobs in which it would be as desirable as it would be for holding the office of president to have had the benefit of a liberal (in the traditional sense) education.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@boatboy_srq:
The part that everyone else seems to be leaving out is that most of these guys on the right declaring that a college education isn’t necessary are themselves college graduates, often with two or more degrees. And I bet that not a single one of them is planning to allow their own children to stop at a high school diploma.
It’s the usual ruse from the right wing — convince the rubes that the advantages you have aren’t really advantages, so they can’t resent you for them. See, we have a governor without a college degree — that proves that your child who really wants to be a doctor doesn’t really need to go to college to be successful!
There are plenty of people — politicians, even! — who have been very successful without going to college. But I’m very suspicious when an elite who has a college degree tells me that it’s okay that they’re making it tougher and tougher to afford college because no one really needs to go.
AxelFoley
@Spinwheel:
Even if that’s true (and how would you know, stalker?), Zandar’s not running for president.
And all of you defending Walker not graduating college (hell, the asswipe just up and quit), fuck that noise. Being a college graduate should be a prerequisite for the position. Most high-level jobs require it, so why shouldn’t the presidency?
Seriously, GTFO with defending this bullshit. This kind of excuse is why white guys get to fail upwards.
AxelFoley
@rikyrah:
This.
My Truth Hurts
@Bobby Thomson: then you better be an extremely accomplished individual which would make it obvious education doesn’t matter in your case. But it’s an extraordinary job that requires extraordinary talents and skill sets. That’s the point. College is not a guarantee but it’s an indicator. What has Scott done besides get himself elected? That’s nothing. I want someone with expertise related to solving policy issues. A blanket college doesn’t matter policy is stupid. And a sign of being uneducated. :)
boatboy_srq
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
Well, we do also have a Senator who’s a quack (without accreditation from a credible source, and with an accreditation he practically pulled off a Pagemaker template straight to LaserJet), so obviously
moneyconnectionstalent doesn’t need external qualifications.I’m also with rikyrah and AxelFoley above: the double-standard is monstrous. Dems have to have multiple doctorates, Nobel and Pulitzer nominations, wildly successful startup businesses and a family with one spouse (ever) and two or three (no more, no less) picture-perfect children who are well-behaved and modestly dressed at all times – all before age 40 – just to get the “we accept that you’re a human and a US citizen” level of bashing; yet their own can be “salt-o’-the-earth” (read: slacker dropout) undereducated rubes just (barely) smart enough to cash in on the ALEC Express. “White guys failing upward” is definitely what they expect (if not demand) for their own because Reasons. It’s just one more facet of the dichotomy where Dems must be absolutely unassailable because anything less is the Abject Failure of Civilization, yet Conservatists can be as crooked and whacked as they come and still be pResidential material.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@boatboy_srq:
My theory — which I formed as soon as Barack Obama was acknowledged as a serious candidate for president — is that there is a fairly numerous group of white people out there who think that any random white man is AUTOMATICALLY more qualified to be president than even the most accomplished minority candidate. The reaction to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court only crystallized it for me. These people literally believe that ANY white man is more qualified regardless of his background. They really believe that someone like Joe the Plumber could step onto the Supreme Court or into the White House and do a better job than Sotomayor or Obama. It’s bizarre. But they truly believe it.
That’s why Scott Walker is qualified to be president, but Obama is not.
MCA1
@boatboy_srq: What’s worse is that it’s a can’t win: the moment any Democrat fulfills all of those requirements, they’re forever doomed as an elitist know-it-all intellectual snob who can’t relate to the Common Man.
pseudonymous in nc
In case you were wondering, university educator Glenn Reynolds gets $168k from the state of Tennessee for his “full-time” job.
Walker’s education matters less than his political career being one corruption investigation after another.
Cervantes
@Dave:
Good to see you here again.
Cervantes
@Spinwheel:
People can disagree with the writer on one or more subjects without signing on to your (apparent yet incomprehensible) vendetta against him/her.
Sad_Dem
Never mind that he doesn’t have a degree and what the class implications of that are. He left college in his senior year, so he was fully participating in that class system until he decided not to anymore. The question is why? Ostensibly, he left for his first real job in politics. That’s an OK reason–he figured out what he wanted to do with his life, and he went and did it. The rumor is, however, that he was asked to leave because while campaigning in college, he took part in an act that the administration would have expelled him for if it had more evidence: gathering up all the copies of a school newspaper that had a story in it that could have hurt his chances at winning the election. Politifact story.