A Yale Tale
It seems that John Kerry finally signed SF-180, the authorization required for the Boston Globe to obtain limited military records it has been seeking since 2003. According to the Globe report, the records it received included Kerry's Yale transcripts. Imagine their amazement when they found that Kerry's academic record at Yale was no better than President Bush's and in some respects not as good.
Why, you might ask, does anyone care? Well, some stories need to be followed up. Throughout both of President Bush's campaigns, Democrats--especially Northeast elitists--consistently painted the President as a dummy who squeaked through Yale with a C average. The President admits being a C student and jokes about it. Kerry, however, was touted as an enlightened liberal (or should I say progressive?) who was obviously more intellectually gifted than that rube from Texas. Kerry himself never spoke up about the false comparison, of course.
Bush went from Yale to the prestigious Harvard MBA program, then two years full time Air National Guard active duty flying jet fighters, followed by a mediocre business career, success as Governor of Texas, and finally the presidency. Kerry went from Yale to a tour in the Navy that included a few months in Vietnam, then to "success" as an anti-war protester, followed by a failed run for a congressional seat, Boston College law school (he tried to get into Harvard), success as a prosecutor and Lieutenant Governor, and finally the U.S. Senate.
Most reasonable people know that academic excellence is not a great predictor of future achievement. It really doesn't matter in this case, except that folks made such a big deal of it and dodged the truth.
And by the way, if Kerry ever releases all of his military records we may learn even more. For example, there's long been a question about what type of discharge he originally received from the Navy. The honorable discharge people know about was a re-issued discharge received some years after he left the Navy. There has been talk about his original discharge being less than honorable, probably based on his conduct after he left Vietnam. The New York Sun did a lot of investigative reporting on Kerry, including this November 1, 2004 item quoted at The American Spectator:
A member of the Harvard Law School admissions committee recalled that the real reason Mr. Kerry was not admitted was because the committee was concerned that because Mr. Kerry had received a less than honorable discharge they were not sure he could be admitted to any state bar.
Kerry applied to Harvard before he received the re-issued discharge, so the one included in his application and referred to in this quote would have been the one he received when he left the Navy.
You may still be asking why anyone cares about all this. We shouldn't--unless, of course, this charlatan tries for the presidency again. Nominating him a second time would be about the only thing the Democrats could do in 2008 that would be even more counter-productive than nominating Hillary. But I wouldn't put it past them.
Why, you might ask, does anyone care? Well, some stories need to be followed up. Throughout both of President Bush's campaigns, Democrats--especially Northeast elitists--consistently painted the President as a dummy who squeaked through Yale with a C average. The President admits being a C student and jokes about it. Kerry, however, was touted as an enlightened liberal (or should I say progressive?) who was obviously more intellectually gifted than that rube from Texas. Kerry himself never spoke up about the false comparison, of course.
Bush went from Yale to the prestigious Harvard MBA program, then two years full time Air National Guard active duty flying jet fighters, followed by a mediocre business career, success as Governor of Texas, and finally the presidency. Kerry went from Yale to a tour in the Navy that included a few months in Vietnam, then to "success" as an anti-war protester, followed by a failed run for a congressional seat, Boston College law school (he tried to get into Harvard), success as a prosecutor and Lieutenant Governor, and finally the U.S. Senate.
Most reasonable people know that academic excellence is not a great predictor of future achievement. It really doesn't matter in this case, except that folks made such a big deal of it and dodged the truth.
And by the way, if Kerry ever releases all of his military records we may learn even more. For example, there's long been a question about what type of discharge he originally received from the Navy. The honorable discharge people know about was a re-issued discharge received some years after he left the Navy. There has been talk about his original discharge being less than honorable, probably based on his conduct after he left Vietnam. The New York Sun did a lot of investigative reporting on Kerry, including this November 1, 2004 item quoted at The American Spectator:
A member of the Harvard Law School admissions committee recalled that the real reason Mr. Kerry was not admitted was because the committee was concerned that because Mr. Kerry had received a less than honorable discharge they were not sure he could be admitted to any state bar.
Kerry applied to Harvard before he received the re-issued discharge, so the one included in his application and referred to in this quote would have been the one he received when he left the Navy.
You may still be asking why anyone cares about all this. We shouldn't--unless, of course, this charlatan tries for the presidency again. Nominating him a second time would be about the only thing the Democrats could do in 2008 that would be even more counter-productive than nominating Hillary. But I wouldn't put it past them.
3 Comments:
Tom,
I have to agree with you. How many great men, including our current President didn't do well in school. I mean Albert Einstein didn't do well in school, yet no one would say what Alex said about him. Maybe the real measure is not how you say something, but what you say, when you say it.
If Senator Kerry had just been forthcoming earlier, I would not have had the misfortune of reading Alex's assine comment and we wouldn't be talking about it.
Kerry's dishonesty and the left's snobishness are why they lost and may lose again.
Kev
GWB's marks are the least of our worries. It is the fact that he is led around by the nose by Cheney and Rumsfeld that should be more concerning.
BTW, I am so not surprised about Kerry's marks.
Kevin, I agree.
Amal, President Bush is not led around by the nose by anyone. That's propaganda promoted by his political opponents and their friends in the media. If he were to be accurately criticized for his personality, it might be because he is strong, determined, and somewhat inflexible.
Bill, right on!
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