The Difference Between Educated and Accomplished

Former Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) marshalling all of the noblesse oblige elitism of the progressive movement criticized Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) for not having graduated from college.

MRC Newsbusters reported on February 12, 2015:

“What a snob! On today’s Morning Joe, Howard Dean, a product of fancy prep schools and Yale, suggested that Scott Walker was unfit to be president because his lack of a college degree rendered him ‘unknowledgeable.’

Dean’s disdain for the un-diplomaed came during a discussion of Walker having declined, during his recent trip to the UK, to state whether he believes in evolution. Joe Scarborough was incredulous at Dean’s diss, pointing out that people such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg never finished college. To which list could be added super-successful and knowledgeable people from Rush Limbaugh to Steve Jobs, among many others.”

In an interview with Joe Scarborough, Dean said:

“No, I didn’t say that at all. I said that, first of all, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates dropped out of college for different reasons. They had started what became titanic companies that changed the world. Scott Walker didn’t finish college for who knows what reason. Donny was talking about him. I think that is going to be examined on the campaign trail and I think it should be. I think having an education about what goes on in the rest of the world is pretty important if you’re going to be president of the United States.” [Emphasis added]

Wow!

Mr. Dean is a prince of privilege. The former governor, former presidential candidate and former head of the Democrat Party, comes from a wealthy Wall Street family, attended private prep school and Yale University. He earned his medical degree at the exclusive Albert Einstein School of Medicine at Yeshiva College (current tuition nearly $48,000 per year). Mr. Dean would, by his own calculations, be a perfect candidate to be president. Except – well except that he is a goofball given to bizarre screams and stupid utterances. Utterances like Gov. Scott Walker isn’t qualified to be president. Or better yet. Utterances like:

“I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can’t play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it’s called.”

“You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever and get home and still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well Republicans, I guess can do that. Because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives.”

“Now that we’re on dog pee, we can have an interesting conversation about that. I do not recommend drinking urine…but if you drink water straight from the river, you have a greater chance of getting an infection than you do if you drink urine.”

“You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They’re a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same… It’s pretty much a white Christian party.”

In other words you can be “educated” – educated in the most elite schools in the nation – and still be a fool.

And then there is President Barack Obama. Generously labeled the “smartest person” ever elected president. But what is the basis of this claim of superior intelligence.

Mr. Obama has refused to allow the release of his undergraduate records from either Occidental College where he began or Columbia University where he finished. Despite claims by the media, Mr. Obama did not graduate with honors from Columbia, which means that his academic achievement was a GPA of less than 3.3.

Mr. Obama was the head of Harvard Law Review. The titles of president, leader or editor-in-chief are used interchangeably. Traditionally, the position has been in recognition of academic achievement – the top student at the end of the junior year becomes the editor-in-chief for the senior year. Since 1887 until 1970, inclusion on Harvard Law Review was based purely on academic achievement. After 1970 half of the members were chosen for academic performance and half were chosen by the students. Mr. Obama was part of the latter category – chosen for popularity rather than achievement. The position of editor-in-chief is chosen by the faculty.

The editor-in-chief of Harvard Law Review has two main responsibilities. The first is to “manage” the monthly production of the Review (assisted ably by a professional staff) and to publish the premier scholarly law review article for the academic year. No such article was published by Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama graduated magnum cum laud from Harvard Law School and that by itself would suggest significant academic achievement. However, the faculty manipulation resulting in his selection for and leadership of the Harvard Law Review on other than academic merit calls into question whether his graduate honors were based on real academic achievement or were simply a part of a continuing promotion by the faculty.

Under normal circumstance, the editor-in-chief of Harvard Law Review is the most sought after graduate by America’s prestigious law firms. Again, there is no evidence that Mr. Obama was either courted or offered employment by any of these firms. That lack of “peer” recognition suggests that Obama’s academic achievements were moderate and his honors suspect.

After graduation, Mr. Obama did not practice law. Instead he returned to Chicago to become a community organizer – a position that requires neither a college degree nor a law degree. He won election to the Illinois legislature from a “safe seat” as part of the corrupt Chicago Democrat machine. He was elected to the United States Senate by default when Republican Jack Ryan – then leading by double digit margins – was accused by his ex-wife of demanding that she perform sexual acts with others for his amusement at Chicago sex clubs and had to drop out of the election.

From the date of his graduation from high school until his election as President of the United States, Mr. Obama accomplished – well nothing. Proving that education is not proof of accomplishment.

And since his election as President, Mr. Obama lied and cheated to obtain his singular legislative achievement as president – Obamacare. Beyond that Mr. Obama has failed on every front. Economic growth as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is half of the historical average. Unemployment as measured by the Labor Force Participation Rate remains at a nearly four decade high. Real weekly wages have declined. Race relations have worsened. The United States standing in the world has declined to the point where it is universally accepted that our friends no longer trust Mr. Obama, and our enemies no longer fear or respect him.

Despite Mr. Obama’s Ivy League education, he knows little about the world around him – the essence of Mr. Dean’s criticism of Mr. Walker. And he has learned virtually nothing since.

At the very beginning of his term, while facing an economic crisis of monumental scope, Mr. Obama urged adoption of his recovery plan. As NPR reported on February 9, 2009:

“As President Obama urges Congress to pass the $800 billion-plus stimulus package, one of his favorite selling points is the thousands of projects nationwide that he calls “shovel ready” — meaning planning is complete, approvals are secured and people could be put to work right away once funding is in place.”

Two years later, Mr. Obama was forced to concede that virtually nothing was spent to encourage real economic recovery.

As Fox Nation reported on June 11, 2011:

“President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness met today in Durham, NC at Cree Inc., a company that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting. One of the Council’s recommendations to President Obama was to streamline the federal permit process for construction and infrastructure projects. It was explained to Obama that the permitting process can delay projects for “months to years … and in many cases even cause projects to be abandoned … I’m sure that when you implemented the Recovery Act your staff briefed you on many of these challenges.” At this point, Obama smiled and interjected, “Shovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.” The Council, led by GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter.”

While that may have a been a rip-snorter of a joke to Mr. Obama and his wealthy friends, it, in fact, demonstrated that Mr. Obama knew absolutely nothing about the economy – not even what constituted a “shovel ready” job.

Proving again that education does not necessarily translate into competence or accomplishments.

In contrast Mr. Walker has in a short four year period

• Been elected governor of Wisconsin three times
• Reduced taxes by $2 Billion
• Converted a $3.6 Billion deficit into a $900+Million surplus
• Increased the state’s “rainy day” fund from $1.5 Million to nearly $380 Million
• Reduced the unfunded liability for public employee pensions from $132 Million to $99 Million
• Eliminate mandatory union membership as a condition for public employment
• Eliminated the decline in private employment and added 102,000 jobs.
• Increased per capita income by nearly $5000 per year.

In an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Mr. Walker hit the nail on the head when he responded to Mr. Dean’s criticism:

“I said it’s interesting, that’s kind of the elitist government-knows-best top-down approach from Washington we’ve heard for years. I don’t know about you, Megyn, but we’ve had an Ivy League-trained lawyer in the White House for the last six years, who was pretty good at reading off the teleprompter, but has done a lousy job leading this country. I’d rather have a fighter who’s actually proven he can take on the Big Government special interests and win.

“I think there’s a lot of Americans out there that scratch their head and say, we have people who help found Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, plenty of other successful business enterprises across the country that did the exact same thing I did: have an opportunity to start a career, an opportunity to start a business senior year of college and went out and did it.

“I have two kids in college, I hope they finish, I expect that. My wife and I are helping to fund their pathway with the hard work they put in. So we value college for those who pursue that career. but in the end you don’t have to have that to be successful, as many Americans have over the years.”

Nearly seventy-five percent of Americans lack a college degree. Would Mr. Dean and his fellow progressives deny them the dream of being President of the United States?

There is a difference between being educated and being accomplished. I’m rooting for the latter.