Language Expert: If You Didn’t Like Obama’s Oil Spill Speech, It’s Probably Because You’re Stupid
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Did you see Obama’s pitch for Cap & Trade on Tuesday night… er, I mean his speech stressing the importance of plugging the hole and cleaning up the Gulf? I didn’t, because I was distracted by a funny looking oven mitt and a shiny ball bearing, but it’s a good thing I didn’t see it because I wouldn’t have understood Obama’s genius anyway:
(CNN) — President Obama’s speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.
Tuesday night’s speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.
Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence “added some difficulty for his target audience,” Payack said.
He singled out this sentence from Obama as unfortunate: “That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation’s best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge — a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation’s secretary of energy.”
“A little less professorial, less academic and more ordinary,” Payack recommended. “That’s the type of phraseology that makes you (appear) aloof and out of touch.”
Obama’s problem isn’t that people listening at an 8.5 grade level can’t understand his words and phrases — it’s that 2nd graders can understand his inactions and the government’s insane bureaucratic delays.
Lucky for Obama then that with each brilliant speech he gives, fewer and fewer of us morons are tuning in — Tuesday night’s “green energy” sales pitch included.
In order to fully comprehend an Obama speech, you must be an Obama Scholar.
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Let me get this straight…when I first spoke out against Obama, I was a racist. Now, I have been upgraded to stupid.
Insert “LIAR” comment here.
Frankly I don’t think he needs to convince the 8th grade reading level crowd, they’re all ACORN members anyway. He needs to convince us high school gradgiates that he’s the messiah.
I don’t have a PhD, but I’m pretty sure aloof & out of touch does not equal ‘genius’.
Appear…?!?!
Um, not sure if you’re being ironic or not. But, it’s “scholar”.
Exactly.
There was absolutely nothing highbrow nor complex about the structure and content of that example from the puppet’s speech.
Your title hits the nail on the head, Doug:
More BS from an elitist “expert” – a living, breathing, talking/writing endorsement of the expression: “B.S. = bu!!$h!*; M.S. = more $h!*; Ph.D. = piled higher and deeper.”
I thought I was listeing to Wile E. Coyote’s plan going forward to catch the Road Runner.
Where are the Acme Oil Skimmers?
Wrongo there JJ. We didn’t like it because it was easily understood. POTUS can’t straw man a real world situation, so he pulls out a Nobel winner to dazzle the elites. Theorists are seldom useful at a construction site.
a so called language expert is trying very hard to convince us that zero’s pathetic oil spill speech may not have been well received, because the bs was over our heads. actually so called language expert, it was the lying and the continuous campaign rhetoric on cap and trade that convinced us the whole speech was crap. maybe zero’s target audience was actually the acorn crowd or his union buddies.
Sort of like using words like “phraseology”, J.J.
What’s the carbon footprint of ivory towers?
How do you spell Obama?
A-n-t-i-C-h-r-i-s-t
I guess my three engineering degrees and post-grad work at MIT’s Sloan School didn’t adequately prepare me to follow the inane ramblings of the Community Organizer. I should sue for my money back, or better yet, put a protest together.
Maybe Obozo and his frau appear aloof and out of touch because they ARE aloof and out of touch. Arugula eating ACORN activists indeed. He’s Biden’s “clean articulate negro” with a wife who leads him around and appears to make his decisions on staffing for him. It was one thing when we had Bill and Hillbilly as the dynamic duo, at least one of them was not an elitist communist snob, but Mybelle and Obozo are both elitist communist America hating negroes bent on destroying this unfair system which sent them both to ivy league schools on other people’s money.
It’s called misdirection: the public sees there’s something amiss, then the regime brings on the bling — oohhh, something shiny and bright to distract… a Nobel Peace Prize. How pretty! Now, what was the messiah saying? I forgot there’s something wrong with what he was saying.
I can’t decide.
Is he more Saruman or Wormtongue?
The people that voted for Obama are mostly in the 3.2 to 4.4 grade level range. He should bring out some pop-up and picture books for his “followers”.
The rest of us are very aware of what he said and what he wants to do. That’s why his pals are being tossed out of office left and right and it’s why 2012 will be his swan song. Let me translate that for Obama followers. Obama go bye bye soon.
What surprised me here was not that the writers on the right were critical of the speech. I expected that. It was that many on the left were also openly critical. An article on HuffPo titled “Is the President Receiving Bad Advice” was the first I read. While they took the bizaare angle that this speech was an anomaly, rather than a symptom of the systemic incapability of Obama’s administration to rise to the rigors of the job at hand, it was critical. A Politico article also openly critized the lack of details provided in the speech. There were others from the left as well yesterday, almost all of which gave the speech poor marks.
So, if this CNN analysis is to be swallowed, it would have to be with the understanding Obama’s term so far has seen many who supported him at the time of his election get ‘stupider’ as well. . .as many of them were deeply critical of this poor excuse for a speech.
I have my Master’s degree and I did not find Obama’s speech too professorial, but very simple and lacking in details. I think this article is just another case of liberals not accepting that people don’t believe in their ideas, so they say people are too stupid to grasp their ideas.
Watching this man speak, I am convinced he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. His eyes are lifeless, and his facial expressions contradict his words. His attempts at expressing real emotion fails…one can tell it is contrived.
His base dependence on teleprompters to convey simple messages thrusts him into a class of automatons. He has no credibility, no common sense, and as every day goes by it becomes more obvious. He is less effective a communicator than Howdy Doody.
Perhaps we Americans can learn valuable lessons from the Obama experiment…don’t elect a child to do an adult’s job; don’t expect sense and rationale from a dreamer, whose grasp on reality is questionable.
The last century has proven, cataclismically, that socialism, even at it’s best (which is impossible,) does not and cannot work. It is a destroyer of men, not a blessing.
Why do damaged thinkers always gravitate towards the theory that collectivism is a boon to man, but individualism is a pariah? Mankind’s greatest achievements were made when men were free to create, explore, and evolve. Statists forget, or deny this history.
When liberty and freedom are repressed, when governments become onerous, there is no incentive to create and improve one’s lot in life. Why would anyone want to create wealth, knowing that government would take it away first chance?
“A little less professorial, less academic and more ordinary,” Payack recommended, “and it would have been an A. As it is, B+”.
zero is more wormtongue, a very proficient liar.
I suspect that most of the viewers got it. His usual media cover-up crew weren’t willing/able to cover for him this time, so OBambi trots out another phoney to attempt a lame misdirection for those still willing to be confused. That 24% strongly approving of Obeyme is his base; Blacks, Far LeftNutZone, Demretrds. The only amazing thing still out there is the willing support of elected Democrats. Do they not understand their own situation?
Glenn Beck once explained Obama perfectly. He’s Vince the Sham Wow, Slap Chop guy. He attempts to sell what the REAL power brokers like Soros want him to sell.
Ironic, no? The unions put him into power- the same unions that have been failing to teach American students to read at that level. Scoot over, here come more chickens.
WHOA! Careful what you say about Howdy Doody! Buffalo Bob may be deceased but Clarabelle the Clown is now POTUS!
So, Binky the Wundorkind is so intelligent that mere mortals cannot comprehend Godly talk?
HUMPHREY WILLIAMS: …And spotteth twice they the camels before the third hour, and so, the Midianites went forth to Ram Gilead in Kadesh Bilgemath, by Shor Ethra Regalion, to the house of Gash-Bil-Bethuel-Bazda, he who brought the butter dish to Balshazar and the tent peg to the house of Rashomon, and there slew they the goats, yea, and placed they the bits in little pots. Here endeth the lesson.
CHAPLAIN: Let us praise Obama. O Lord,…
CONGREGATION: O Lord,…
CHAPLAIN: …ooh, You are so big,…
CONGREGATION: …ooh, You are so big,…
CHAPLAIN: …so absolutely huge.
CONGREGATION: …so absolutely huge.
CHAPLAIN: Gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell You.
CONGREGATION: Gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell You.
CHAPLAIN: Forgive us, O Lord, for this, our dreadful toadying, and…
CONGREGATION: And barefaced flattery.
CHAPLAIN: But You are so strong and, well, just so super.
CONGREGATION: Fantastic.
HUMPHREY: Amen.
CONGREGATION: Amen.
Wait,wait,wait…I thought it was because we were racist
The reason the speech was so poor was simple; They had no real solutions so they had to just use rhetoric. They are actually banking on public stupidity to get them through this disaster without revealing their lack of ability.
Obama’s energy policy reminds me of a Far Side cartoon- a blackboard full of mathematic equations, then the words “a miracle occurs,” and the conclusion. That is what they are basing Green Energy on- A miracle occurring.
Dexter, I still think he’s more Kuato from Total Recall.
Hmmm…. 9.8 Grade?
Thats your second year of HIGH SCHOOL…
So would that make this speech, Sophmoric?
soph·o·mor·ic /ˌsɒfəˈmɔrɪk, -ˈmɒr-/ Show Spelled[sof-uh-mawr-ik, -mor-] Show IPA
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to a sophomore or sophomores.
2. suggestive of or resembling the traditional sophomore; intellectually pretentious, overconfident, conceited, etc., but immature: sophomoric questions.
Stupidest president in the last 100 years, bar none and hands down.
Harry Truman was hardly a genius, but he runs circles around this guy on common-sense (which Harry had plenty of) alone.
John F. Kennedy had two significant traits – great personal bravery, and an extraordinary sense of style. He knew the tone of the populace. Outside of this, objectively, he was dumb. As in “pretty low intelligence.” Even so, he is leaps and bounds ahead of Chauncey.
Our president is a high functioning dolt. You don’t need to see his transcripts to know this. He doesn’t understand ANYTHING about ANY technology. He doesn’t understand ANYTHING about realpolitik. He doesn’t understand ANYTHING about leadership, or economics, or business.
You don’t need to know that his book was ghost written to know that our president is a mumbling, bumbling idiot without a teleprompter. He’s as lucid and eloquent as the Daryl brothers from 1980′s Newhart Show.
He is, again, Chauncey Gardener. Right look at the right time – but no skills beyond reading a teleprompter and making some people swoon with how “handsome” he is.
Oh, and one other thing: I presume that Mr. Payack knows that Chauncey didn’t write the speech? I’m sure he read it before he tele-recited it, and Chauncey certainly likes complex sentences, but that doesn’t mean he actually wrote it.
Whether the speech was written at a first, fifth, or eleventh grade reading level, Chauncey didn’t write it.
Mr. Payack reminds me of the tailors in The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen; he is a scam artist telling us we are stupid if we do not see what he sees. We had Janeane Garofalo tell us we are racist if we opposed President Obama’s policies, there was Rosie O’Donnell, Helen Thomas, Thrill Matthews and Keith Oberman all telling us we are stupid if we do not see what they see.
Sorry Important People who can listen at the 8.5 grade level: even a child could see the Emperor had no clothes. We may not speak Chicago Street Organizer but President Obama should at least wear clean underwear.
To be insulted by a Progressive is a wonderful thing is it not?
===
An Armed Society is a polite society.
spaceycakes said:
Give me yourrrrrrrrr Mindddddddddd!!
1. Cap and trade put in place.
2. ?????????????
3. Prosperity!
well gosh darn, i’zah just too dumb to understand watz da man in da houze is say’n? i’zah no perfecktlee well wat he’zah say’n. he sed dat he gonna plug up dat der dam well.
dat’s wright. now wher is dat govuhmnt check he’zah promised?
Right RobM, Stupid President representing the Stupid People, the 24% still enamored by him, and yes, the stupid people that voted for him and still have the bumper stickers on their cars to prove it.
Somewhat sophisticated BS, yet BS nonetheless.
Obviously, President Reagan was called “the Great Communicator” because his grunts and gestures appealed to the unwashed masses, or ‘small people’.
I have not doubt that everyone who voted for him had a difficult time understanding what he said. Any dialect over the first grade level is going to go over the heads of half the country.
Bingo!
Flyoverman, you get today’s blue ribbon!
Don’t forget that both Wile E. Coyote and Barack H. Obama consider themselves geniuses. (PS – the video has a pipeline in it!)
Obama doesn’t get it because he is beyond stupid. No one cares at this point whether BP is going to commit to paying 20B or 100B for the clean up and compensation costs as a result of their oil spill. People want the spill stopped and if that is not possible, they want the oil contained so it doesn’t further spread and cause more damage.
Obama’s administration could of simply held a press conference, put the word out that they were looking for oil boom equipment to contain the spill, and within 72 hours, one of the companies in his own backyard would of contacted the media that they had the stuff as needed. After the spill was boxed in via the boom, he could of used some sort of siphoning and/or skimming device to collect the oil at the top of the water and have it processed by tankers on the surface for delivery to market.
Then, as the oil is being contained, extracted/skimmed and processed, BP could work on containing the spill.
Considering our society can run 1000′s of miles of steel gas pipeline in order to transport natural gas from Canada to America, I think we could produce enough boom to contain the spill regardless of how many miles wide it happens to be.
In fact, isn’t there a company in maine that is begging the federal government to buy its’boom. And didn’t the Netherlands offer skimming or filtering tankers 3 days after the spill?
I first thought Obama was purposely not trying to contain the spill as he wants oil drilling to stop and clean energy to pass.
Now I think he is just plain stupid because he doesn’t seem to realize that this situation is destroying people’s perception of him and making him less likely to be relected in 2012 and further implement his agenda.
AmericansEverybody understood what he said. The real problem for Obama is that everybody understands what he didn’t say: Never let a crisis go to waste when trying to advance an unpopular agenda. The hell with the small people.Wow. I’m in awe. I was so upset that I did not understand the gist of his speech. I thought I was the only one. Now I know it is just because I am a simple-minded idiot. I feel so much better.
I will say though, that I would much rather be led through a crisis by a muddy-boot Iowa dairy farmer with an eighth grade education than a self-important Ivy League racist snob who never accomplished a productive task in his life.
Well heck fire, Uncle Jed. Now that we’ve got that settled, I can get back to bein’ a sophisticated international playboy, or maybe do me some double-naught spyin’.
Just blame government schools.
I would think Obama is George, and Soros is Kuato.
Oops sorry,
Somewhat sophisticated BS is BS nonetheless.
I guess they’re right, we’re all rubes.
Guess I’m not only racist but stupid to boot. I thought the speech was a cute dance around the Maypole that said nothing until he segued into a pitch for Cap and Tax.
I would still love to get a gander at his school records. I would bet good money that W had a better GPA.
BO is nothing but a ShamWow salesman indeed. Genius? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I have tears in my eyes. The emperor is a dummass fraud. Soros will have to cut his pay (-off) back. This is getting too good.
Between the cigarettes, vodka, and job stress, this guys likely to stroke out in another year.
I pass you the blue ribbon for finding this video. This fits The One to a T”.
Under The Radar:
Well folks, it’s happened sooner than I thought. Both my nieces in different county junior highs report that teachers are stressing that we should dump all fossil fuels and for them to organize teach-ins so that one day you can’t drive across the country without any windmills in sight, be it “meadow, desert, prairie, countryside, mountainside.” So this is the sacrifice we must all make; despoiling our majestic vistas and scenery from sea to shining sea with monsterous whirligigs just to avoid the rare recoverable incident of oily birds. Please feedback to me whether this is coming across to your kids and grandchildren.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
What job stress?! This guy has played more golf since the rig exploded than I played all of last year! He’s more interested in the perqs of the job than in actually working. All that decision making is hard. That’s why he hires all those czars… so he doesn’t have to actually DO anything.
I don’t support windmills because I like green energy.
I support windmills because I HATE BIRDS!
/sarc
Bird blenders is what I call them.
Next time O should get Alvin Greene to give the speech.
Nope, we homeschool.
Well, the people who voted for him are, anyway.
The rest of us, who have our eyes open and actually know that actions speak louder than words, can see that in about a month and a half all Obummer has done is say, “plug the #$%^& hole!” and “I want to know whose @$$ to kick!”
So far Alvin Greene has said nothing that offends, is a pre-felon and a mostly unknown. Alvin Greene is the perfect Democrat.
I still don’t buy it. I could be wrong, but you can’t graduate Magna Cum-Laude from Harvard Law if you is ignurunt. (Unless your name is Kennedy, and your pop owns the place) Delusional – maybe / misguided – likely / idealistic / surely / and deceptive – absolutely. But not stupid. Y’all just need to listen up!
Never let a good crisis go to waste, dontcha know. Oil spill in Gulf – bad, very bad. Stupid, greedy obsessive Americans consuming oil and fowling the planet – Vewy, vewy, vewy bad. You are BAD boys and girls, you hear me? Very bad!
Greenie Weenie jobs, Solarmills and windpanels. Gooooood!
WEEEEEEELL Doggies! Let’s jus’ go sit by the cee-ment pond with some o’ Grannies rum-a-tiz medicine.
Might want to tell em to do what I did with an overly Liberal X girlfriend…
She was all on the Windmill bandwagon… so while we were talking, I stepped outside, wet my finger, put it in the air… there was no wind… so I started turning off the lights and turned off the stereo.
When she asked why? I said “there is your solution… no wind? no electricity…
Needless to say it was a very short relationship… LOL
I nominate Martha’s Vineyard as the perfrect place for these windmills!
I don’t think any of us need to post our credentials here to show that we are smart enough to get what’s going on.
It takes only a grain of common sense to know that our dear nincompoop-in-chief is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. The idiots who keep telling us he is brilliant are sheeple, all with an agenda.
Obviously, if you had visited all 57 states like our president, and had sealed your college records as he has, you’d know that an “expert” is a lawyer. Why Nobel Laureate Steven Chu (who got his prize the same store Obama got his) can’t come up with any ideas for a deep-water oil engineering problem may have something to do with the fact that he isn’t an engineer, he’s a physics wonk who knows a lot about lasers, but zip about oil drilling. Who did he name as head of the MMS? An engineer or someone who knows the field? No, a $%!N^& lawyer who knows NOTHING about the technology, but everything about bringing a lawsuit and presumably placing his boot on the throat of anyone who gets in his way. Obama doesn’t even have the smarts to hire technocrats instead of lawyers, for Pete’s sake!
I think everyone in the country, liberals included, are pretty much fed up with the “Barack Obama is a genius” meme. I’m not convinced he has an IQ much over 100.
If it was written for that grade level then the address by Emperor Zero unquestionably was too much for the average libtard to understand.
The issue with Obama’s speech isn’t that we don’t understand it, the issue is that we do, and we don’t like being lied to, again.
When did the Nobel Committee start giving out Nobel Prizes for TACKLING OIL RIG DISASTERS.
Here at this blog we all know Obama is aloof out of touch and clueless, but to put a cherry on top, I’d like to ask the following.
WHAT DID CHU WIN A NOBEL PRIZE FOR?
WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH MANAGING THE ENERGY DEPARTMENT?
HOW DOES HAVING A NOBEL PRIZE FIX AN OIL DISASTER?
And I’d like to remind you Steven Chu was the MORON who told us to paint our roofs white.
I used to call them pinwheels. The indians in the Pacific NW had toy noisemakers called bullroarers that probably could produce as much energy as ObamaBlades.
So 32 million actually watched this drivel? Now we know how many people are on welfare.
I accept my lot in life being a dumb racist who won’t buy into the Obama Fan Club…..Amen
I see your point. But I still say he has stress – much like that of a mafia don.
Good point, it used to be a Government “by and for the People”…
Now its “BUY and Fore the Lawyers” (spelling puns intended for those who don’t like Obama, and therefore must not be able to comprehend a 2nd Year Highschool level speech).
Well, I think Nobel prize winning scientist were the key words. We all know how honorable and prestigious the Nobel is these days. Most anybody can get one for a little nothing. Or a whole lot of nothing.
Just goes to show.. the vast majority of College Professors, are worthless to the productivity of the world.
I would give a Dime on a Dollar to Hire a College Professor for ANY job, unless they had Proven and successful experience in the Private Sector.
RedDog–You just described my life.
Oh, and I’ll bet my undergrad grades against his anyday. I’ll await the response.
Pardon me if someone has already made this observation, but isn’t this the same rhetoric we heard from the Clinton News Media whenever he spoke and we didn’t like it?
As I recall, whenever Clinton made some BS address about what he wanted to do, no one liked it. The State Controlled Media would say we just didn’t understand it. Of course, the problem was that we did understand it, and we rejected it. They never did understand that his fellow dems did so badly in the election cycles during his presidency because we did get it.
And we get it now.
Same thing here, so nothing new really from the leftist fiction writers working as reporters.
Question for Doug Powers:
Are we sure that President Obama isn’t just trying to earn the new Military Medal for Courageous Restraint?
Obama’s constant mention of Nobel Prize recipients is his way of trying to remind the “dullards” that “he, we, us” are the smart people.
Smart people are in charge…
“We got this, yo…don’t question our mental superiority…We know best, the consensus is that we know best, further discussion is not needed…and, we, the smart people agree…the solution is ‘Green Energy’!“
Or, in other words, educated idiots! I’ve worked with more than a few…educated, yes…common sense, no!
For example:
Me: “Let me show you how that really works.”
E.I: “But the book says it works this way!”
Me: “Look, I just showed you how it really works. It doesn’t work the way the book explains.”
E.I: “So, Mr. Know-it-all, you’re smarter than the book, huh?”
Me: “You tried five times to do it by the book, and five times you failed to make it work. I’ve illustrated ONE time how to make it work, and it worked correctly. Why are you still arguing with me about this?
E.I: “Well…that’s not how the book says to do it!”
Sound familiar?
Uh, my 7 year old daughter only reads at a 8th grade level (she is the slacker of the family) and she had NO PROBLEM understanding Obama was scamming and lying to us yet again. Maybe all those left-wing nuts can hire her as a consultant to explain it to them…
First heard that dead-on accurate term from my late dad ~ 45 years ago!!
I read the bio of Steven Chu and understand why Obama would tap him to head his energy policy. He has been a vocal advocate for “alternative fuels” and wants to shift this country away from the use of fossil fuels. Asking him to head some scientific inquiry into the BP oil spill presents several problems:
1. Someone with such disdain for oil use is unlikely to be well versed in oil procurement technology.
2. As was pointed out previously, this guy is a theoretical physicist and oil cleanup requires very different set of skills.
3. His Berkeley politics will get in the way of real world applications.
Likely outcome: this group of scientists will come out with a recommendation that we abandon use of fossil fuels altogether and sit around in the dark.
I would expect better than 9.8 grade level speech from a Harvard grad. Especially since my tax dollars likely paid for it.
Me too, granite. Dad’s favorite expression.
On a related note, isn’t it just eerie how Steven Chu and his work in theoretical physics resemble Dr. Robert Stadler’s work and consequent government position in the book “Atlas Shrugged”?
I’d gladly switch to something other than oil if there was an economically viable alternative. So-called experts have been searching for an alternative since before Jimmy Carter created the Department of Energy more than 30 years ago.
See how far they have come in only 30 years? How many of us are filling up our automobile with “alternative fuel” that provide as much energy as a gallon of gas? What percentage of the American public is running their home or business on non-fossil fuels?
Show Americans something that actually works and we would flock to it. I am not holding my breath…
I have most often heard the phrase as “educated above their intelligence” or “over-educated idiots.”
I don’t know, maybe he can quantum-shift the oil to Mars or something.
Never since I done ben granulated from colleg haf I ben so humul. . humilla….hummilllee…..so ensulted.
Obama has a penchant for appointing people to “find solutions” who are in diametric opposition, or bitterly antagonistic to the object purpose of the investigation…especially in the area of energy.
They are not there to find solutions, but to make excuses, erect strawmen, and to create villians, all in an effort to gain support for an indefensible green energy policy.
Are we supposed to forget the old adage, “If you think you can do it, you can. If you don’t think you can, you can’t?”
How can we trust a solution from anyone who is already vehemently opposed to domestic production of fossil fuels? Especially when the facts don’t support their conclusions, or the facts are altered after a reccomendation, a la Sec. Salazar?
Oh, and by the way, since when did Nobel Prize winning physicists start working on oil spills? I thought they were all busy in Cern trying to destroy the universe with the Large Hadron Collider.
Swede,
When Kennedy went to Harvard (and Bush went to Yale) there were definitely barriers moved to allow the children of the rich to be admitted ahead of other, more qualified candidates. Once enrolled, other barriers were relaxed to allow them to graduate.
By the 1980′s Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc. had expanded these policies to “embrace” others and ensure that their student body – and graduating class – represent their world-view. The definition of “intelligence” was, and continues to be, morphed as required to ensure that Harvard could still claim exclusivity based on ability.
Take a look at the site collegetoolkit and view Occidental, where our Genius went to school. Fully 28% of the student body didn’t even take the SAT’s.
This story has been reviewed 500 times. Our universities discriminate, from admissions through to matriculation.
We’ve seen Kerry’s grades. We’ve seen Bush’s grades. We know JFK’s grades. Etc.
You can make your own opinion on whether these people are/were “book-smart.” And we can discuss whether book-smart and real intelligence are even correlated.
Except for Barack Obama. All we know about him is that he got into and out of a few colleges. This tells us zero about his book-smarts, IMHO.
And unless I see a transcript, I can’t be dissuaded of this opinion.
BTW, re-reading my own post: I’m not saying that JFK, either Bush, etc., wouldn’t have graduated without help.
What I am saying, however, is that they were MUCH less likely not to graduate. Remember that Teddy Kennedy wasn’t expelled from Harvard… he was expelled *twice.*
“Some students are more equal than others…”
Roger that! I suspect next we will be issued special government helmets LOL!
You know so we don’t bump, and hurt our soft brains
Eventually, when the leftist idiots who initially backed Obama finally bail on him they will have to label the rest of us who have always opposed him.
I expect them to come up with a term like “Premature Anti-Obama-ist” because “Premature Anti-Fascist” has already been taken…
Because I do not want to be nauseated watching The One, I took a gander at the written speech the next day. I’m not the brightest penny in the jar, but even I got an understanding of what he was proposing: no solutions to the REAL problem, just more czars, more committees, more studies, more green crap, and more lies. I have so had it with all of them in Congress and the WH.
Not bad for a Harvard lawyer.
Since our beloved Chief Executive’s soaring oratory was reportedly beyond my limited comprehension, it was fortuitous that I was otherwise occupied during his address. I was tending to my bruised and bleeding knuckles after I had forgotten to lift them while perambulating over a coarse surface enroute to an appointment to have my uni-brow plucked.
That was beautimus, Dex.