In my opinion, this is the smartest thing you said. Yes, right now all those things are far more important in the public mind.
And while I guess you need to put words in my mouth to win the argument, let me reiterate (for the 3rd time :rolleyes: ) that I’m not saying it ‘is going to hurt Obama and the Democrats in November’, as you put it. I’m saying that it’s a risk that this issue could become more front and center, if the right wing media and talk radio etc gets any traction with it. At a bare minimum, the opposition base will be even motivated than they otherwise would be, which is a pretty high bar considering the poll I just cited showing that liberal polticians are in the shitter, politically. And the downside to taking it off the table is so minimal.
You keep proposing that the risk is zero. I’m still waiting for any proof of that. I don’t think even you believe that. And all I’ve seen in this thread is bloviating and bare assertion fallacy. Disappointing.
This is right up,with birthers as people who don’t know when they are embarrassing themselves. What the hell is wrong with these people? The desperation in trying to find something to hang on Obama is terrible. Good grief.
Marley’s New York Times link brings out an interesting point. Obama wasn’t just Editor of the Harvard Law Review. There were 80 Editors. He was – out of all those Editors – chosen to be the President of the Harvard Law Review. By reputation, Harvard is the most prestigious law school in the country. And by tradition, the President of the Harvard Law Review is the most prestigious honor for a law student.
That single honor was potentially more beneficial that graduating summa cum laude.
If you are unaware of these facts or if you do not know the meaning of magna cum laude, you might find it helpful to read the linked article. Why ask for more facts if you are blind to these?
All transcripts aside, you only have to listen to the guy talk for five minutes to know he’s exceptionally bright. That’s why the attempts to paint him as secretly dumb fall so flat.
Seriously. I am not a fan of affirmative action programs, but if I were I’d be hoping for proof that they were the only way Obama got into Columbia and Harvard.
I don’t know what else to tell you, but there is just no risk here. It’s an issue that virtually nobody cares about even compared to the birth certificate (because if you think he’s not really a citizen and isn’t eligible to be president, you wouldn’t care about his college degree.) There’s just no way this is getting any kind of traction. I hate to say it’s too stupid because the birth certificate issue is at least equally stupid… but it’s really too stupid. This isn’t going to motivate anyone to come to the polls or stay home on election day. And even if he released the records, there would be some other issue. That’s the point I’ve tried to make over and over again - and you haven’t acknowledged it.
assuming that’s @me, what’s the point? I’ve already said several times in this thread that I have no doubt (well, little doubt - this incident does raise a tiny amount) that he’s smart, got in legit, probably got good grades if he’s the law review dude. Whatever. So what.
That is completely and utterly besides the point. The point is, there is a block of people in this country, let’s call them the marginally engaged, that won’t go to that level of thought before voting. Should right wing media catch traction and start people questioning things, and putting Obama on the defensive, that only hurts his party’s chances. And what’s the downside to revealing them? Principal? Please… when has principal and politics ever overlapped?
Right now it looks like he’s hiding something. I know he’s (probably) not, you know that, but again… why run the risk?
And I am acknowledging it, the give-an-inch-they’ll-take-a-mile syndrome. I get that. But if that’s the downside price to take a risk off the table, if it were me, I’d pay it. And to be fair, it’s not like presidential college records never get revealed to the public; they have been since '99, so this is hardly an outlier.
I know you say the risk is zero. I get that. Since neither of us is God, and Cecil isn’t saying, I guess there’s no way to objectively measure.
You don’t get it because that’s not what I am saying. I am saying that if he released the records or leaked them, they would not find them satisfactory. This is exactly what happened with the birth certificate. They demanded the birth certificate, he released it, and they came up with a bunch of bullshit reasons why it wasn’t really what they wanted and kept saying he was a fraud, and why oh why wouldn’t he just released the real document - wasn’t it so suspicious that he wasn’t responding to a such simple request?
This is the same thing. If he releases his grades, they’ll say there is something wrong. The seal looks fake, or the grades look inflated, or some other issue. These people are essentially immune to reason because their issue with him is not a rational one based on policy, it’s one based on a fundamental problem with who he is. (I say that as I argue with a few of them in another thread. Call it an anti-intellectual exercise.) There’s no point in releasing them because they will not make the whackos go away. They have already proved that facts will not deter them.
And when you say “every candidate since '99”… that means Bush, Gore, and Kerry. Three people. That’s not really enough to justify the word “every.” Particularly since few if any candidates released their grades before that, and given the irrelevance of this issue in the real world.
Fox News really is incompetent?
The Washington Times could not find a genuine fact if they were given two years and an unlimited Moonie budget?
World Net Daily is not a genuine news service?
Drudge only finds stuff when it is handed to him on a platter?
I am not sure that your implications of bias actually suggest the conclusions you hope to see.
The only “risk” is to the Republicans, in that they might be damaged by association, however tangential, to this lunatic nonsense. If anything, Obama has every reason to get it on the table.
Or maybe his admittance as part of HLS’s outreach program for Kenyan Muslims.
This crap is all about the nut-right’s refusal to accept that he was indeed legitimately chosen by his fellow Americans as the President, and that their fellow Americans could do such a thing and still be true Americans, which only they are and he isn’t, et cetera ad nauseam. Can’t reach 'em, just pat their heads and move on.
There is no principle or substance there. I don’t care if it’s birthers or school-transcriptors, or what/ What’s next? Demanding blood tests because he’s suspected of being a space monster?
It’s stupid. It’s a waste of time. Only a moron would take any of it seriously at this point. There is no reason to dignify any of this mess with any sort of answer at all. None. Why dignify, as you yourself call them, the crackpots? Forget that. The ones at risk here are the crackpots, because they are turning off anyone who is logical or reasonable or has half a brain cell in their head.
According to the wingnut fringe, he’s hiding a lot more than bad grades. I won’t bother with cites here, but type “how did Obama pay for Harvard?” into Google and you’ll get about a million of them.
Supposedly Obama’s education was paid for by an unholy cabal of radical black activists and Muslims. Presumably these people are also the ones who arranged for his fake Hawaiian birth certificate. He was obviously being raised, if not actually bred, to be president someday, so he could destroy America in the service of either Islamic fundamentalism or international socialism. I’m not sure which.
So his transcripts might reveal who was picking up the tab for his education, which would reveal who’s really pulling the strings now, etc.
Funny. My wife and I laugh about this sometimes. She’s from a remote, rural area and grew up without any money whatsoever. And yet she managed to get through Harvard (undergrad and law school). She jokes that the same shadowy cabal that financed Obama’s education also must have paid for hers, but they forgot to tell her what she was supposed to do when she graduated. So she just got a job as a lawyer.
In fact, she paid for Harvard just like Obama did. Scholarships (mostly for her undergrad education) and loans (for law school). No big mystery there.