Rick Perry: a genius he ain't

[AdamT]

one of my closer friends-now with Lloyds of London after doing a stint with a major insurance firm in Cincinnati said essentially the same thing. Being very liberal he supported Obama but has become rather disillusioned. So did you go to Law school or are you just relating what your wife/girlfriend says?

all the major lawschools tend to be rather similar save for the size and the fact that Yale doesn't give first years' grades.

Yeah, I graduated from Tulane Law. Would have required a little affirmative action to get me into Harvard or Yale.

btw, the wife also graduated undergrad from Yale -- Summa, Phi Bet, and from the Kennedy School (joit degree). She's much smarter than I am!

 

[TurtleDude]

I do think that affirmative action played a part in Obama getting into HLS, but I don't have a problem with that. Affirmative action also played a role in Bush getting into Yale and Harvard B-School (i.e., family connections, legacies).

Yale yes though in the mid 60's it was common for Andover to send more than half of its class to Yale. bush had no legacy connections are Harvard B school

I can tell you Harvard and other top B schools are not nearly as focused on GPAs and scores as Law schools. I know dozens of people who went to top B schools who had B averages at yale but had good experience before going to B school. A B average would not get a white male into any Ivy league Law school but my brother who had a B average but ran a business at Yale got into Penn and Columbia and Tuck (Dartmouth) B schools.

I almost went to Harvard B school and when I spoke to the Dean of Admissions it was clear grades were not nearly as important as say Stanford Law or Chicago Law (which at the time was the only law school that actually included an interview as part of the admissions process-Richard Badger was dean then)

 

[RiverDad]

Look, you cannot graduate in the top 16% from Harvard Law and not be pretty smart.

I'm not denying that Obama is "pretty smart." Palin is pretty smart too. What I'm pointing out is that there are ways to game the system and until I see evidence that Obama took a typical course load at Harvard, the most parsimonious explanation for how he earned MCL honors is that he gamed the system by taking gut courses and bootlicking.

As for the 16% threshold that you're throwing around with an air of authority, you didn't provide a link for your authoritative declaration. I sure hope you didn't do a proportional adjustment and are now trying to pass it off as being the actual threshold.

Perhaps you should consider that anti-affirmative action (i.e., racism) might be behind your insistence that his clear academic achievement wasnt' really academic achievement.

Considered and rejected. It really boils down to parsimony. The most likely explanation in view of what we know of Obama's academic record is that he didn't earn his climb through the academic ranks on based on academic merit.

 

[TurtleDude]

Yeah, I graduated from Tulane Law. Would have required a little affirmative action to get me into Harvard or Yale.

btw, the wife also graduated undergrad from Yale -- Summa, Phi Bet, and from the Kennedy School (joit degree). She's much smarter than I am!

what year for your wife

btw did you ever know a law professor named Lloyd Bonfield at Tulane? I used to give him squash lessons many years ago

 

[RiverDad]

Conservative Brad Berenson, a member of the conservative group that elected Obama president of the Harvard Law Review, told Mendell that Obama was "picked completely on the merits" and race was irrelevant.

During the highly charged racial atmosphere on the HLS campus preceding and during the election, the charge that race was irrelevant is dubious. Secondly, even when race is a factor, even when it is the primary factor, in people's consideration, etiquette demands that the pink elephant in the room never be acknowledged. We all know this and this is why we never, ever, see people saying "Well, yes, he was chosen to be the token black person on the board."

These rules of etiquette apply equally to conservatives as they do to race-warrior liberals.

 

[AdamT]

what year for your wife

btw did you ever know a law professor named Lloyd Bonfield at Tulane? I used to give him squash lessons many years ago

Mmm, I think my wife graduated in '90, but I could be off by a year or two. That was law. Yale class of '84.

Bonfield! Yes, I knew him very well. I had him for trusts and estates and he was good friends with another professor who I worked for.

 

[AdamT]

During the highly charged racial atmosphere on the HLS campus preceding and during the election, the charge that race was irrelevant is dubious. Secondly, even when race is a factor, even when it is the primary factor, in people's consideration, etiquette demands that the pink elephant in the room never be acknowledged. We all know this and this is why we never, ever, see people saying "Well, yes, he was chosen to be the token black person on the board."

These rules of etiquette apply equally to conservatives as they do to race-warrior liberals.

Yes, that sort of thing can happen. It can also happen the other way, as in, "well, you and your wife (both black) are lovely and we will certainly give you serious consideration for membership in our country club (not).

 

[winston53660]

Yes, that sort of thing can happen. It can also happen the other way, as in, "well, you and your wife (both black) are lovely and we will certainly give you serious consideration for membership in our country club (not).

You should check out the Dallas Country Club. In all my years going there there never was a black member. Even A-Rod couldn't get in when he was with the Texas Rangers.

 

[AdamT]

Yale yes though in the mid 60's it was common for Andover to send more than half of its class to Yale. bush had no legacy connections are Harvard B school

I can tell you Harvard and other top B schools are not nearly as focused on GPAs and scores as Law schools. I know dozens of people who went to top B schools who had B averages at yale but had good experience before going to B school. A B average would not get a white male into any Ivy league Law school but my brother who had a B average but ran a business at Yale got into Penn and Columbia and Tuck (Dartmouth) B schools.

I almost went to Harvard B school and when I spoke to the Dean of Admissions it was clear grades were not nearly as important as say Stanford Law or Chicago Law (which at the time was the only law school that actually included an interview as part of the admissions process-Richard Badger was dean then)

I could be wrong, but I think that there were some Bushes who went to Harvard. In any case, I'm quite sure that the fact that his father was a Congressman and that his grandfather had been a U.S. Senator didn't escape their notice.

 

[TurtleDude]

Mmm, I think my wife graduated in '90, but I could be off by a year or two. That was law. Yale class of '84.

Bonfield! Yes, I knew him very well. I had him for trusts and estates and he was good friends with another professor who I worked for.

cool, what college at Yale was your wife? I ended up in Morse

 

[RiverDad]

You should check out the Dallas Country Club. In all my years going there there never was a black member. Even A-Rod couldn't get in when he was with the Texas Rangers.

You're just pointing that out right? You're not implying that there is anything wrong with that, right?

 

[TurtleDude]

I could be wrong, but I think that there were some Bushes who went to Harvard. In any case, I'm quite sure that the fact that his father was a Congressman and that his grandfather had been a U.S. Senator didn't escape their notice.

My dad went to Yale-and unlike Bush was recipient of the Master's award of the student who showed the most promise. He went to a rival, equally prestigious prep school. I still have his class of 44 yearbook. Just about every man had Navy, Marines or Army and Yale, Harvard, Princeton. One who didn't was a famous legal scholar who went to U of Chicago. Other than him and a few Amherst and Williams types, almost everyone went to the Ivies. At yale, one of my roommates had gone to St Pauls. He knew at least 100 people at yale who had gone to St Pauls or schools he competed against in HS sports.

 

[TurtleDude]

Mmm, I think my wife graduated in '90, but I could be off by a year or two. That was law. Yale class of '84.

Bonfield! Yes, I knew him very well. I had him for trusts and estates and he was good friends with another professor who I worked for.

btw one of the top students in my college class went to Tulane Law. She had been accepted at Columbia and Harvard (she was PBK at Yale) but she married right out of college and her husband ended up in Tulane. She was from one of NO oldest Jewish families She was one of those people who didn't do well on standardized tests (she barely cracked 600 on the LSAT) but having a 3.9 made up for it. I see her at our reunions, she gave a slide show back in 06 talking about the floods

 

[haymarket]

You're just pointing that out right? You're not implying that there is anything wrong with that, right?

an all white country club??!?!?!?

 

[winston53660]

You're just pointing that out right? You're not implying that there is anything wrong with that, right?

Actually I think there is something wrong with that.

I think the bubble mentality is a horrible simulacrum of life devoid of depth or meaning and most importantly creativity.

 

[winston53660]

an all white country club??!?!?!?

And that operates as a non-profit.

 

[TurtleDude]

an all white country club??!?!?!?

the right of association bothers you?

I belong to a CC but it is not all white. It tends to attract top professionals and some memberships are based on your office-such as being the President of the University. makes no difference if you are white black or asian. but at one time-many years ago it was all white though unlike many other clubs it had Jewish and Catholic as well as protestant members. The most exclusive club in the city is a Jewish one

 

[RiverDad]

Actually I think there is something wrong with that.

I think the bubble mentality is a horrible simulacrum of life devoid of depth or meaning.

So a group of people can't form together and choose how they want to characterize their group?

 

[winston53660]

So a group of people can't form together and choose how they want to characterize their group?

Yeah they can do it. I can also have my opinion about too.


After all even the KKK has rights too.

 

[RiverDad]

Yeah they can do it. I can also have my opinion about too.

You response is interesting. First you acknowledge that they can exercise their fundamental human right. Second you hint that this right should be taken away from. If you really want to strip people of human rights why not just come right out and declare that to be so.

 

[winston53660]

You response is interesting. First you acknowledge that they can exercise their fundamental human right. Second you hint that this right should be taken away from. If you really want to strip people of human rights why not just come right out and declare that to be so.

I no way hinted their rights should be taken away. I said I have the right to my opinion of them.

 

[justabubba]

You response is interesting. First you acknowledge that they can exercise their fundamental human right. Second you hint that this right should be taken away from. If you really want to strip people of human rights why not just come right out and declare that to be so.

where the hell did that come from? it wasn't found within the post i read!

 

[Risky Thicket]

Interesting. such evidence was no where to be found in the media when he ran. of course since notes (articles are signed so that is a big of a mistake to claim it was an "article") are not signed there would be no real proof but for that letter than seems to have just "turned up"

now why won't obama release his HS and undergraduate grades?

The same reason Bush won't release his court, driving and military records. You people continue to defend fools and walk proud. Think about it.

 

[Deuce]

where the hell did that come from? it wasn't found within the post i read!

Absolutism. To some people, disagreeing with something is the same thing as thinking it should be banned/illegal/outlawed.

 

[haymarket]

So a group of people can't form together and choose how they want to characterize their group?

When I read so many of your posts I am tempted to run and check the calendar to make sure it is not 1958.