Empty Suit Esquire

When Barack Obama was running for and/or fairly new in office, the left – and others who are impressed with such things – were all dewy-eyed over Barack Obama’s “intelligence” – as measured by the toniness of the diplomas on his wall.

He was an Ivy Leaguer, of course – ending the long national nightmare of our presidential Ivy League drought.

But as I pointed out at the time, not only is the toniness of ones’ degree utterly immaterial to ones suitability for the Presidency, there’s a case to be made that an Ivy League degree (other than in, say, medicine, hard sciences or physics) is a liability in the real world.

P.J. O’Rourke – one of the people who turned me conservative, and a fellow grad of an obscure school (he: Miami of Ohio) – agrees:

Barack Obama went to an Ivy League school, not that he’s doing very well in his career at the moment. Let’s check on the most successful people in America. Sarah Palin went to the University of Idaho. Warren Buffet went to Nebraska. John Boehner went to Xavier. Glenn Beck didn’t go to college at all [to say nothing of Limbaugh – Ed.]. And I’m not sure whether Justin Bieber’s mother even finished high school. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates did go to Harvard but​…​they dropped out.

O’Rouke is actually responding to Amy Chua, Ivy League professor and author of Tiger Mom, a manifesto on raising children to take up more space in the Ivy League.   But the larger point – the one that applies to our President – is…:

Amy Chua, I’ve got bad news. “A” students work for “B” students. Or not even. A businessman friend of mine corrected me. “No, P. J.,” he said, “ ‘B’ students work for ‘C’ students. ‘A’ students teach.”

And that, really, sums up The One.  He came; he studied; he punched the tickets one must punch to be a Chicago Democrat.

And as with an awful lot of Ivy Leaguers whose main stated qualification is that they were Ivy Leaguers, not a whole lot else.

26 thoughts on “Empty Suit Esquire

  1. “I always envied the fellows who went to Harvard. Wouldn’t it be swell to be on the Crimson gravy train? I’d probably be a government big shot by now, undermining U.S. foreign policy, or a CEO running some industry into the ground.”
    – P.J. O’Rourke, September 1986, from “Holidays in Hell” p 150.
    How prescient those words were then.

  2. An Ivy League diploma seems an expensive route to the title “Community Organizer”.

  3. I have yet to see any evidence of Obama’s high intelligence. Harvard is so anxious to produce black JD’s he could have handed in blank sheets of paper and graduated cum laude. And don’t get me started about Obama being the first black president of HLR. It is an elected position, it is not awarded for merit.
    Today “genius” Holder and “genius” Obama have announced that Khalid Sheik Muhamad will be tried by military tribunal rather than by the civilian trial in NY they had hoped for.
    Any F’n idiot could have figured out that a NY trial was out of the question. Even the talking heads on TV knew this. This administration is not characterized by intelligence any more than it is characterized by wisdom or compassion.
    What does characterize this administration is shifting money from people who are not its political supporters to people who are. Kind of sounds like Chicago style politics, doesn’t it?

  4. ‘A’ students teach. We are getting quite a lesson in the fragility of democracy, aren’t we? I hope we survive to get our four year diploma and elect a real leader.

  5. What about the reports that no one can find his Columbia transcripts or any proof that he went there. This was pointed out in this article and has subsequently resurfaced.

    http://www.nysun.com/new-york/obamas-years-at-columbia-are-a-mystery/85015/

    Further, I recently saw a piece that was leaked about both Obumbler and his wife, voluntarily surrendered their law licenses in IL. The piece pointed out that this is the last step that IL Lawyers take when the stuff is about to hit the fan on an investigation of their actions by the Bar. I’m trying to find it.

  6. About 20% of Fortune 500 CEO’s are college drop-outs. Usually, the most successful CEO’s.

  7. Barack Obama is no mystery. He’s a Fabian Socialist who hates the United States. It could not be more plain.

  8. Thanks Bill C, another mind-numbing exercise in paranoia courtesy the birther who brought us World Net Daily. Christians have the Bible, Mitchketeers have crap like this.

    Further, I recently saw a piece that was leaked about both Obumbler and his wife, voluntarily surrendered their law licenses in IL.

    Didja now boss? Don’t clear any room on your mantle for that Pulitzer yet; ever hear of Snopes?:

    This is incorrect: Barack Obama did not “surrender” his law license. Like Michelle, Barack Obama had no need for an active law license for the work in which he was enaged, so he chose not to maintain it (but unlike his wife he “voluntarily retired” rather than going on “voluntarily inactive” status). Neither of the Obamas was irrevocably stripped of their law licenses through theta action of “surrendering” them.

    Boss, you might want to consider spending less time plumbing the depths with the bottom-feeders over at Free Republic and a little more time brushing up on some basic search engine skills.

  9. Well Tim, since neither Barry nor the First Klingon ever actually practiced law, it was a small price to pay for advancing their political aspirations.

  10. Uh, Timmy, just like you, snopes ain’t exactly 100% accurate. Although, I would give them credit for about 90% accuracy. You, more like 10.

    And if I want the opinion of a useful idiot libturd, I’ll give it to you! Tool!

  11. I see the Branch AlGoreans (Deegee over at PenisBlog) have a new boogieman to hate: *cue Blazing Saddles* … Jason Lewis, Jason Lewis…

    .

    If an Ivy Leaguer blames man for glowbull warming does that make it so?

  12. Bill C’s link says Barry’s mother made some porno photo shoots. Now, I don’t like crazy rumor web sites (remember the Hillary stories from 15 years ago), but if so, kind of contrast to GWB’s mother Barbara Bush.

  13. Um, the last time I looked, Yale and Harvard were in the Ivy League, and W. was a graduate of both.

  14. Timmy thinks that Snopes is an authoritative source? No wonder he is confused.

  15. I am still astounded that no one has gotten a copy of Obama’s birth certificate. It wouldn’t be difficult if you have the resources of a law firm or a millionaire. Hawaii law say that parties with a legitimate interest can get a copy. It specifically includes siblings as being interested parties.
    So pay one of his poverty stricken half-brothers to get a copy from the State of Hawaii.
    It ain’t rocket science.

  16. Timmy thinks that Snopes is an authoritative source?
    Timmy thinks Obama is the leader of the free world. It’s hard to disabuse the ignorance of the willing.

  17. Timmy is dickcheese, but I hesitate to jump on conspiracy theories until the red-hot smoking gun is produced.

    That being said, Barry’s continued refusal to produce a frickin’ birth certificate does bother me.

  18. Hey Tim, go ahead and prove any of Baldwin’s points wrong. Saying “OMG HE IS TEH CRAZEE WND BIRTHER!!!” is 3rd grade material.

    Not that I expect anything better…

  19. George Bush received an honorable discharge from the Texas Air National Guard. There is absolutely no reason to look further into his military career. Absolutely none. An official document is an official document, after all. You would have to be crazy to question anything about Bush’s military record.

  20. FYI, Swiftee, if you go to the web site of Charles Johnson, you will see why he is called “Mad King Charles”. At 8:53 AM Saturday Johnson uses his blog to condemn Terry Jones as a bigot, a “pathetic coward”, and a “twisted, immoral man”. At 11:51 AM Sunday Johnson praises PZ Meyers, the UM Morris prof who demonstrated his contempt for religion by very publically pounding a nail through the consecrated host.
    Meyers says that he used the same nail to pierce several pages of the Khoran.

  21. Pingback: Our Not-So-Bright Critical Class | Shot in the Dark

  22. The fever swamp of conspiracy theorists ion full display @ SiTD

    This is definitely not the Algonquin round table….

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