Wherein I Pwn Myself

The thread that was supposed to be about McCain's and Palin's appearance got derailed, by myself, when I interjected an unrelated question about why Barack Obama's grades and transcripts haven't been released.

Based on the comments in that thread, it seems I'm wrong. Way wrong.

However, I kind of want to get rid of that diversion in that thread and let it stand with the original post.

So I'm moving the evidence of my pwnag3 here. Not to hide it -- it's still here -- just to let that post talk about what it should be talking about, rather than how stupid I am.

Below the fold, all the material from that post, including my final acceptance of my almost-certain pwning.

I suppose the liberals have some valid reasons to complain -- it is somewhat hard to question or attack a woman without seeming sexist.

And we on the right can relate. And so can Hillary Clinton. Because Barack Obama skated by this entire campaign with almost zero press scrutiny, because he's black.

And something that's perfectly normal in the course of a campaign -- asking a low-achieving C- average candidate for his shitty-grade college transcript -- has been scrupulously avoided, because of fears of playing into supposedly still-potent racial bias that "all blacks are dumb."

Well, no, not all blacks. But this one, yeah. If George Bush was a moron for getting a C average at Yale, what are we to make of a C- student at, excuse me, not to be elitist, but what the fuck was that school's name again? Ah yes, "Occidental."

Part of speech?

Adjective, though sometimes used as a noun.

Definition?

"An unknown not-terribly-competitive school often called by its nickname 'Accidental U.'"

Can you use the word in a sentence?

Yes: "Slippery Rock is my dream school, Gonzaga State is my back-up, but Occidental is my safety."

Is race hurting Obama? Surely you jest. Let's get this Dummy's transcript out there so everyone can judge if he has the "intellectual curiosity" to be president.

I seem to remember all of this being a rather big deal when George W. Bush was running.

Corrections: Seattle Slough says Obama spent two years at Occidental and two at Columbia, which I didn't know. Both he and grc say that Occidental is a "fine" college.

Okay, I guess I erred on those two points. I'm leaving the stuff up not to show my error, but because I think the joke is still funny.

But this doesn't change the fact is that Obama hasn't released his grades. What's he hiding?

Um, he's hiding the obvious.

Not So Obvious! DelD speculates out of his ass so authoritatively he ought to be a blogger--

Hey, Ace, wouldn't get too invested in this "Barack's grades suck, which is why he won't release them meme".

Speaking as someone who's taught for a while at a liberal arts college roughly comparable to Occidental, I can say that Barack was at worst probably a B or B- student.

A combination of grade inflation and unofficial but prevalent affirmative action protection would have prevented most of his professors from giving him much less than a B- .

Of course that B- average would be functionally equivalent to Kerry and Bush's C-, but those were earned at Yale in the early 60s, before the widespread grade inflation of the 70s.

(Professor inflated grades in the 70s to keep students out of the draft, and then continued and expanded because it was less trouble than giving real grades.)

I'd be willing to be that Barack's Occidental GPA is exactly 2.87. (I could be wrong, but I'd bet not much.)

And, he did much better at Columbia, where grade inflation was more entrenched in 1982, because the campus had been more radicalized, so probably a 3.2 or so. This would have given him the overall 3.0 he would have needed to get into Harvard Law.

Much more interesting to me would be to see Barack's SATs and LSATS.

I'm betting his SATs are in the high 1000s or low 1100s. Okay-ish for 1979 (before everyone took cram courses and they dumbed the test down) but hardly evidence of his superior intellect.

In fact, that's probably what they're trying to keep from coming out, but preventing the release of his transcripts.

I hereby retract my previous theory and endorse this one.

Look, there's some reason this stuff isn't being offered, and I doubt it's "to keep White Racists from being all threatened that not only is Barack Obama going to steal their White Women away from them, he's also going to steal their table at trivia night down at the local pub."

Scurvy Oaks Says I'm Way Off--

Man alive, Ace. Normally you're on target, but you're way off with this one. Here's why: Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991. I graduated from HLS in 1987. I don't think much changed in the intervening 4 years. There were some pretty unimpressive minds in the bottom third of so of my class. The broad middle of the class was quite sharp indeed. The portion of the class that graduated magna (a distinction based solely on a GPA cut-off) -- which included about 13% of my class, if memory serves -- ranged from powerfully smart to truly brilliant. Regardless of what his grades in college were, the magna at HLS is a stout credential. This line of attack is not the worth the effort.

Okay, if he was magna, I concede he must have had good grades throughtout his career (and even if he didn't, magna would trump that).

But I'd like a cite. And also... um, HLS's rules for magna cum laude at that time. As in: No "adjustments" for community organizing or that kind of bullshit.

At the moment, however, I am conceding, provisionally, that I have Pwn3d myself.

posted by Ace at 05:19 PM

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