American non-genius update: Kerry’s no scholar, apparently
I still say Bush is dumber than straw, but all of a sudden I respect Kerry a whole lot less.
Kerry, Bush score similar grades at Yale
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSBOSTON — Sen. John F. Kerry’s academic performance at Yale University was virtually identical to President George W. Bush’s academic record, despite repeated portrayals of Kerry as being more intellectual than his Republican rival, The Boston Globe reported yesterday. (Story.)
Oh well. As I have observed before, our political system is not structured so as to assure that our best and brightest will rise to leadership positions. In fact, it’s almost ideally geared to guarantee a worst case scenario. The more I have thought about it, the more I suspect history will remember last year’s election as a contest between the worst the Democratic Party had to offer and the worst any party has ever had to offer.
Kerry may have been the better choice, but damned, talk about setting the bar low…..
[THX: Nicked from netius on .]
lullaby pit 
An argument could be made that Kerry wasn’t the better choice, but everyone’s so polarized that arguments are futile.
Aloha,
Jeff
I think there are a couple distinct arguments here. One is whether Kerry was a GOOD choice, and the other is whether he was the BETTER choice.
You can read everything I ever wrote on the subject without finding a WORD of me exalting Kerry as Rushmore material. Truth is, I never thought he’d be anything special at all, and I saw a number of ways a Kerry administration could turn out badly.
However, there was little doubt in my mind that he was better than Dubya on any number of measures (although as of today the “innately more intelligent” argument is somewhat weaker). On this point, we’re all going to have to wait and see – history will have an opinion on Bush, and unless the history books are being written by hardcore neocons, I don’t expect them to be very kind to his legacy. I’d bet what little money I actually have these days on it, in fact. I expect Bush to be remembered as one of the worst presidents ever, or at least of our age. And given how I feel about the likes of LBJ and Carter, that’s saying something.
If there is any good news in this for online commententators like me, it’s that at least I’m not saddled until 2008 with the chore of defending my vote. I have no doubt that by now the honeymoon would be over and I’d be whipping President Kerry harder than I ever did Clinton (and I went to conferences and did things like present papers stomping the hell out of Clinton/Gore policies – something far more formal than I have ever done over my problems with Bush policies).
A little off subject
I am too lazy to be political but I LOVE this picture of Ronan! If you ever find Jack sheets you have to contact me.
Re: A little off subject
You figure SOMEBODY has to be making Jack sheets somewhere.