My problem with Palin's self-described intellectual critics is not with what education they may have, but with the attitude they have adopted which compels them to believe that they are entitled to have a monopoly on our political system. They argue, as did Caroline Heldman (a professor of some sort) did on The O'Reilly Factor last Tuesday, that Palin's lack of an elite higher education is something which renders her "the least qualified vice presidential candidate we have ever had."
As the Brits would say, that is complete bollocks. I think that I can safely assume that Prof. Heldman's graduate education was not in the field of history. Right off of the top of my head, I can think of two past vice presidents whose qualifications would not have met Heldman's lofty standards: Chester Arthur and Harry Truman. Chester Arthur, who was elected vice president on the Republican ticket in 1880 with James Garfield, had never held elective office prior to that point. He had made a career as a Republican bureaucratic office-holder in the state of New York, maintaining a close relationship with a faction of the GOP known as the Stalwarts. Arthur was added to the 1880 ticket to placate the Stalwarts after Garfield, a favorite of another faction called the Half-Breeds, had garnered the presidential nomination.
Just months following the 1881 inauguration, Arthur was thrust into the presidency when President Garfield died after having been felled by an assassin's bullet. Once in the Oval Office, Arthur implemented a remarkably reformist agenda, best characterized by the Pendleton Act: an 1883 law which drastically overhauled our country's federal bureaucracy by establishing a professional, merit-based civil service system in place of the corrupt, politicized spoils system that the federal bureaucracy had devolved into. Arthur proved to be quite a good President, despite his lack of political experience.
But if one is to focus strictly upon a lack of academic qualifications, the vice president that comes to mind is Harry Truman, who never earned any academic degree. Nonetheless, Truman built up a political career by first being elected as a county judge in Jackson County, Missouri in 1922. Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, and after a decade in that legislative body he was chosen by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be his vice presidential running mate as Roosevelt sought re-election to a fourth term in office. Roosevelt chose Truman after key advisers had conviced Roosevelt to push the incumbent VP, Henry Wallace, aside out of concern over Wallace's extreme leftism.
Concerns over his lack of academic standing dogged Truman throughout his presidency, even after he had successfully assumed the office after Rossevelt's death in April 1945 and had guided the United States to victory in the closing months of World War II. Nonetheless, after completing two rocky terms as president which ended with the U.S. stuck in a quagmire in Korea and with his approval ratings in the proverbial cellar, Truman is now, like Arthur, thought of as having been a relatively good president.
Given the complaints of such critics as Mac Donald, one would think that if the GOP had nominated someone with a degree from an Ivy League school, all would be well. Well it just so happens that the GOP put someone with two Ivy League degrees at the top of their ticket in 2000 and 2004: George W. Bush. And the left-elitists called him stupid anyway.
Regarding the dismissive sneeering of the left-elitists, Greg Gutfeld understands what Heather Mac Donald does not:
So remember back in April, when Obama said rural folks cling to religion and guns, out of anger and bitterness? What he had expressed was an honest sentiment all liberals feel about the rest of America – that it's full of gap-toothed hicks brandishing pitchforks and gum disease- always looking for someone to hang or a stepdaughter to bang.***
No biggie: The left has always painted middle America as a bastion of pissed-off people suspicious of anyone different. But, oh, how times have changed.
This month, we've seen a huge realignment of the anger states – and the coasts are roasting in it. The rural types may cling to guns and religion, but because of Sarah Palin - their elitist adversaries are now clinging to their yoga mats and wheat grass shots.
Now, more than ever - the stereotype of the narrow-minded reactionary better fits its accuser – as everyone from Margaret Cho and Chevy Chase to Woody Allen and Sandra Bernhard are digging into Palin like a bowl of macrobiotic couscous.
In college football news, on Thursday night the Oregon State Beavers upset the no. 1-ranked USC Trojans 27-21. Somewhere, Bane (who lived in Corvallis) is smiling. Ave atque vale.
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