THE DAILY BLADE: Affirmative Action Is Antithetical To A True Meritocracy
In a recent column, Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum marveled that the “modern meritocrats” currently occupying the White House are not only “not admired, or at least not for their upward mobility, by many Americans” but instead are “resented as ‘elitist’:
Barack Obama, brought up by a single mother, graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law School, is president. Michelle Obama, daughter of a black municipal employee, graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, is first lady. They brought with them to Washington dozens more people, also from modest backgrounds, mostly not with inherited wealth, who have entered high government office thanks in part to their education. …
The backlash against graduates of "elite" universities seems particularly odd given that the most elite American universities have in the past two decades made the greatest effort to broaden their student bodies. …
[A]fter listening to O'Donnell's latest campaign ads - in which the Senate candidate declares proudly, "I didn't go to Yale . . . I am YOU" - I think something deeper must be going on as well. …
The old Establishment was resented, but only because its wealth and power were perceived as undeserved. Those outside could at least feel they were cleverer and savvier, and they could blame their failures on "the system." Nowadays, successful Americans, however ridiculously lucky they have been, often smugly see themselves as "deserving." Meanwhile, the less successful are more likely to feel it's their own fault - or to feel that others feel it's their fault - even if they have simply been unlucky.
In that last graf, Applebaum comes within one last unconnected dot to explain why the Chicago crowd is despised by many Americans as “out-of-touch elitists.” The supremely self-absorbed Obamas do not seem at all cognizant – much less grateful – that they were “ridiculously lucky” that universities “broadened” their student bodies to admit them, likely by denying admission to Asian or white students with better grades and higher standardized test scores (seventh item). Obama has never released his college transcripts (he did not graduate with honors, suggesting his GPA was between a 2.0 and a 3.3) and as the first biracial president of the Harvard Law Review, he never produced any legal scholarship of his own. As for Michelle Obama, Dinesh D'Souza said that the plethora of typos and grammatical errors in her undergraduate thesis (which was about herself, natch) “reflect an estranged relationship to the English language.” And she’s such a brainiac that she’s recently appeared in public wearing her sweater backwards.
Turkish Ultra-Nationalists Accused Of Murdering Catholic Bishop
Monsignor Ruggero Francheschini, Turkey's top Roman Catholic bishop accused Turkish ultra-nationalists and religious fanatics of plotting the murder of Monsignor Luigi Padovese, the Vatican's apostolic vicar in Anatolia in June. Francheschini told bishops gathered at the Vatican for a meeting to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East that Padovese was the victim of "premeditated murder" by the same forces that had murdered a priest in 2006 and three Christians in 2007. The Associated Press reports:
Padovese was stabbed to death, allegedly by his driver, outside his home in İskenderun on June 3, a day before he was to leave for Greek Cyprus to meet Pope Benedict XVI.
The slaying shocked the Turkish church and cast a cloud over Benedict's visit. It was the latest in a string of attacks in recent years on Christians in Turkey, where Christians make up less than 1 percent of the 70 million population.
Turkish officials have insisted the slaying was personal and not religious or politically motivated, and the driver's lawyer has said the suspect had mental problems. …
While some church officials and diplomats have quietly said the murder seemed suspect, Franceschini's comments were unusual in their bluntness. He said he wanted to set the record straight to erase the "intolerable slander circulated by the same organizers of the crime."
[Hat Tip: Keghart.com]
The Stiletto Scoops The WaPo
Arguably the least qualified candidate ever to seek the office of president – true, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had no foreign policy experience but they all had executive experience, having served full terms as governors of CA, AR and TX, respectively - Obama talked himself into the job and now he’s got to do it. But while the public was unforgiving of President Bush’s failures - and John McCain’s candidacy was hobbled because of them - Obama will be able to blame his ineptitude on Bush, and a biased MSM and a compliant Congress will let him get away with it. Despondent conservatives need to suck it up and gut it out until the 2010 mid-term elections, at which point voters may well decide that more or different change is needed than what they got in the 2008 election and the balance of power in Congress could shift back to Republicans. Then Obama will find that glibness and governance are not synonymous.
- Hope Triumphs Over Reason, The Stiletto Blog, November 5, 2008
How Obama approaches the coming years will depend in part on whether Democrats lose Congress or survive with narrower majorities. Yet no matter how the elections turn out, a consensus has emerged in the West Wing that Obama will have to set out goals that do not rely as much on Congress to advance his unfinished reform agenda. Even with his party now in control on Capitol Hill, Obama has had difficulty winning approval for big initiatives such as health care and financial regulation. After the grueling midterms, and with diminished ranks, Democrats will probably return for the new Congress in January more cautious. ... One thing the president did not plan for then was the public's growing discontent with his focus on health care and other priorities as the economy continued to falter - which led to a drop in his approval rating and helped fuel a backlash against Democratic candidates.
- Obama May Be On His Own If He Wants Big Changes, The Washington Post, October 17, 2010
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