Time to Elect a High-GPA High IQ Candidate

Some facts about Obama/Biden and McPain

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude


Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.
John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899


Sarah Palin:
1978-1982: Wasilla High School, diploma, 2.2 GPA
1982: Hawaii Pacific College (dropped out)
1983: North Idaho Community College (dropped out)
1984-1985: University of Idaho (dropped out)
1985: Matanuska-Susitna Community College, AK (dropped out)
1986-1987: University of Idaho, BA Communications

What if the Obama/McPain parameters were reversed....

A friend of mine shared the following info about McPain and Obama/Biden.
Quite thought-provoking.

A question of perspective: Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?.. think about it.

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review and Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had married only once and Obama was a divorcee, having left his first wife after she survived a severe disfiguring car accident?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker and Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child? Would the polls be different?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Signing off on Signing Statements

As Sen. Obama is being nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for the Presidency, my thoughts turn to what he said about 'signing statements.'

George W. Bush has issued 155 signing statements, as of January 28, 2008. These statements let him cherry pick the parts (of the acts passed by Congress) that he would not enforce, rather than exercise a veto. In principle, these signing statements are a violation of the separation of responsibilities and power across the three branches.

Obama's stance on signing statements is that "No one doubts that it is appropriate to use signing statements to protect a president's constitutional prerogatives." This should be very disturbing to anyone who is systems oriented and process oriented.

On the other hand, hats off to Sen. McCain for saying that if elected president, he would issue no signing statements reserving the right to disregard parts of laws passed by Congress.

Selling Sen. McCain's Computer Illiteracy - WSJ's "Opportunity" Cost

Recently, Sen. McCain's admission that he can't use a Computer has been in the news.

Quite predictably and expectedly(just as sunrise every morning), the WSJ followed up with a story titled "Note to Next President: Avoid Computers" written by Lee Gomes. On its face this suggestion seems obviously stupid- no one can function in today's world without using technology, especially computers.

The crux of Mr. Gomes' argument is this - "Everyone has heard the puzzle about whether Bill Gates, upon walking to work, should bother to stop and pick up a quarter he saw on the sidewalk. Yes, the quarter is bright and shiny, but a careful assessment of the situation would reveal that, for someone of that earning potential, the time spent retrieving the coin could be spent much more profitably at the office. At least in theory.

For a president, a computer can be a similar distraction. Sure, he could spend five minutes reading an especially insightful blog post from one of his core constituencies. But it would be better for him to be spending the time having coffee with the person thinking the thoughts that the world will be blogging about a week or a month hence."

Perhaps Mr. Gomes doesn't know, but this is called Opportunity Cost. If the opportunity cost of the time spent in picking up a quarter is less than a quarter, then Bill Gates should pick up the quarter. This has nothing to do with the 'average cost' of Mr. Gates' time. Perhaps Mr. Gomes is not aware that Mr. Gates worked at Microsoft for many years for an annual salary of $1. Clearly, according to Mr. Gomes, he should have spent his time doing something else.

A President can have his aides assist him in keeping up-to-date and responding to constituents. This should be separated from the desire and the capability to use a computer. One can blame the current myriad problems facing the country on the fact that President Bush has no curiosity, wants his people to give him 'short' soundbites, and 'delegates.'

If Mr. Gomes had titled his article along the lines of "President Should Use His Time Judiciously" it would make sense but it would be stating the obvious. Telling the next President to "avoid computers" is a rather blatantly obvious attempt to portray McCain's computer illiteracy in a positive light.

As a side note, my mother, who is 73 years old, took an 'Introduction to Computers" course this summer and now does email and online chat and reads newspapers online. What makes it all the more remarkable is that she took courses in English for four years prior to this, as she had never studied English before and she never got an opportunity to go to high school. She is incredibly curious, and has a great desire to learn- something our current President and Sen. McCain have not demonstrated.