BARACK, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, YOU READ MY BOOK! Er, or something like that:

And I just want to make a quick comment on that. A lot of parents, unfortunately, maybe when they saw a lot of manufacturing being offshored, told their kids you don’t want to go into the trades, you don’t want to go into manufacturing because you’ll lose your job. Well, the problem is that what happened — a lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career. But I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree. Now, nothing wrong with an art history degree — I love art history. (Laughter.) So I don’t want to get a bunch of emails from everybody. (Laughter.) I’m just saying you can make a really good living and have a great career without getting a four-year college education as long as you get the skills and the training that you need.

True. Of course, art history can lead to a good job if you develop strong reading, writing, and analytical skills, especially as an art history major who’s serious will be proficient at at least one foreign language. But, as always, that’s assuming it’s a rigorous art history major.

As a side note, if you’re going to encourage people to go into the trades to make a good living, you probably shouldn’t also be pushing an increase in immigrants who’ll compete with them.

And, alas, Obama does recycle the dumb and debunked line that women make 77 cents for every dollar men make. Maybe he should go back for some remedial study himself.