Ben Smith & Jonathan Martin of Politico seem to think so:
WATERLOO, Iowa — Rick Perry came to Michele Bachmann’s home town Sunday evening and schooled the newly minted Iowa front-runner in her native state’s demanding retail political culture.
[snip]
But the contrast that may lift Perry, and undermine Bachmann, in their high-stakes battle for Iowa had less to do with what they said than how they said it — and what they did before and after speaking.
Perry arrived early, as did former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The Texas governor let a media throng grow and dissolve before working his way across the room to sit at table after table, shake hand after hand, pose for photographs and listen politely to a windy Abraham Lincoln impersonator, paying respect to a state that expects candidates, no matter their fame, to be accessible.
But Bachmann campaigned like a celebrity. And the event highlighted the brittle, presidential-style cocoon that has become her campaign’s signature: a routine of late entries, unexplained absences, quick exits, sharp-elbowed handlers with matching lapel pins, and pre-selected questioners.
Calling Rodney Dangerfield. Michele needs help!
Well, speaking of schooling, someone released Perry’s college transcript. Sure enough, that good ol’ boy was quite the dummy at Texas A&M.
Interestingly, no one released Bachmann’s transcripts. Could it be that she got really good grades? Winona State University – BA; O. W. Coburn School of Law, part of Oral Roberts University – JD; William & Mary School of Law- LL.M.
I think Bachmann should release her transcripts and compare them to Perry’s. I think she should also challenge Obama to release HIS transcripts. Probably C’s & D’s like Perry. And like McCain. And like Gore. And like Kerry. And like Bush. Anyone else seeing a trend here?
This could be a huge campaign theme. “Look at what we have been offered: C, D, & F students. The last good student offered was Clinton. Maybe this is why we have such a mess. Let’s get someone who wasn’t the class dummy to be President.”
I mean, if she can force BO’s hand (“Smartest President Ever.”), or someone releases his transcripts, she could be off and running. It could be lethal.
Bad college grades and adult intelligence are not closely related. It might even be a negative correlation.
Half of college graduates, including doctors and scientists, graduated in the lower half of their class.
The only reason it’s important for Little Lenin is that he has painted himself as an academic genius. But he probably got decent grades and has held his transcripts back in order to publish them at an opportune time.
For Perry and any other candidate who hasn’t bragged on his or her brilliance (ala Biteme), grades don’t matter a whit.
Yeah, because (alleged) high academic performance has proved such a robust indicator of leadership capability.
Looks to me as if the country is looking for a break from these intellectual geniuses who are so effectively driving the economy and the nation’s standing into the ground, and looking to men and women who have an actual track record of positive executive performance and job creation.
To wit–compare the multi-year job creation record of the “C & D” Governor of Texas to that of the Harvard Lawyer President, who to this day refuses to disclose his grades, but whose adherents claim has an IQ of 160, and whose very admission to Harvard Law School presupposes an outstanding undergraduate academic record (unless he was perhaps admitted despite a poor undergraduate record?).
Right now the country is being run by “Intelectuals”. We can see what that got us. What this country needs is good ole Common Sense. Whoever has the common sense would naturally have a proven track record.
I’m 54 years old. By far, the greatest president of my lifetime went to Eureka College. The last four presidents all went to Ivy League universities and each has been a disappointment or worse.
It’s also instuctive to note a couple things:
1. In the days before grade inflation, a C grade meant average. Unlike today, colleges didn’t go by the “Pay your fee and get a B. Go a day and get an A” policy.
2. Every popular conservative in my memory has been called a dunce or worse.
The 2012 Republican Presidential Primary Candidates
One of the trends I find “exceptional” about the USA today is the number of religious sects and cults participating directly in the electoral process. The leading contender for the Republican nomination for President, Gov. Mitt Romney, is a Mormon, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a religion considered heretical by many mainstream Christians like nearly all mainstream Protestant Churches and the Catholic Church.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas began his Presidential campaign by organizing a “Christian only” evangelical, and “dominionist” prayer meeting called “The Response: a call to prayer for a nation in crisis.” “Dominionism” is the belief that holds the Holy Bible as dominant over laws made by man. For an examination of the relationship between Gov. Perry and the controversial “New Apostolic Reformation” movement, see the Texas Observer’s article “Rick Perry’s Army of God” http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god. “The Response” was a gathering of the different tribes of American fundamentalism – Christian Zionists, prayer warriors, apostolic and prophetic types, etc. – under the umbrella of political and spiritual revival, see Rachael Maddow’s special report: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908//vp/44098787#44098787
Like Governor Perry, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann espouses a “dominionist” religious perspective and spent her student years in law school studying the “dominionist” approach to society, law and government, see John Chait’s article in the New Republic: http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/90014/michelle-bachmanns-worldview.
Gov. Sarah Palin is a member of a “The Wasilla Assembly of God.” The “Wasilla Assembly” is a member of the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1914, in the United States. The ‘Four Core Beliefs’ of the Assemblies of God are Salvation, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Divine Healing and the Second Coming of Christ. A dramatic insight into Pentecostalism is found in the 1997 film, The Apostle written, directed and starring Robert Duvall, as a charismatic “Pentecostal” preacher. Pentecostals are known to “speak in tongues:” see a clip from Duvall’s movie, The Apostle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FwMu9WW_bg.
The Apostle’s main character” Sonny” is what social scientists once politely referred to as “Other Protestants.” Sonny was actually a preacher in the traditional holiness movement, distinct from the Pentecostal movement, which believes that the baptism in the Holy Spirit involves speaking in tongues. Many of the early Pentecostals were from the holiness movement, and to this day many “classical Pentecostals” maintain much of holiness doctrine and many of its devotional practices, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiness_movement.
Modern “dominionism” is largely unknown to most Americans. The list of unknown schismatic sects, cults, groups, exotic beliefs and churches, which the contenders for the Republican nomination belong to or are in agreement with, is “exceptional.” The religious fringe, it seems, has become the Protestant mainstream.
Today’s Republicans could be re-branded the “Christian Republican Party.” The center core of Protestant faith has migrated from “Liberal Protestantism” to an entrepreneurial-style, evangelist and fundamentalist faith, which votes heavily on the Republican Row. It was once believed that such sects originated mainly among the religiously neglected poor. Clearly, this is now no longer the case. It has been argued by social scientists that insecurity, differential status and anxiety characterize these religious movements. The effects of the Great Recession and the affects of geographic relocation and workplace displacement have contributed to a sense of anxiety and anomie among the American middle-class.
Ernst Troeltsch, the major historian of sectarian religion, has characterized the psychological appeal of fundamentalist religious sects in a way that might as appropriately be applied to extremist politics. A direct connection between the social roots of political and religious extremism has been observed in a number of countries. It was observed by the American sociologist S. M. Lipset, as early as the 1960s that, “the point here is that rigid fundamentalism and dogmatism are linked to the same underlying characteristics, attitudes, and predispositions which find another outlet in allegiance to extremist political movements.”
Many western democracies have “Christian Democratic Parties,” the US, because it is “exceptional,” has a “Christian Republican Party.” The candidates for the Republican nomination have made their religious views of scripture known, by degrees. To discover what these candidates deeply and sincerely believe requires the investigative work of a “large metropolitan newspaper.”
The ascendancy of the “nouveau fundamentalist Protestant elite” to high leadership positions in the Republican Party needs to be understood as a serious step toward a profound redefinition of church and state in America. The ascendancy of hard-core chronic “know-nothing-ism” and “anti-intellectualism,” so eloquently written about by Columbia historian Richard Hofstadter, and sectarian belief systems, is undoubtedly “exceptional” for a modern mass political party with governmental responsibilities. While it is argued that Europe is experiencing a “crisis of faith,” the United States is experiencing a revivalism parallel with the Second Great Awakening of the 1800s.
The decline of mainstream Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Episcopalians as forces affecting the direction of the Republican Party, has been statistically significant, and the rise of “Other Protestants,” and sects, has marked a realignment of voting patterns and political commitment.
Is it possible to image Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy organizing a 30,000 person “Catholics only” prayer service as a campaign launch? One of the famous quotes from Kennedy’s address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, during the 1960 national election, was, “I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.”
Interesting, it was just yesterday that I predicted that we would soon see the new flavor of Soros trolls, armed with professionally offline-packaged post and links to pseudo-mainstream sites to spew misinformation and propaganda.
I love it when I’m right. And so soon!! Mr. Perry has accelerated the process dramatically.
Don’t disappoint me, Lawrence, by getting angry and personal. I also have stated that paid kooks like yourself keep their cool and won’t go all Olberman on us. Leave that to the twitching Paulistas and our occasional foaming basement dwellers.
Also, Lawrence, your guys back office nuts need to upgrade their game from mslsd, texas observor and wikipedia. We all know that they are controlled by Soros. It will take more work, but you need to dig out some stuff you can twist around from heritage, cato, and the big conservative sites. It will help your credibility.
Now me, as an unchurched Christian/Protestant prefer WASP presidents — Episcopalians. Like FDR, George Bush I, Washington. What was Ike? He’s my ALL ROUND favorite president.
If you look at the list of the “smartest” presidents of the 20th Century, it would likely be Wilson, Hoover, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, and of that gorup, only the last one got out with the country in moderately good shape only because he was smart enough to stop listening to Hillary and her friends and started listening to Dick Morris. So so much for edumaction being the end-all, be-all into what makes a good president.
As for Bachmann, assuming traits that start reminding people of the promptnessunpreparedness of Clinton and Obama is just one problem. She — or at least her Ed Rollins-led campaign — seems to be going all out to try and kneecap Sarah Palin’ as part of a move to kill any potential Palin campaign in the crib before it has a chance to get going. While that may be smart politics if you think your core voters might defect to Sarah, it also means if the reports are true and the story has legs, that Palin’s core supporters may decide to go to anyone but Michelle Bachmann if Sarah in the end opts not to enter the race.
When I was at Michigan State I was an average student, except in courses I was interested in. When I joined Social Security I met several Mensas that couldn’t find their ways out of a paper bags.
One might conclude my initial performance wasn’t reflective of my educational potential. When I was placed in an SSA 2 year Staff Development Program and took Graduate Level University courses and later attended a full Paralegal Program I got straight A’s.
Several of our best Talk Radio Hosts have what might be described as “on-the-job training” as compared to College-level learning and they handily beat out “Educated” slouches.
Formal education serves in teaching “Learning How to Learn.”
Governor/Candidate Perry has shown an outstanding capacity to learn and evolve into a first rate leader.
In my personal opinion he ranks very favorably against the competition.
One of my favorite Richard Feynman stories is The Mensa Fiasco.
Feynman HATED organizations like Mensa. “They sit around all day and debate who is WORTHY of ‘Joining Us’”.
So when Mensa called, he would say: “Sorry I can’t join…my IQ is only 122.” Which was true: he never filled in questions that didn’t interest him. And then he would give a characteristic cackle-laugh…
Same thing was true of the National Academy of Sciences. Dick resigned citing the above paragraph two as his reason.
Interesting discussion…. and amusing anecdote from Good Ole Charlie.
Who knows the relationship between college grades, or even IQ, and political success? It’s a different part of the brain. As one who did pretty well at two Ivy League universities – more like Clinton than Gore, say – I don’t feel faintly qualified to be a political leader. Nor do I have the belly for it.
I do know that it is something other than intellectual prowess that makes others follow you. And if were intellectual prowess, someone like Feynman would be president. How good would that be? I’m skeptical.
IQ is a measure of puzzle solving ability and a few intellectual building blocks, useful skills, but ones that in life are usually handled by functionaries.
The rare peiople who have the kind of intelligence that shapes the world operate in a different realm entirely.
The examples of people with average intelligence who changed the world are legion.
School is often about memorization and learning to learn, and sometimes, applying that select learning in controlled laboratory settings.
Life is about understanding how the rubber meets the road – and what to do when the rubber explodes before, during or after said encounter, in an uncontrolled and often uncontrollable non-laboratory environment.
Academia is neat, tidy, contained and abstract. Life is messy, creative, inventive, and both pro and reactive.
If the Wright brothers had proposed the flying machine in an academic setting, they would’ve been ridiculed and graded accordingly. We’d also still be traveling by land.