FTA: All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities. For the other slots, the president-elect made do with graduates of Georgetown and the Universities of Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.

Oh, my, is there no one from the powerhouse Regent University?!?

In other news, the bureau chief for "Mother Jones" wrote a piece in today's WashPost that Obama's team wasn't liberal enough for him.

This is already turning into a shiat-show. I don't support Obama, but I feel bad about how he's going to be crucified by all sides.

University of Michigan? Ugh, I can smell the failure from here.

What, no one from Bob Jones University? Surely this group is destined for failure.

University of VA? Heh, only tools go there.

I know...it's a shock, isn't it? I totally remember how Obama was criticized for nothing until November 6th. It was the craziest thing.

Give me too smart over too dumb any day. I may like to hang out with Joe 6-Pack, but I don't necessarily wanting him deciding whether to bomb Iran or something based on what his gut says. Academics may make the wrong decision, but at least they've probably studied the consequences.

All agree that the picks reveal something about Obama, suggesting he will make decisions much as he did in the U.S. Senate -- by bringing as many smart people into the room as possible and hearing them out. This contrasts with the style of President Bush, who played down his own Ivy League credentials and played up his mangled elocutions and the gentleman's C's he received at Yale and Harvard. While Bush brought in a few academics, such as former Stanford provost Condoleezza Rice, he relied heavily on his Texas associates and business executives outside the Ivy League echelons he encountered in his schooling.

Obamba FTW

While Obama's picks have been lauded for their ethnic and ideological mix, they lack diversity in one regard: They are almost exclusively products of the nation's elite institutions and generally share a more intellectual outlook than is often the norm in government.

Better hire some tokens from Hollywood Upstairs Community College.

They need two new cabinet positions -- a Secretary of Smart, and a Secretary of Kicking Ass. The Smart guy will come up with cool stuff, and the one designated to kick ass will make sure it gets done.

_{/Plus, how cool would the title "Secretary of Kicking Ass" be?}

I actually witnessed my first anti-Obama protest last night.

Pretty impressive for a guy that hasn't even taken office yet.

That was the most pointless jumble of words I've seen in at least a week.

So the author would rather Obama choose more uneducated dolts to run the most important positions in the country? Because that worked so well for the past eight years.

Lionel Mandrake: While Obama's picks have been lauded for their ethnic and ideological mix, they lack diversity in one regard: They are almost exclusively products of the nation's elite institutions and generally share a more intellectual outlook than is often the norm in government.

Better hire some tokens from Hollywood Upstairs Community College.

Insularity is certainly a concern; brains, intellect, academic achievement, and intellectualism are not negatives.

/solid foundation of book-learning FTW!

Appointing people based on competence rather than sycophantic party loyalty is just not the American way.

Ah, you talk like a fag, and your shiat's all retarded.

This is the dumbest article I've ever farking read. Yes, it's time to be intellectual. Being dumb got us into this mess.

You need smart people instead of people like Brian Peppers or Cletus.

No love for Oral Roberts U? I knew Obama was a commie, but a satanist too? FFS!

make me some tea: That was the most pointless jumble of words I've seen in at least a week.

So the author would rather Obama choose more uneducated dolts to run the most important positions in the country? Because that worked so well for the past eight years.

In general, I agree with you, but the author, and anyone else who has studied Kennedy, is reminded of the smart, young Turks he put in charge. The only reason they're not considered the most incompetent administration since WWII is that they weren't in power long enough to fark anything else up (and the current administration really set a shocking standard of incompetence). I don't think there's firm agreement on why a bunch of smart people performed so poorly, but it's not unfair to examine whether Obama's choices might suffer from the same shortcomings.

My personal opinion: there's a reason academics only have jobs in academia.

Clearly, his cabinet will not have enough 'lectrolytes.

/It has what the electorate craves.

filth: My personal opinion: there's a reason academics only have jobs in academia.

Ah yes, those noted academics Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Tom Daschle, Rahm Emanuel, James Jones, Eric Shinseki, Bob Gates, Bill Richardson, and Tim Geithner. Why, there's not an ounce of real-world experience in the lot!

St_Francis_P: University of VA? Heh, only tools go there.

Yeah, that Thomas Jefferson guy, what a dick.

They haven't ceded Leesburg to West Virginia yet? Damn shame. Our tooth-to-mouth ratio would skyrocket. Now, if we could only fix Danville, Floyd, and Wise...

filth: My personal opinion: there's a reason academics only have jobs in academia.

Because when they leave academia, they're no longer academics?

ragekage: St_Francis_P: University of VA? Heh, only tools go there.

Yeah, that Thomas Jefferson guy, what a dick.

They haven't ceded Leesburg to West Virginia yet? Damn shame. Our tooth-to-mouth ratio would skyrocket. Now, if we could only fix Danville, Floyd, and Wise...

Uh...I went to UVa. Recalibrate your sarcasm detector.

St_Francis_P: ragekage: St_Francis_P: University of VA? Heh, only tools go there.

Yeah, that Thomas Jefferson guy, what a dick.

They haven't ceded Leesburg to West Virginia yet? Damn shame. Our tooth-to-mouth ratio would skyrocket. Now, if we could only fix Danville, Floyd, and Wise...

Uh...I went to UVa. Recalibrate your sarcasm detector.

Excuse me, but if you can't take everything you read on the internet as being 100% serious, especially on a site like FARK, then what's the point?

>



Seeya, dumbasses

make me some tea:
So the author would rather Obama choose more uneducated dolts to run the most important positions in the country? Because that worked so well for the past eight years.

That's a false dilemma.

Edsel: filth: My personal opinion: there's a reason academics only have jobs in academia.

Ah yes, those noted academics Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Tom Daschle, Rahm Emanuel, James Jones, Eric Shinseki, Bob Gates, Bill Richardson, and Tim Geithner. Why, there's not an ounce of real-world experience in the lot!

No academics, but I would hardly call politics "real world experience." Certainly not in America, at any rate. That's like saying a guy's a doctor because he played one on TV.

I agree with Jon Stewart, and would like to expand further on what he says. That I want my President, and by extension his advisers, to be smarter than me. I want them to be embarrassingly superior to me.

No more idiocy ruling us, please.

biatch, biatch, biatch, biatch, biatch

don'cha have anything else to do?
let the growups work.

Why not pull a Dubya and go after the Liberty University grads?

FTFA: "No doubt [Summers] is very smart, but you're not giving him the job based on his SAT scores," said economist Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research...

Robert Kuttner, co-founder of the liberal American Prospect magazine, said the problem with exalting credentials was demonstrated by the continued high reputation of Rubin, even though he supported the financial deregulation that is blamed for abetting the nation's economic collapse...

Obama's Harvard classmate Bradford Berenson, a Republican lawyer in Washington, countered that Obama showed an ability to evaluate people's true ability at the law review, where he elevated conservatives without regard for personal ties or politics.

What was that you said about knuckle draggers, subby?

Confabulat: I actually witnessed my first anti-Obama protest last night.

Pretty impressive for a guy that hasn't even taken office yet.

Your hillbilly inlaws throwing corn-pone at the dog whilst screaming "get that n**ger outer teh white house" does not a "Protest" make.

Sounds like the Simpsons episode where MENSA members tried to run the town.

First solution, all traffic lights are just red or yellow to speed up traffic.

/C'mon, stay yellow, stay yellow! Man, I'm making record time! If only I had some place to be...

Wait people in America actually complain about their leaders being intelligent?

Now that's farking hilarious!

As they wipe the drool from their mouths with their scraped knuckles, critics worry that Obama's team is too smart

As opposed to the Special Olympics losers W brought in?

Get over it, smart people will now be in the White House and cabinet.

Or at least those with triple digit IQs.

(Note to W, this is not like golf where you want a lower score)

the opposite of charity is justice: Seeya, dumbasses

You forgot one:

the opposite of charity is justice:



---

So be it, 'Jedi'...

too smart

un-farking-believable

The Ivy-laced network taking hold in Washington is drawing scorn from many conservatives, who have in recent decades decried the leftward drift of academia and cast themselves as defenders of regular Americans against highbrow snobbery. Joseph Epstein wrote in the latest Weekly Standard -- before noting that former president Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College -- that "some of the worst people in the United States have gone to the Harvard or Yale Law Schools . . .

Reagan was an idiot. He lucked into a decent economy, but still managed to grow our national debt. Also, all he did was outspend the Soviets. Sorry, but any Reagan adulation is horribly misplaced.

As for these "ivory tower elites?" It's good to get some people that may not know how to field strip a moose, but can actually run a country.

FTFA: But skeptics say Obama's predilection for big thinkers with dazzling résumés carries risks, noting, for one, that several of President John F. Kennedy's "best and brightest" led the country into the Vietnam War

JFK also appointed the President of Ford to run the Defense Department. McNamara was young and bright, but he had no experience whatsoever running a military organization, much less a war.

Obama's choices all actually have experience in the area they're being appointed in.

GOPers are vile, a menace to society, and they should be actively discriminated against, marginalized, and never be allowed to have any position of power in our nation.

Clearly we need more horse judges in positions of authority.

What the fark is wrong with people?

TiltedKilt: FTA: All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities. For the other slots, the president-elect made do with graduates of Georgetown and the Universities of Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.

Oh, my, is there no one from the powerhouse Regent University?!?

Yeah, no Bible colleges at all! Why does Obama hate God?

commisioner: Wait people in America actually complain about their leaders being intelligent?

Now that's farking hilarious!

Educated people don't have the can do spirit that made America great, dontcha know. With all there their talking and, you know, they can't pull the trigger before blinking.

So the contention is that they guys are smart because they went to some of the same schools are GW Bush? I don't think I'd brag about that connection.

FTA: All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities. For the other slots, the president-elect made do with graduates of Georgetown and the Universities of Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.

And not one from Duke.

Shvetz: As for these "ivory tower elites?" It's good to get some people that may not know how to field strip a moose, but can actually run a country.

Where does that firing pin go again?

/sorry, couldn't pass it up

Knowledge has a well-known liberal bias.

It's the end of the idiocracy as we know it.

/Thank you Jebus!

lilbjorn: And not one from Duke.

Clearly, Obama is a Farker.

/What is it that Duke does again?
//Forgets.