Obama’s poll numbers aren’t looking very good. This was interesting:
Just one group has stuck with Obama through it all. In ’08, he won 58 percent of people with graduate degrees. Now, he’s at 59 percent. It appears that academic types will be with Obama always, but they’re not enough.
They, of course, will claim that this is evidence of how uneducated and stupid the populace is, to no longer recognize the brilliance of The One. I see it as evidence of the worthlessness of most graduate degrees, and much of academia. Let’s pop that bubble, so they can experience the economic disaster that the rest of us have, as a result of their collectivist policies.
Rand,
As much as I would like to see Obama be a one-term wonder…if the Republicans do something stupid like having Palin as their candidate for 2012, they might just be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It would be nice if either major party actually had reasons to vote *for* them, and not just against them.
~Jon
the worthlessness of most graduate degrees, and much of academia
The term you seek is “educated beyond their intelligence.” Which is why they are so desperate to keep alive the myth that having advanced degrees equates to superior wisdom.
Jonathan, who would you like to see as their candidate?
JP,
Honestly, nobody I’d like to see as their candidate would stand a chance of making it through the primaries. But if Ron or Rand Paul were to toss their hats in the ring, I’d register Republican again just so I could throw my vote away for them in the primaries (again). I’d go for someone like Gary Johnson as well…but somehow I doubt they’ll go for someone like that.
~Jon
As Glen Reynolds keeps saying, “Don’t get cocky”. The election is still two years off and a lot could happen. Knowing the Republicans, they’ll find some way to screw things up.
Hmm, Gary Johnson seems like an okay guy, a bit bland though. You’re going to get a lot of “Who?” when you mention his name. Say what you will about Sarah, but everyone knows who she is.
Ron Paul will never be nominated for President, which is fine. He’d make a much better SecTreas anyway.
I expect that sometime this year, Barry Dunham, his usefulness at an end, will himself be thrown under the bus by the cabal of black racists, machine politicians, and hard-core Marxists that have used him as their cat’s-paw. They will then trot the New Obama for the Petulant Left to get moist and tingly over.
Obama seems to have trouble at home as well as in the polls.
Seems like he ‘walked into an elbow’.
“Yeah, right. That’s what they all say.”
A dozen stitches? That was quite a blow
They say these were fine-scale plastic surgery stiches so he doesn’t end up with a scare. My ice dance partner once needed this (No, it wasn’t me!).
Scar. Scare, yes that too.
I haven’t seen a president take a blow like that since the 90s.
My brothers ex-wife had just gotten her Masters in Nursing when they started dating. She’s a perpetual student and NOT just for medical classes. After they were married a few years she decided to get her doctorate. And she did.
And true to that kind of system, in my experiences anyway, the more she “learned”, the less she knew. It’s evidently a familial thing too. Her mother was a grade school teacher (for almost 40 years) who knew less about children than any adult with kids / grandkids than anyone I ever met.
The ex-sister-in-law is a woman with a stack of medical degrees, who to this day denies my brother EVER had depression problems (even though he is still treated for same 8 years later and has regained his life) and she almost had to be taken to court by MN state’s CPS, so their middle son WOULD get treatment for mild autism. (he’s doing great and KNOWS the difference in how he felt before / after he started getting his medicine) And the best part of it, her area of medical expertise?
Head trauma and brain damage patients.
And true to the system of, “…those who can, do, those who can’t teach, and those who can’t teach, teach teachers”, this brain trust is a nursing school professor and adviser who specializes in training new medical professors and instructors!!
Maybe Shakespeare was wrong. “First thing we do, is kill all the professors!”
if the Republicans do something stupid like having Palin as their candidate
If Sarah is the candidate it will be the people and not the republicans that choose her. Notice how she mentions 57 states but doesn’t mention Obama said it. Like clockwork the Obamanauts call her out on it, but in actuality they are calling out the media for not reporting that it was Obama and not Sarah that is the clueless one.
I look forward to a debate between Obama and Sarah. Empty suit Biden has the ability to sound like he knows what he’s talking about when he doesn’t. Sarah sounds like she doesn’t when she does. But with Obama she’ll be able to hit him hard on philosophy rather than trivia.
The thing that bothers me about Palin is that she resigned her governorship. I still haven’t heard a good reason for that. It really weakens her as a candidate.
Two years ago the Republicans were done as a political party for at least a generation.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown by field of the people with graduate degrees who responded.
This quote seems to sum up the coming two years:
I still haven’t heard a good reason for that.
The reason for that is she was under a non-stop frivolous lawsuit attack as governor that a) made it difficult for her to focus on governing and b) she had to defend herself from with her own funds (which she didn’t have), Alaska being one of the few states that doesn’t provide for taxpayer-funded defense against such suits. I’m not sure how much financial sacrifice we should demand from a politician before calling her a “quitter.” Her explanation that it was better for the state to let her lieutenant take over under the circumstances made sense to me.
Another aspect to her quitting: she had made enemies of the Republicans by siding with the Democrats against big corporate interests; then she made enemies of the Democrats by running against “the one”.
After that, she would have been completely ineffective anyway.
Personally, I think that no matter who is chosen to run against Obama the media will vilify them. Under those conditions, it makes sense to runs someone that has already been vilified. Vilification is normally not as effective in the second round – as witness by the ability of politicians to win no matter what they did 18 months before election. Only the last year before election counts for anything.
Of course, its not like we have a paucity of previously vilified conservative politicians…
I’d be interested in seeing that, too. I don’t know the results of their survey, but I can give you some anecdotal observations. I have a doctorate in physics from a respected department. I know many people with Ph.D.’s in physics, astronomy, geology, and the major engineering disciplines.
I have a somewhat libertarian bent. I am not partisan. (In fact, I am somewhat anti-partisan.) I generally support Obama’s policies and think he has made good decisions, although I disagree with him on some points. I like the appointments he has made in the areas for which I have enough background to make an informed judgement, with the notable exception of a certain concession to an honorable senator from Florida.
Most of the hard scientists I know seem to support Obama. They may disagree with various things, but on the whole they speak of him positively. (Most don’t seem partisan.) Out of the physicists that I know well, I can only think of one that vehemently dislikes him.
Vocal dislike seems more common among engineering Ph.D.’s, but don’t take that observation too seriously, because I know far fewer engineering Ph.D.’s than scientists.
Again, those are just my personal observations of a small subset of people with graduate degrees.
But if Ron or Rand Paul were to toss their hats in the ring, I’d register Republican again
Ron Paul lost me completely when he signed on to the “save Constellation” letter. I had serious concerns about his judgement after the newsletter scandal, but I still that he believed in his fiscal principles. Then he simply casts them aside to protect a little pork in a neighboring district?
I’d change my voter registration from R to L if it weren’t for the open-borders and gold standard nuttiness that goes on in the more, uh, “purist” libertarian circles. I’m on board with basically all of the other planks of the Libertarian Party platform.
There is also the tactical calculation. I think if libertarianism (small ‘l’) is to triumph it will do so through the Republican Party (I know, just stop laughing and we can agree that there is a long way to go). Part of that is because of the political party “machine”. Part of it is because the Libertarian Party is full of hopeless goofball candidates.