The recent hubbub regarding the possible appointment of Caroline Kennedy to the Hillary's vacated Senate seat reminded me of the dumb statements people make.
Caroline is by most accounts a well-meaning lady. However, I have a major issue with people asserting that she is supersmart because she went to Harvard and then Columbia Law School. This proves nothing. She was the daughter of a president for chrissakes. What school wouldn't want the publicity of Caroline Kennedy as a student? None. Her brother went to Brown, then NYU law school and failed the bar exam twice. No rocket scientist that one. Don't get me wrong. There is much I admire about the Kennedy family's call to service. Their noblesse oblige one might call it.
But because the children of famous people attended elite universities does not prove to me that they are intelligent. No university was going to deny Chelsea Clinton admission. Her acceptance to Stanford, which was hailed as such a great accomplishment at the time, is nowhere near as impressive as anybody else being accepted. Chelsea seems to have been a smart girl, and I believe that she's currently a smart lady. But her acceptance to any school was a foregone conclusion.
Ted Kennedy as far as I can tell possesses an average intellect. He lacks the intellectual horsepower of Jack, and especially Bobby. Yet, he went to Harvard and then UVa Law. Ted is at the far low end of the Harvard and UVa Law alumni intelligence spectrum.
This privilege doesn't apply to Democrats. Our current president is a Yalie with an MBA from Harvard. While he is probably not as dumb as people portray him, he probably is also at the low end of the Yale Undergrad/Harvard MBA intelligence spectrum.
Now, you might be thinking, hey, maybe they got in with their name, but they still graduated. Yeah, but elite schools are almost impossible not to graduate from once you are in.
All this is just to say that Caroline's education should be weighed far less than other people when using it as a proxy to determine her intelligence. In fact, it should probably be used far less as a proxy for intelligence than it currently is, but especially with famous people.
Oh, and when the Obama girls get into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc please spare me the look how smart they are shit. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren't. But their acceptance into any school is no proof of anything. Thank you.
Friday, December 19, 2008
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9 comments:
Ted Kennedy went to Harvard but did not graduate because, like Henry Ford II, he got caught cheating. Jack Kennedy went to Princeton before he graduated from Harvard. I've always guessed he got caught cheating there and needed to transfer.
My only surprise with Caroline Schlossberg nee Kennedy is that the former all Ivy field hockey player is still so evident in her speech and gait. She's America's Honoria Glossop...
Oh, and besides her parentage and net worth, I am particularly enjoying the FACT that Caroline's resume is less impressive than Sarah Palin's. She couldn't even save GEORGE.
Palin is also prettier and more feminine. Which has to sting in some quarters....
His official bio says he earned and A.B. in 1956.
That an A.B., not and. Also, he lists it as a B.A., but I pretty sure Harvard calls them A.B.
Either way, he claims to have one.
I had to look this up. And Time or PBS had a timeline on the Kennedys. This is what caused my confusion :
"1951 May: Ted is caught cheating on an exam and is expelled from Harvard. He enlists in the Army and will serve for the next 16 months."
1954 Ted graduates from Harvard and enrolls in..."
Harvard allowed him back in. Not bad. They did not allow Hank II back in.
The fact that Caroline Kennedy wishes an appointment reveals that other side of noblesse oblige - noblesse prérogative.
George, George, George. We have to talk as you would know this. Noblesse Oblige indicates something once noble. As you know better than I - all the original titles bestowed upon the English aristocracy came (I think) because of great merit to the Crown -like in battle...
The Kennedy's great merit came in bootlegging. Nothing noble in that. And Mr. Kennedy did not distinguish himself when at the Court of St. James.
Now this is not to diminish the Kennedy's commitment to public service. That is not at question. It's just wrong to associate them with the word noble as there are too many dead, maimed and insane women in the wake of the male members of the clan.
Mrs. P
Mrs. P, you, I see, are the defender of nobility as FLG is the defender of Latin.
Mr. Kennedy’s time at the Court of St. James in the service of his country does not necessarily diminish his good work as bootlegger – and good work it was. Standing athwart tyranny, puritanism, and wholesale stupidity counts for something in my accounting. I recuse myself of judging Mr. Kennedy’s motives but I give him the benefit of the doubt, he being of good Irish stock and knowing well the price and value of good stock. I admit that had he posed himself just so at the helm of one of those boats in the middle of a dangerous crossing or set himself Cagney-like behind the wheel of a truck running lickety-split on a moonless night it would have been a plume in his cap, but nevertheless.
As to women, well, you’d think they’d have noticed the offensive skew of the Kennedy male, but then there’s Mrs. P's Undeniable Fact About Life No. 1 to explain it all.
heh...
Mrs. P
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