As Ozymandias points out, Obama could count on top cover from the MSM for any deficiencies in performance, unless they were truly appalling, but it would be harder to cover for the content of the courses. One little nugget such as “Reintroduction to Islam for Apostate Muslims” (or something of that ilk regarding Marxism, such as having had Ayers as a TA after denying knowing him) would put “paid” to Obama’s career, and even the MSM couldn’t put lipstick on that pig.

For Democrats, grades and transcripts don’t matter because someone could be very smart or talented without doing well in school (the Einstein Effect). However, only liberals and progressives get the benefit of the doubt here. This is why the MSM could claim that Slow Joe Biden was a “genius” on matters of international relations.

This is similar to the smoking controversy, as liberals essentially are saying, “Do as I say (despite the fact that you might have received better grade in the class most relevant to the issue)”

For example, I’m betting that the vast majority of readers here have a much better understanding of elementary economics than Obama, yet he still is able to claim that he knows more, despite his inability to comprehend high school level economics.

A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for “lawful intercept functionality,” a technical term used by the cell-phone industry to refer to law enforcement’s ability to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data on communications networks.

William Daly, a former CIA signal-intelligence officer for the agency’s Office of Science and Technology who retired in 2000, said the monitoring center in Iran will be used to “monitor dissidents and those ayatollahs who oppose the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei].”

“This functionality is offered by all major mobile and fixed network system vendors,” Mr. Roome said. “Such functionality can provide the proper authorities with an important tool for the investigation of serious criminal activities, such as terrorism, child pornography or drug trafficking. The use of such surveillance is based on local legislation and typically overseen by high-level independent government bodies, such as courts.”

“There are a lot of export controls in place in Western countries on technology that might have a dual military purpose,” he said. “But there are virtually no restrictions on the export of high-tech equipment that can be used to monitor or control free expression.”

on another note, any one paying attention to the assasination attempts?

The President of Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia Yunus-bek Yevkurov, 45, was injured when a suicide bomber detonated explosives packed in a Toyota vehicle parked by the side of the road which his motorcade was using to head to his office, news agencies are reporting today.

In the Soviet period the number of vacancies for KGB and GRU agents in the Soviet embassies was strictly restricted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Today though, Russian intelligence does not suffer restrictions. The KGB’s privileged position in Russia gives it unrestricted freedom to operate all over the world. British intelligence is deprived of such a privilege.

What should the UK do about all this? Increase their spy missions in Russia? I am afraid it is too late for that. People are already afraid to contact Britons or British institutions for fear of being accused of espionage. As the FSB (the successor to the KGB) now doesn’t need to hamper itself with the search for proof, it is possible to declare anybody a British spy. Once that happens the person will go to prison for 15 years, as has already happened to Igor Sutyagin and many other Russian intellectuals. On the other hand, North Korean intelligence is allowed to work in Russia openly. They are friends. You, the British, are not.

When I spoke on CNN a few days after Litvinenko’s murder, the interviewer wondered: “Why are you sure it was Putin? Why not anybody else?”
It was a question put by a man who had been brought up in a democratic society, where the state’s intelligence apparatus are civil bodies in which officers are allowed a degree of freedom in their political views. The KGB is a military body. It is a part of Russia’s military bloc, and it is subordinate to the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army – former Comrade President Vladimir Putin. As such any uninvited intruder into the sphere of Putin’s personal power can expect to be severely punished.

Can Putin order his agents among Islamic terrorist cells to create acts of sabotage in the UK? He’s already probably ordered them to do the same thing in certain Russian cities. It’s strange that the West still considers Russia its ally in fighting world terrorism when terrorism as a concept was initially invented in the KGB’s headquarters as a tool of world Communist revolution. Terrorism is a part of Communist ideology. That is why, as Litvinenko used to tell me, that terrorism in Northern Ireland faded as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991: the paramilitaries stopped getting support from Moscow.

The very problem of world terrorism had also faded until the KGB regained power in Russia in the mid-1990s. That is why, according to Litvinenko, all the leading world terrorists have been KGB agents, like Carlos the Jackal. Even al-Qaeda’s two leading figures, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Juma Namangani, are KGB agents. In 1996, Litvinenko secured the secret arrival of Al-Zawahiri in Dagestan in the Northern Caucasus in Russia to be trained by FSB instructors. Namangani was once a student of the Saboteur Training Centre of the KGB’s First Chief Directorate in 1989-91. Litvinenko’s friend saw him there.
Russian intelligence is using Islamic terrorism all over the world. Now it is trying to prevent any easing of tension in the Middle East in order to keep the price of oil high for the Kremlin’s coffers.
– Konstantin Preobrazhensky

three decades ago Mir-Hossein Mousavi was waging a terrorist war on the United States that included bloody attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.

as i said, the only difference is if russia thinks that she can get more out of the new guy than the old guy, but that the old guy will not be different.

The connection to the attack is direct, according to the man in charge of American operations in the Mediterranean at the time:
“We had a tap on the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon,” retired Navy Admiral James “Ace” Lyons related by telephone Monday. In 1983 Lyons was deputy chief of Naval Operations, and deeply involved in the events in Lebanon.
“The Iranian ambassador received instructions from the foreign minister to have various groups target U.S. personnel in Lebanon, but in particular to carry out a ’spectacular action’ against the Marines,” said Lyons.

and

“When Mousavi was Prime Minister, he oversaw an office that ran operatives abroad, from Lebanon to Kuwait to Iraq,” Baer continued.

“To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully . The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk- rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, neocolonialism, and patriarchy.” page 100

Methinks that Obama never outgrew that nonsense.

FredHJr:

He did not have a very large following of support in Chile..

While Allende never had a majority, he had a large following. Depends on your definition of very large following.
1964 Presidential election 39%
1970 Presidential election 36%
1971 Mayoral elections 49%
1973 Congressional elections 44% ( “The People 44, Reactionaries 56” went the chant)
There was a joke that Allende told for years, having run for President since 1952, that on his grave would be inscribed: “Here lies the future President of Chile.”

Alex Bensky: While I do not recall seeing Kerry’s SAT scores, I read an analysis online comparing what he and Bush got on some Armed Forces aptitude-type tests, and I also recall that Bush scored slightly better than Kerry. Just like at Yale, eh?

I do see something slight but interesting in the Obama and smoking issue…a smoking gun, so to speak. As usual with many leftists, he is very good at telling people what they should do and even compelling them to do it, even if he’s not willing to do so himself.

He and his wife, remember, must have had a family income close to half a million dollars, yet he talked a lot about how Joe the Plumber types were going to have to sacrifice, to pay higher taxes, for the common good. He’ll pay higher taxes, too, but miss it a lot less.

It’s just like in San Francisco or Portland (Oregon) where the people who are already there push for “wise use” of the land, rent control, and the like. It benefits them greatly and prices ordinary people out of the market.

I was never much of a leftist but one of the many reasons I stopped being one altogether was that I realized authoritarianism isn’t an anomaly in leftism, it’s inherent; not a bug but a system feature.

I suspect he had very mediocre grades at Occidental College, despite taking courses in those things he had a passion for. So, the really interesting thing is how he got into Columbia University with those kinds of grades, from Occidental and Punahou. I think some powerful, connected people were advancing him even back then.

The road for Barry seems just so well crafted by influential and moneyed people which makes me think he truly is the Manchurian Candidate. He’s hiding a lot. The people who groomed him and advanced him are REALLY hiding a lot.

On another thread I alluded to the somewhat stealth nature of Salvador Allende’s presidency in Chile. His way was paved by heavy financial support from the Soviet Union. He did not have a very large following of support in Chile, but he got the office he obtained because of the kind of system they had and the coalition politics that existed which is akin to how governments are formed in Parliament in Great Britain. You don’t need an absolute majority of voters in order to achieve that.

I’m convinced that Soros’ media 527 organizations were behind the eight years of beating up on George Bush by the MSM. It was constant, without letup. The average voter was barraged with dis and mis information and slanted coverage which, in a steady drumbeat, finally overcame all resistance and seeded the ground for a candidate like BarryO. Under normal conditions, if enough information made it into the MSM about Barry’s Marxist pedigree, do you think most voters would have put this clown into office? I do not think so.

His ascension into the presidency was the result of many factors perfectly coming into alignment, much of which was brilliantly manipulated.

As to the smoking, I don’t care whether he does or not. But to decide that tobacco will be regulated more and marijuana ignored seems a rather odd approach to civil liberties.