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From a Washington Post article featured on MSNBC.com:
(Excerpted, emphasis mine)
"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."
Dammit, he is raising the intellectual bar in government by not hiring enough dumb, narrow-minded people like the "real Americans" who graduate from Regent and Liberty "Universities"!
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Sunday, December 7, 2008
Obama's Picks Lack Diversity, sorta---WashPo/MSNBC
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7 comments:
The sooner we can reclaim the term "elite" to its appropriate meaning ("the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons"), the better. I never quite understood what's so wrong about wanting the smartest & best educated people in charge of things.
Perhaps it's because I'm not putting my "country first". Heh.
Agreed DGT.
We also need to reclaim the term 'liberal' amongst others, while we are at it.
Amen DGT and Stache... and a mighty "fuck you" to the mighty Karl Rove who hijacked the word "elite". Go have a beer, Karl, with those out of work Republicans you said America wanted to have a beer with.
I think the only legitimate fear comes as phrased in Frank Rich's column--he makes a good point that Halberstam's "The best and the brightest" (an excellent if rather minutely thorough book) is about how a bunch of Ivy grads got us into Vietnam and Bay of Pigs. Which is quite true. There is something to be said for real-world experience.
However, many on Obama's team HAVE real world experience, rendering that issue a bit moot.
Dr.J,
I'm not willing to give these kind of arguments any quarter. Sure Ivy league grads may have made some policy mistakes--- though I don't know enough details about Viet Nam and Bay of Pigs to know whether it was some Ivy grads or career politicians who were ultimately responsible for the policy blunders.
Secondly, Ivy league grads come in different flavors too---Bush is an Ivy league grad, but we would hardly call him intellectually elite.
Finally, look at what the Bushie Liberty and Regent madrassa recruits have done to this country.
I'll take my chances with smart people, not fundamentalist ones.
Well, the deal with JFK's team was that they were all Ivy types with very little political experience--and they did indeed make the blunders that got us, and kept us, in Vietnam. I don't think it should matter that Obama's picks went to fancy colleges; what should matter is their track record in leadership positions at both governmental and business positions.
As you say, Bush was a Yalie with not much political experience--and look where that got us.
Yes cannot be!
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