Sunday, October 21, 2012

Grading the Presidents by Alma Mater


For John, BLUFNon-Ivy Leaguers do better as President than Ivy Leaguers.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Over at National Review Mr Fred Schwartz talks about the impact of the Ivy League Universities on the presidency and presidential performance.  As a point of reference, the Ivys are:

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale
Mr Schwarz claims that he got the idea from Actor John Cusack, who apparently asked on the leftist site Truthout.org:  “Is Obama just another Ivy League ***hole?”  That was actually a little tacky.

Here is Mr Schwarz's way of summing up the Ivy League Schools:

Unofficially, of course, the Ivy League, even avant la lettre, has for centuries been a symbol of everything Middle America hates: rich, snobbish, exclusive, Eastern, and too smart for its own good. With the exception of Cornell, a post–Civil War parvenu, the schools were all founded before the Revolution, and ever since, they have been filling the ranks of America’s Establishment:  intellectuals, bankers, lawyers, businessmen — and now, increasingly, presidents.
To be filed under "it takes one to know one".
– Fred Schwarz, a deputy managing editor of National Review, is a graduate of Columbia University.
I don't think I can rightly judge this, in that I am from a small trade school in the foothills of the Rockies.  And, my Masters is from a small Methodist college out in LA.

Regards  —  Cliff

2 comments:

  1. There aren't many middle class Dad's that wouldn't give a leg to get his kids an Ivy League education.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that might be a view from the Northeast.  Maybe there was some West Coast parochialism in play, but aside from the Service Academies, I didn't think much past LA County and my parents didn't push anything Back East.  I thought in terms of UCLA, USC, and Cal State Long Beach (almost within walking distance of the house and definitely closer than my high school), and Long Beach City College.

    Regards  —  Cliff

    ReplyDelete

Please be forthright, but please consider that this is not a barracks.