RNC aims at Obama's elite education

[EV_Ares]

Even as Barack Obama takes eight days off from the campaign trail to vacation in Hawaii, where he lived for much of his youth, the Republican National Committee is again attempting to paint the Democrat as an out-of-touch elitist, this time in a mock “Barack Obama’s Hawaii Travel Guide” tweaking the Democrat for having attended an elite prep school there.

“Barack Obama’s Hawaii Travel Guide,” e-mailed to reporters on Friday, lists four "destinations," among them the beach locals claim is the one where Obama was photographed in his swim trunks in a shot that ran in People magazine early last year, and "Punahou School, a coeducational college preparatory day school" that Obama attended "from 1971 to 1979. The school campus covers 76 acres at the edge of the Manoa Valley."

Obama, raised by a singe mother, entered the prestigious school at age ten on a scholarship. “No one means to demean the academic successes of Barack Obama or the schools he attended,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “The RNC and this campaign have sought to simply point out that on his Hawaii travels, there are certain landmarks reporters will likely see and this was a way to put those on the map.”

Obama's elite schooling may prove a risky topic for McCain, who attended St. Stephen’s, an exclusive school in Alexandria, Va., and then Episcopal High, a private boarding school in the same city, in the 1950s. The son and grandson of Navy admirals, he ended up at the Naval Academy, where, as he often reminds voters, he finished near the bottom of his graduating class.

“While John McCain went to private school, he also went to public university,” said Bounds. “The Naval Academy is as public as public gets,” he added, noting that a four-year military commitment is required following school.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt declined to comment on the latest iteration of a subject previously raised by Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hillary Rodham Clinton backer who attended a public school down the road from Punahou, and who cracked before the state's primary that the private school “was not school for the impoverished.”

Obama reportedly responded that he had attended on scholarship and added, “Shame on Danny for trying to pull that stunt."

Link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12414.html

[Fovea]

1. That's what Murika needs buddy!

More Repub silver spoon students.
We need people who can show us all how to fail upwards!

[blondeatlast]

2. “No one means to demean the academic successes of Barack Obama or the schools he attended,”

said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “The RNC and this campaign have sought to simply point out that on his Hawaii travels, there are certain landmarks reporters will likely see and this was a way to put those on the map.”

Yes, the RNC merely wants to be your friendly travel guide. Meet the bus at this stop in two hours and please take all personal belongings with you.

Could McSame's camp be any assholier? :eyes:

[Cassandra]

7. Assholier than thou? (not you)...

yes, actually.

[charlyvi]

3. Didn't McCain attend Annapolis as a legacy?

Good luck with that, RNC.

[blondeatlast]

4. So am I to understand you are against Affirmative Action for privileged WASPs?

Without it, we'd have no George W Bush OR John McCain

Oops. Count me in the against category on legacies, too, then.

[charlyvi]

8. Heaven's No!

How else can they grow up to buy $500 shoes, marry heiresses after dumping their wives, and fly around in their private jets to one of their may homes to host BBQ's for the press, their base by the way. After all, I'm not a barbarian!

[SoxFan]

21. Exactly

Both candidates attended elite, acadmically demanding colleges. Neither has anything to be ashamed of.

[charlyvi]

24. Actually, the Old Man does.

Unless he's really too ignorant to be ashamed of graduating fifth from the bottom of his class---a class of over 800.

[anonymous171]

5. John Sydney McCain III is a fucking elistist snob who doesn't even know what the price of gas is.

Did I mention that he is an elitist? Tell all your friends!

[seasat]

6. So their point is McCain is a dumb ass like Bush and we should elect dumb asses?

I can see the ad now.

"John McCain is a certifiable dumb ass. He is just like everyone else. Anyone who is not a dumb ass shouldn't be allowed to lead a nation of dumb asses. A smarty pants might actually make smart decisions like not going into Iraq, investing in renewable industry, and creating jobs for working class folks. A smarty pants will stand up to large corporations who are run by smarty pants. We can't have that. We need a dumb ass like McCain who will do corporate bidding because what is good for Enron is good for America. Errrr...no...scratch that. I mean Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Errr...no. Wait. Hey. Can one of you smarty pants give me a good example to end this ad?"

[Vinca]

9. Heaven forbid we should elect a president who's smart.

They should be embarrassed - encouraging stupidity.

[eshfemme]

10. I need to paraphrase Jon Stewart in saying, shouldn't we elect one of the BEST

someone BETTER than us to be President? I don't want someone dumber than me, I want someone SMARTER!

[Phx_Dem]

11. Bring it on, old man.

If they want to talk about Obama's stellar grades (with no affirmative action), then they're opening the door to talk about McCain's abysmal record at Annapolis and questionable proficiency in the Navy. He didn't even qualify to be an Aircraft Carrier Pilot, but got into the program, presumably, because his father and grandfather were Admirals. He, reportedly, was a screw up and crashed 5 planes. Seems like one more way in which he is very similar to George Bush. I know Obama is loathe to criticize McCain's military record, but outside groups/blogs might be inclined to revisit this issue if McCain decides to Swiftboat Obama on any issue. It's kinda of laughable to think you could be Swiftboated for a stellar education. Just one more way in which McCain is an idiot.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-klein/mccains-secret-questionab_b_107409.html

Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airedales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished, according to his own books, by mediocrity and misdeeds, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain's naval file.

McCain's file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain's subsequent sub-par performances. Here are a few cited in two highly favorable biographies, both titled John McCain, one by Robert Timberg and the other by John Karaagac.

Timberg:

"fter a European fling with the tobacco heiress, John McCain reported to flight school at Pensacola in August 1958.... is performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn't love it. What he loved was the kick-the-tire, start-the-fire, scarf-in-the-wind life of a naval aviator. ...One Saturday morning, as McCain was practicing landings, his engine quit and his plane plunged into Corpus Christi. Knocked unconscious by the impact, he came to as the plane settled to the bottom....McCain was an adequate pilot, but he had no patience for studying dry aviation manuals.... His professional growth, though reasonably steady, had its troubled moments. Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines, which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.... he flew a trainer solo to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game. Flying by way of Norfolk, he had just begun his descent over unpopulated tidal terrain when the engine died. 'I've got a flameout,' he radioed. He went through the standard relight procedures three times. At one thousand feet he ejected, landing on the deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees."

Adds Karaagac:

"In his memoir, everything becomes a kind of game of adolescent brinksmanship, how much can one press the limits of the acceptable and elude the powers that be....The ethos of exaggerated, almost aggressive sociability becomes an end in itself and an excuse for license. There is a tendency for people, not simply to believe their own mythology but, indeed, to exaggerate it.... Fighter jocks, like politicians around their campaign contributions, often press the limits of the acceptable. It is a type of mild corruption that takes place in a highly privileged atmosphere, where restraints are loosened and excuses made....McCain gives some hint in his memoirs about where he stood in the hierarchy among carrier flyers. Instead of the sleek and newer Phantoms and Crusaders, McCain flew the dependable Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in an attack, not a fighter squadron. He was thus on the lower end of the flying totem pole."

Is McCain now getting away with more by hiding his official history and by having his national security adviser inflate McCain's resume with a bogus promotion to admiral humbly declined? If so, McCain may be attempting to hide why the Navy was in fact slow to promote him upwards despite his suffering as a POW and his distinguished naval heritage.

One possible reason: After McCain had returned from Vietnam as a war hero and was physically rehabilitated, he was urged by his medical caretakers and military colleagues never to fly again. But McCain insisted on going up. As Carl Bernstein reported in Vanity Fair, he piloted an ultra-light, single propeller plane -- and crashed another time. His fifth loss of a plane has vanished from public records, but should be a subject of discussion in his Navy file. It wouldn't be surprising if his naval superiors worried that McCain was just too defiant, too reckless and too crash prone.

Regardless, McCain owes it to the country to release his complete naval records so that American voters can see his documented history and make an informed decision.


McCain's flight instructor speaks: http://dumpmccain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=25


May 19, 2008

Greetings!


I was John McCain's Navy Flight Instructor --- in formation tactics and air-to-air-gunnery. I could write a book about this man. Suffice to state, I shudder (and I'm fearless) at the nightmare thought of this man becoming our next President and Commander in Chief. I am not alone as to this man's former shipmates, instructors and senior officers --- as to who and what this man is really all about. Although politics is really theater and the best performing actor gets to stay on the main stage --- sorta like American Idol only much more dangerous to all living things --- the performance and the make-over (re-invention) of this man is currently matched only by that of former LTC Oliver North, USMC (Ret.). Together on the same ticket, these two clowns would be real crowd pleasers in this sorry day and age of liars, banal dummies and limp-headed performers.

Thanx for having the guts to put the real deal information on the site re: John Sidney McCain III --- since the mainstream media is much too lazy to put the real story on McCain out there for the rest of their lazy consumers.

Best regards,

CDR Jerry K. Loeb, USN (Ret.)
Palm Desert, CA

Author - ANTHEM (2004)

www.amazon.com
www.b&n.com

[liberal1973]

12. HaHaHa

RNC is desperate. It goes the same for the attack on science by republicans.

The RNC seems to like having cavemen run for office.

[Kber]

27. OMG - I think you have an ad campaign there somewhere

Running for President - so easy even a Caveman can do it.

[AllentownJake]

13. Wait a second

McCain and Bush went to prestigous boarding schools where till very recently only white people could go?

[GoesTo11]

14. RNC is mocking the American dream

Mother and grandparents sacrificing to send child to a high quality school. Child gets into good college, works hard, transfers to Ivy college. Gets a mix of jobs, loans and scholarships to get through. Gains work experience, gets accepted to Harvard Law School, again covering cost with job, loans and scholarships. Excels and is elected (first African-American) president of law review. Goes into community service and then politics to improve his community.

Yep, everyone resents someone like that.

[Phx_Dem]

15. Taking pride in their ignorance again. n/t

[madaboutharry]

18. I think you are right. The RNC is mocking the

American dream. It is my own family's story. My brother and I were the first in our family to go to college. We both attended very fine schools. It was a source of great pride to our parents, who themselves were the children of impoverished immigrants.

These assholes running the McCain campaign are shameful. I swear, I pray McCain is humiliated on election day.

[Zynx]

16. I don't see Obama with 8 houses and $500 shoes, John.

[FrenchieCat]

17. McCain 5th from the bottom in a class of over 800+?.....talking about education?

what does he know?

Obviously not much. :shrug:

[Jazzgirl]

23. 894 out of 899 Frenchie.

That's how smart JM is.

[VADem11]

19. WTF?

As I recall, the current President went to Andover and then went off to Yale and Harvard. Hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[SoxFan]

20. Annapolis isn't an elite school?

The five federal (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine) service academies are extraordinarily competitive and academically demanding. This business of trying to make it sound like an open-admission community college is laughable.

[charlyvi]

25. But he got in as a legacy......

A fine Republican tradition. And Obama didn't even put "African-American" on his application to Harvard.

[Bluerthanblue]

22. I call "Bounds" OUT- "The Naval Academy is as public as public

gets"-

John McCain went to a high school called "THE High School". Without his parents privilege and power he would not have been able to attend this elite, all male Boarding school- and without this advantage I'd be interested to know how many students with his grades and social skills but who didn't have a famous father and Admiral Grandfather, were accepted to "the Naval Academy" (aka) "Annapolis".

Scholarships are based on the merit of the child, not the 'rich and powerful connections' of the parents- Like McCain, Bush etc.

I'd like to know when Roberta McCain ever had to rely on food stamps.

Elite? What McCain really resents about Obama is that he has 'class'. Not something that can be purchased or practiced. It comes from within. (true class, that is). Barack doesn't need to belittle McCain as a person to feel like he's "good enough". He's authentically ok with who he is.


Bounds lies again when he says:" “No one means to demean the academic successes of Barack Obama or the schools he attended,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “The RNC and this campaign have sought to simply point out that on his Hawaii travels, there are certain landmarks reporters will likely see and this was a way to put those on the map.”

And then he says:

“While John McCain went to private school, he also went to public university,” said Bounds. “The Naval Academy is as public as public gets,” he added, noting that a four-year military commitment is required following school.


Interesting tid bit from McCain's yearbook from The Episcopal School (McCain's high school)

Senior Yearbook Entry

“It was three fateful years ago that the “Punk” first crossed the threshold of The High School. In this time he has become infamous as one of our top-flight wrestlers, lettering for two seasons. His magnetic personality has won for him many life-long friends. But, as magnets must also repel, some have found him hard to get along with. John is remarkable for the amount of gray hair he has; this may come from his cramming for Annapolis or from his nocturnal perambulations. The Naval Academy is his future abode – we hope he will prosper there.”

McCain says it was the years in the Hanoi Hilton that suddenly made him "Prematurely White"- If he was going grey out of High School, he was likely going white regardless.


:shrug:

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

26. Let's see here

Obama did his first two years of college at Occidental, a top-flight smaller liberal arts college in California. He did well enough there to be able to transfer to Columbia University. Believe you me, you'd better bring some heavy academic artillery if you want to transfer into an Ivy League university. After that, all he did was get into Harvard Law, of which I am also a proud alum (class of '88, like Michelle), make the Law Review, get elected president of the Law Review and graduate magna cum laude. Graduating magna from HLS is incredibly difficult because the school, at least in those days, graded on a very mushy B curve and to consistently get the As necessary for magna, one had to be startlingly brilliant and consistent for three years.

That's all. Nothing to see on his resume.

McCainus got into Annapolis because his father and grandfather were admirals. He finished fifth from the bottom of his class and excelled in crashing planes before he was shot down.

Compare and contrast.

[FVZA_Colonel]

28. Not to demean them? Bull shit!

It's just one more distortion of his own history, as well as ridicule him for his intelligence.