Where are Obama's grade transcripts?

[charlie,nj]

I see how the DEM’s are bringing the grade transcripts of McCain and Palin into play here on the DIS.

McCain's, Palin's and Biden’s grades were made public.

What about the great Obama? (is he pulling a Kerry?)

Obama's Years at Columbia Are a Mystery

He Graduated Without Honors
By ROSS GOLDBERG, Special to the Sun | September 2, 2008


Senator Obama's life story, from his humble roots, to his rise to Harvard Law School, to his passion as a community organizer in Chicago, has been at the center of his presidential campaign. But one chapter of the tale remains a blank — his education at Columbia College, a place he rarely speaks about and where few people seem to remember him.

Contributing to the mystery is the fact that nobody knows just how well Mr. Obama, unlike Senator McCain and most other major candidates for the past two elections, performed as a student.

The Obama campaign has refused to release his college transcript, despite an academic career that led him to Harvard Law School and, later, to a lecturing position at the University of Chicago. The shroud surrounding his experience at Columbia contrasts with that of other major party nominees since 2000, all whom have eventually released information about their college performance or seen it leaked to the public.

For better or worse, voters have taken an interest in candidates' grades since 1999, when the New Yorker published President Bush's transcript at Yale and disclosed that he was a C student. Mr. Bush had never portrayed himself as a brain, but many were surprised to learn the next year that his opponent, Vice President Gore, did not do much better at Harvard despite his intellectual image. When Senator Kerry's transcript surfaced, reporters found that he actually had a slightly lower average at Yale than Mr. Bush did.

full piece from the new york sun




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[SteveInBrooklyn]

I see how the DEM’s are bringing the grade transcripts of McCain and Palin into play here on the DIS.

McCain's, Palin's and Biden’s grades were made public.

Do you have a link to Palin's grades?

 

[transparant]

Do you have a link to Palin's grades?

Gosh I keep forgetting how Obama is running against Palin - darn...sooner or later I'll remember that.

 

[Master Mason]

I'm appathetic and ignorent on this one... So I don't know and I don't care.

Honestly what does someones school grades have to do with being president exactly?

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

Do you have a link to Palin's grades?

McCain graduated in the bottom 6 students in his class and Palin when to six different colleges in six years to get a degree in journalism...and the Cons want to talk about grades? Good grief!!

I'd say if Obama grades at Columbia were good enough to get him into Harvard Law, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, I'd wager he was a pretty good student.

BTW, how's that economy doing lately? Hope you like it...McCain promises more of the same...

 

[Quiksilvr]

I have to admit I'm curious about his grades. Still, I agree that if he was able to pull off magna cum laude at HLS, he's a smart cookie. Obama's undergraduate grades may be poorer, but his law school grades show that he could have had high undergraduate marks if he'd wanted them.

I did very well in college, but didn't apply myself nearly as hard as I did in law school. If I had, I likely would have had a 4.0 in college. I graduated from law school summa, but got no honors in college.

Also, I agree that this is not something that I think should determine a person's vote, and I'm voting for McCain.

Edit: re grades to get into law school: I'm not saying that this happened in Barack's case, but it's a well known fact that ethnic and racial minorities get an affirmative action boost in the admissions process at many of the top tier schools. It's a topic of much controversy in the law school world for a number of reasons. Thus, without real data, one cannot say that Barack's admission to HLS was based entirely on high marks from Columbia.

 

[charlie,nj]

right what's the big secret about his undergrad grades...just release them.

The Obama campaign has refused to release his college transcript, despite an academic career that led him to Harvard Law School and, later, to a lecturing position at the University of Chicago.

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[Quiksilvr]

right what's the big secret about his undergrad grades...just release them.







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Actually, I wonder whether it might not be the grades they're worried about but his curriculum. Columbia often offers some odd classes that might not look very nice in the context of a presidential election. I would never base a decision on a course someone chose to take in college, but I can see why Obama wouldn't want it to get out that he took ... I dunno... some poli sci class about how Communism is actually great? People take a lot of stuff in college for different reasons (I often chose classes based upon when they would require me to get out of bed) and I can understand not wanting people to lampoon you for course choices from twenty years ago.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I have to admit I'm curious about his grades. Still, I agree that if he was able to pull off magna cum laude at HLS, he's a smart cookie. Obama's undergraduate grades may be poorer, but his law school grades show that he could have had high undergraduate marks if he'd wanted them.

I did very well in college, but didn't apply myself nearly as hard as I did in law school. If I had, I likely would have had a 4.0 in college. I graduated from law school summa, but got no honors in college.

Also, I agree that this is not something that I think should determine a person's vote, and I'm voting for McCain.

Edit: re grades to get into law school: I'm not saying that this happened in Barack's case, but it's a well known fact that ethnic and racial minorities get an affirmative action boost in the admissions process at many of the top tier schools. It's a topic of much controversy in the law school world for a number of reasons. Thus, without real data, one cannot say that Barack's admission to HLS was based entirely on high marks from Columbia.

Even if he was a B+ student and was selected purely because of affirmative action, the fact that he graduated at the top of his class and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review provides proof that affirmative action works.

 

[Dolce27]

right what's the big secret about his undergrad grades...just release them.







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Obama's refused to release most of the same information that the OS demand from McCain and Palin and sadly, the media is in the tank for him and letting him get away from it.

 

[rparmfamily]

This is actually pretty funny. Do republicans think he got bad grades?

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Obama's grade transcripts are probably buried somewhere along with Michelle's thesis. Hidden somewhere to be revealed after the election. But seriously...

I'm not saying Obama didn't leave Harvard Law with a fairly high GPA, but we don't really know. Graduating magna cum laude doesn't necessarily mean he graduated with straight A's or even straight B's. At Harvard Law, the top 10% of the graduating class, excluding those graduating summa cum laude, graduate magna cum laude. While you must achieve a 7.2 or higher on a scale of 8.0 to graduate summa cum laude, graduating magna cum laude does not denote any particular GPA range. Having said that, I don't think there's any denying that Obama is an intelligent man, but I personally don't agree with his position on many issues, which is why I support McCain.

 

[charlie,nj]

This is actually pretty funny. Do republicans think he got bad grades?

Don't know...for some strange reason he won't release them.





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[Quiksilvr]

Even if he was a B+ student and was selected purely because of affirmative action, the fact that he graduated at the top of his class and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review provides proof that affirmative action works.

He did not graduate first in his class. He graduated magna cum laude.

I agree with your point, however, with qualification. I believe that affirmative action does work for some people, and not for others. Because it's impossible to figure out who will benefit and who will not, the program has to remain substantially close to what it is now.

It does not work in all cases. I also graduated from a top tier law school and I can tell you that the bottom twenty percent of our class was overwhelmingly comprised of minority students, while the top twenty percent was overwhelmingly comprised of white students. I don't know what that says, but it is a fact, and my law school used a completely blind grading system so there is no way that it was a product of racism among the professors.

Some law professors see those results and think the affirmative action system is broken, others think that it still provides excellent opportunities irrespective of performance. It just depends on how you look at it and who you agree with.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

He did not graduate first in his class. He graduated magna cum laude.

I agree with your point, however, with qualification. I believe that affirmative action does work for some people, and not for others. Because it's impossible to figure out who will benefit and who will not, the program has to remain substantially close to what it is now.

It does not work in all cases. I also graduated from a top tier law school and I can tell you that the bottom twenty percent of our class was overwhelmingly comprised of minority students, while the top twenty percent was overwhelmingly comprised of white students. I don't know what that says, but it is a fact, and my law school used a completely blind grading system so there is no way that it was a product of racism among the professors.

Some law professors see those results and think the affirmative action system is broken, others think that it still provides excellent opportunities irrespective of performance. It just depends on how you look at it and who you agree with.

You're right. I should have stated near the top of his class.

 

[Quiksilvr]

You're right. I should have stated near the top of his class.

Oddly enough, this is a distinction that matters to top law students and high-end lawyers generally. We're very much obsessed over our relative standing. I think it's because a lot of law students and lawyers are extraordinarily competitive but also passive-aggressive. lol.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

His grades are probably better than mine....that's good enough for me.

 

[beachblanket]

I have yet to hear a single decent excuse here for why Obama shouldn't release at least his undergraduate GPA is not the entire transcript. What are the left wing apologists so afraid of?

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I have yet to hear a single decent excuse here for why Obama shouldn't release at least his undergraduate GPA is not the entire transcript. What are the left wing apologists so afraid of?

Afraid? No. How about indifferent?

 

[Quiksilvr]

I have yet to hear a single decent excuse here for why Obama shouldn't release at least his undergraduate GPA is not the entire transcript. What are the left wing apologists so afraid of?

I will reiterate my speculation that I doubt they're afraid of his grades. He would have to have been an awful student to do much worse than our last few candidates for president (i.e., Bush, Kerry, Gore). I think there must be something on the transcript or related to one of his courses (e.g., a term paper or something else that might be floating around in the ether or in a box at Columbia College) that he'd rather not have out in the open.

It's sad too, because anyone who bases a vote on a class someone took in college or a paper they wrote for a grade when they were 19 probably needs to rethink their voting criteria. Still, the media (and McCain) would probably turn it into a story.