Re: OT Kerry the C Student!!!! ROFL - Add This to the Record...

Taranto's a very careful editor. Also from the Globe article "Yale Grade
Portray Kerry as a Lackluster Student"

"It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry received a high honor at Yale despite
his mediocre grades: He was chosen to deliver his senior class oration, a
testament to his reputation as a public speaker. He delivered a speech
questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in which he would soon see
combat."

"Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81 in his senior year. His
highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior
year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student at Naval
Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law
school, and become a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, US senator, and
presidential candidate."

"In his Navy application, Kerry made clear that he spent much of his college
time on extracurricular activities, including the Yale Political Union, the
Debating Association, soccer, hockey, fencing, and membership in the elite
Skull and Bones Society. Asked to describe nonschool training that qualified
him for the Navy, Kerry wrote: ''A great deal of sailing -- ocean and
otherwise, including some navigation. Scuba diving. Rifle. Beginning of life
saving." He said his special interests were ''filming," writing, and
politics, noting that the latter subject occupied 15 hours per week."




And from the earlier article, "Kerry Allows Navy Release of Military,
Medical Records":

"The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career in
the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive
privacy restrictions. An earlier release of the full record might have
helped his campaign because it contains a number of reports lauding his
service. Indeed, one of the first actions of the group that came to be known
as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was to call on Kerry to sign a privacy
waiver and release all of his military and medical records."

"But Kerry refused, even though it turned out that the records included
commendations from some of the same veterans who were criticizing him."

"On May 20, Kerry signed a document called Standard Form 180, authorizing
the Navy to send an ''undeleted" copy of his ''complete military service
record and medical record" to the Globe. Asked why he delayed signing the
form for so long, Kerry said in a written response: ''The call for me to
sign a 180 form came from the same partisan operatives who were lying about
my record on a daily basis on the Web and in the right-wing media. Even
though the media was discrediting them, they continued to lie. I felt
strongly that we shouldn't kowtow to them and their attempts to drag their
lies out.""

"Many of the records contain praise for Kerry's service. For example, the
documents quote Kerry's former commanding officers as saying he is ''one of
the finest young officers with whom I have served;" is ''the acknowledged
leader of his peer group;" and is ''highly recommended for promotion.""



How interesting. The full record contained "commendations from the veterans
who were criticizing him." Senior Class Oration. Taranto didn't single
those bits out for some reason.

I have often found that going back to Taranto's sources reveals a different
picture than Taranto has painted.




"Scott in Florida" <JustAsk@Florida.com> wrote in message
news:2paca19mnbd6hg3pmq4pe7uvduaqobec40@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> from the Wall Street Journal today....
>
> By JAMES TARANTO
>
> A C Man in the Navy
> On Jan. 30, John Kerry* told NBC's Tim Russert that he would release
> his full military records to the public, something he had refused to
> do during last year's campaign. It took 128 days, but today the Boston
> Globe reports that he had done so. The records revealed what many of
> us had suspected: Kerry served in Vietnam. But according to the Globe,
> "the lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military
> career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for
> so long to waive privacy restrictions."
>
> A second Globe story, however, answers that question. Included in
> Kerry's military files were his transcripts from Yale, which were part
> of his application for officer training. Kerry, it turns out, had a 76
> average for his years at Yale--the equivalent of a C and one point
> below George W. Bush's 77 average. Kerry had a difficult freshman
> year, scoring four D's, though he did manage a C in French.
>
> So Kerry was almost as distinguished a scholar as the schoolmate who
> went on to become president of the United States. That doesn't seem so
> bad--but for candidate Kerry, it would have been devastating. After
> all, much of Kerry's appeal, such as it was, rested on intellectual
> snobbery. His supporters described him, in the words of a March 2004
> New York Times report, as "an intellectual who grasps the subtleties
> of issues, inhabits their nuances and revels in the deliberative
> process." In this view, Kerry's nose for nuance contrasted favorably
> with Bush's simplisme.
>
> But what if Kerry simply lacked the ability to express himself
> clearly? Consider his answer when asked in a September 2003 debate to
> reconcile his vote for Iraq's liberation with his subsequent
> opposition: "The vote is the vote. I voted to authorize. It was the
> right vote, and the reason I mentioned the threat is that we gave
> the--we had to give life to the threat. If there wasn't a legitimate
> threat, Saddam Hussein was not going to allow inspectors in. Now, let
> me make two points if I may. . . ."
>
> He went on in this vein for 248 words (quoted in full here), and only
> someone with a superior intellect and too much time on his hands could
> possibly have made sense of his answer. "People will often be misled
> into thinking someone is brighter if he says something complicated
> they can't understand," IQ expert Linda Gottfredson told the Times'
> John Tierney last year. The revelation that Kerry was no better a
> student than Bush suggests that this is just what happened.
>
> Kerry's appeal to intellectual vanity was in any case a politically
> dubious one. The last egghead to win the White House was Woodrow
> Wilson, and he was a genuinely accomplished scholar. In 1956, a
> supporter is said to have told Adlai Stevenson, "You have the support
> of every thinking person." He replied: "That's not enough. I need a
> majority."
>
> Still, let's not sell Kerry short. He is, after all, a United States
> senator--which isn't bad for a C student. At least no one will ever
> again call him an underachiever.
>
> --
>
> Scott in Florida[/color]