Reader comments
My view: Reject 'Joe Six-Pack' in favor of truly well-educated leaders

Lew Jeppson | 1:42 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

Well stated. I predict a change in our attitudes toward education. Moreover, the purveyors bias and bombast like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck will lose influence.

Roland Kayser | 7:54 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

I am always amused by extremely wealthy people like McCain, Cheney, and Limbaugh calling others "elitists". If I need brain surgery I'd rather have it done by an elite surgeon than a mediocre one. The same goes for the leaders of the nation.

Well Educated? | 9:07 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

Bush graduated from both Yale (undergraduate degree) and Harvard (MBA), and our own Merrill Cook graduated from Harvard, and we all know how people say they are about as smart as a box of rocks. SO tell me why should we be impressed with Obama for graduating from Harvard if they issue degrees to people who don't have much sense? Are their degrees for sale or trade? Or are they actually earned? Oh and what about Joe Biden who graduated at the bottom of his class from Syracuse Law School, oh I know he once lied and said he graduated inthe top 10% but he was caught in that lie and had to recant! What great leader he will be! Oh and what of Jimmy Carter? A very well educated man, a Nuclear Sceintist! And we all know what a absolute dismal failure of a leader he was. I just hope Obama is not another Jimmy Carter!

Comments continue below

Joe Twofour | 9:10 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

Raise the bar. Talent and education should be something we aspire to, and expect in our leaders. Instead, recently we have eschewed these critical values in favour of populist mediocrity. I hope things change in this regard, and believe that they will.

digum | 9:12 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

And Mr. Sederburg does not sound elitist? I suppose if he had been around during colonial times he would have tried to keep George Washington out of the continental congress. Washington did not have a formal education, instead he was tutored off and on by his brother and self taught.

In fact only 1/3 of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution had any kind of formal education and something like 25% had college degrees. So this idea that "I have a PhD and know what's best for you" is pure and utter nonsense.

dumbstruck | 9:27 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

Until education returns agains to objective teaching and abandons its relativistic approach to learning, how can one possibly begin to assert that one set of ideas and values is better than another?

Education can't definitively say that democracy is better than a dictatorhsip, or that captialism is better than communism. But it CAN say that one person's education is better than anothers?

Sounds elitist to me.

Wesley | 9:30 a.m. Nov. 9, 2008

I'm so stupid I don't even know what the heck this column is trying to force me to believe. Please stop baffling me with your big 'ol brains, neo-libs.

l | 2:04 p.m. Nov. 9, 2008

digum,

Our society has changed over the past 200+ years since George Washington was around. We have gone from a production-oriented economy to a knowledge-oriented economy. In the early days of the country, you didn't need a formal education to provide for your family. You do now. Of course, there are outliers in both situations, as pointed out in paragraph 7. Some well-educated people who lack common sense and some uneducated people are very successful, but they are the exception.

Oh Please | 4:13 p.m. Nov. 9, 2008

Don't be so impressed with Bush's Yale/Harvard thing. He got in simply because dad and grandpa were trustees. He was a lousy bubble-gum blowing student and would've struggled in junior college if it weren't for Dad. Obama had to earn his distinctions every single step of the way.

RE Oh please | 5:19 p.m. Nov. 9, 2008

YOu mean affirmative action had nothing to so with it?

I believe Obama had a rich person backing him too.

It seems to me..... | 5:19 p.m. Nov. 9, 2008

...that good communication skills, a natural ability to connect with people, and a willingness to study and analyze complex people problems and economic issues are the most vital components for a good statesman or leader. These need to be coupled with a genuine desire to serve the public good.

The level of education obtained is not an accurate barometer of these qualities, and the level of wealth obtained is an even worse barometer.

good wise and honest | 8:18 p.m. Nov. 9, 2008

"Good, wise and honest" is my yardstick.

'Education' and 'knowledge' are not the monopolies of universities. I'm 'educated'; it's no big deal. I noticed that most students were so impressed with their big bad selves for being in an institution of 'higher learning' that they couldn't be taught anything but that which the most flattering professors had to say.

Of course there is real knowledge in non-philospically oriented courses, such as engineering and the like.

'Knowledge' is not wisdom and sometimes simply a euphemism for institutionally approved, but very shaky,opinion. Good legislation is more about wisdom or the right application of solid knowledge. 'Knowledgeable' people, if this only means people who have passed the requirements of an accreditied university, are often neither good, wise or honest.

I saw little of open mindedness or independent thought at university. Oh yes, I passed the requirements after successfully navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of professorial bigotry and political correctness. Then I got on with the acquisition of useful knowledge and its beneficial application.

Knowing and doing... | 9:24 a.m. Nov. 10, 2008

I've always taught my children that "knowing and doing are two different things." It doesn't matter what you know or what level of education you have if you don't do something positive with that knowledge.

DS | 12:10 p.m. Nov. 10, 2008

I believe what this column was truly about is the crisis we are in with education. This group of HS graduates is the first generation in the history of this country that will attain a lower level of education than their parents. We are on a downward slope and we should reverse that trend. A society cannot move forward while their educational attainment declines. Did you know that a kindergarten student today knows less than half the number of words as a kindergarten student in 1950?

Thanks to Commissioner Sederburg for his comments. I would personally rather have a Harvard Law Review president leading our country than a Hockey Mom (one heartbeat away) who can't name a major newspaper that she reads.

sodiedog | 1:47 p.m. Nov. 10, 2008

To Well Educated Guy. Maybe President Carter wasn't your cup of tea. It's true he graduated from Annopolis as did McCain; but he wasn't 894 of 899 as was this year's losing candidate.

Add your comment

Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.

Words Remaining

E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.