Walker's Failure To Earn A Degree Not The Issue

The Capital Times editorial defending Republican primary candidate for Governor Scott Walker's college dropout status is right: earned degrees or lack thereof has very little to do with qualifications for the office.

...we are saying that it is offensive, and politically foolish, for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann to hint that GOP front-runner Scott Walker is a lesser contender because he lacks a college degree. Neumann, who has a master’s degree, is highlighting Walker’s lack of a degree on his campaign website and suggesting that it’s “up to the voters” to decide whether they want a governor who did not graduate from college.

The choice for governor should be based on the experience, records and platforms of the candidates. By all these measures, Walker -- who attended but did not graduate from Marquette University -- is superior to Neumann.

However, as we argued Monday:

If Walker's campaign says he only had a 2.59 average, and Walker himself admits "I had some classes I was more interested in than others, I suppose," he most likely got B's or even some A's in the classes he was interested in, and some D's or F's in those he treated less seriously. If he wants to be Wisconsin's Governor, who appoints the UW's Board of Regents, members of other higher education governing bodies, and deals with a raft of education funding issues, he should let the voters know whether he passed or flunked basic college courses in math, science, history, or English.

- Barry Orton

Comments

[Brian (neaguy)]

Our choice is between this man with no plan and a guy endorsed by Michael Bloomberg, the failed leader of NYC public schools.

Now that's something to look forward to when I go into the voting booth in November.

[antpoppa]

To paraphrase a Guindon cartoon caption:

“Whatever their other contributions to our society, politicians could be an important source of protein.”
Barry, I assume that you already know the answer to your questions.
My question would be, has anyone involved in the institution of government had the intellectual agility to leap from the failed towers of corruption we have erected, and lead us back to the Hamiltonian ideal that we submitted to?
I do not propose anarchy. Perhaps we could out source our politics to an advanced republic avoiding the horrible bloody future we are doomed to accede to.