No, it’s true; I don’t consider it an iron-clad requirement that the president of the United States have a college degree. There could be extenuating circumstances that make a lack of formal education less damning. In Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s case, he did receive a formal education even if he didn’t complete it. And he’s had extensive political and executive experience. We have many examples of highly successful people who have no college degree, although both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did, like Walker, at least begin an undergraduate career before dropping out.
All things being equal, however, a thorough education should be considered highly preferable for someone being hired to be the most powerful person on Earth, and I can’t think of a single argument against this idea that makes any sense.
Certainly, I cannot agree that being a college dropout is an asset that speaks in favor of a presidential candidate. The reason I want my president to have a thorough education is not because it’s a “class signifier,” nor because I prefer to have a mandarin class running our government. In fact, I have criticized the Obama administration for neglecting state schools and non-elite college graduates in their hiring practices.
A good president needs many skills and character traits, but a huge foundation of knowledge is extremely important because it makes them less dependent on their advisers. George W. Bush managed to get a couple of Ivy League degrees without learning much about the world, which was even less impressive when you consider that his father was, among other things, our unofficial ambassador to China, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a two-term vice president with a national security brief, and the president when the Berlin Wall came down. Under the circumstances, you’d think that George W. would have learned enough by osmosis to dwarf the knowledge of someone like Bill Clinton, but he didn’t even know as much as Gary Bauer who was a lowly janitor’s son.
If you can acquire this broad base of knowledge outside of college classrooms, that’s preferable to not acquiring it within them. The important thing is that you have it. Without it, the foolishness of a Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Condoleeza Rice might be what counts for wise counsel, and where are we then?
So, I’m not being an impudent snob when I say that Scott Walker’s lack of college degree isn’t confidence inspiring. But he’ll have plenty of opportunity to demonstrate that he has the knowledge base we have the right to expect in a president.
We know Hillary Clinton has that knowledge base, so we’ll be focused on different concerns in her case, like her vitality, judgment, and choice of close advisers.
Ted Cruz-ader, proves that a dick can be very, even overly, edumacated, and still ne a dick!
Gov. Scott Wanker (sic) proves that you can be a dick without a college edumacation, and still get elected – even though, you’re a total dick!
Considering all the places he lived and his community organizing experience, one could argue that Barack Obama has just as much knowledge as Rick Santorum at the very least. But how much slack do you think the Republicans or the media would have given him?
Who needs a President who can work independently of advisers? The whole point is to have an empty suit who will do what conservative movement mandarins tell him to do.
He hates the idea of college. He’s declared war on the universities, without which Wisconsin becomes a cheese-dusted Appalachia (or Wississippi, as some of us in Minnesota like to call it).
It seems a logical progression of his escalating anti-intellectualism and hatred of government employees, and perhaps an attempt to poke a stick at those pointy-headed academics that have something he doesn’t – a degree.
I could see this as something that he could use as a way to endear himself even further to the GOP base. He could certainly sell himself as someone who has proven that you don’t need any of this highfalutin’ education to rise from the ashes as a conservative power-broker who can push the agenda of the base. He’s already deferred on the whole evolution/science question, which can only cause the hearts of the religious right to go pitter-patter with excitement.
College serves in many ways to give one a wider world-view and an appreciation for the diversity of beliefs and systems that exist and must work together for humanity to succeed. And that simply flies in the face of modern conservatism’s ideology. Ignorance and a stunted intellect is a badge of honor among the conservative base. He will do just fine, at least in the primaries, if he waved his lack of college education as a banner of pride. After all, Sarah Palin has already laid the groundwork for such a thing, and demonstrated beyond a doubt that people will rush to cheer on the ignorance at every opportunity.
Yes, while an undergraduate degree had seemingly become a de facto prez requirement in the modern era, presumably the spittle-flecked charge of “elitism!!” can now be leveled against even this (relatively undemanding) qualification. The question is no longer the Repub base, who will swallow and regurgitate absolutely anything they are told, but what the sought-after “independents” will think about this? And how the useless corporate media will “cover” it.
While it’s a bit hard for me to accept that Walker’s educational failure (and likely contempt, as cruzy notes) isn’t self-disqualifying, the question should always be: Is the candidate an obvious ignorant doofus? That really is Qualification One, although being an obvious doofus did not prevent either Bush Jr or Demerit McCain from obtaining the nomination….but as you say, this is now a party Proud Of Its Ignorance and the un-degreed Walker is just another (predictable) step in this direction for Idiot Nation.
I wrote a diary on this over on the right side, but I agree that college EDUCATION is more important than a college DEGREE. Except the degree shows the ability to finish. It shows the ability to follow through and live with the discomfort of exposure to other ideas and perspectives.
That seems to me what Scott “I think I’ll punt on that one” Walker is missing.
They asked to see MAGNA CUM LAUDE FROM HARVARD LAW SCHOOL transcripts of one Barack Obama.
But, it’s ok for this White boy not to have a college degree.
Um, ok. Sure.
I’d like to see Scott Walker complete his formal education at the college Allen Ginsberg helped to found, Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. They have courses in “Authentic Leadership,” and “Contemplative Education.” He might even enroll in the Jack Kerouac School of Writing. We could hope for a groovier, more sensitive, fully attuned Scott Walker instead of Pinto from Animal House.http://www.naropa.edu/
A candidate had better come to the table with a damned impressive resume before he uses that argument. The last Republican we had in office liked to brag that he was a C-student, and he nearly drove the country into the ground. You need to know something before you step into office as president of the United States.