Having graduated Harvard Law School (well before Obama), I can tell you that all the students who work on the Law Review have the ttle “editor,” that the editors elect one of them to be “President” and that the editors don’t write the articles in the Law Review. I can easily believe that his election to be President was political, but getting to be an editor in the first place requires very high grades— I didn’t make it and my grades were good.
HLR doesn't have any wiggle room to lower its standards for diversity's sake?
I went to Boalt, where it was entirely a blind "write on" competition -- yet even there, the (California Law) Review told us that top grades AND RACE could be used to break ties at the make-or-break line.
The rules were changed for the Law Review when Obama was there (to help minority students, not him personally). (I’m surprised you didn’t know this.) A number of slots were reserved, not filled on the basis of grades, and these slots were filled by voting by students.
There is very good evidence that Obama has always been very charismatic. At U. of Chicago, where he lectured as a Fellow, his classes often ended in applause. Yet, he did not write a single law review article while at U. of Chicago, as would be expected of a fellow, and missed several deadlines in delivering the manuscript of his stream of conscious autobiography. I think he himself has acknowledged his gift. I think it is pretty clear, at this point, that he followed the strategy of “fake it ‘till you make it,” using his charisma to great advantage.
How would high grades factor in if the Pres. is elected to the Law Review? Just curious.....
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So are you saying he was in fact a very good student? I find that hard to believe given there were not many teleprompters around back then ;)
Could he not have been voted on because it was a politically correct thing to do?