Posted on 06/07/2005 12:40:14 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
Newly released Navy records of Sen. John Kerry show the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, who was portrayed as the intellectual superior of President Bush, actually received a lower academic average than his rival while studying at Yale, including five Ds.
The transcript of grades, which Kerry has always declined to release, was part of a set of Naval records requested and finally received by the Boston Globe. Last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to release the records to the paper, something he refused to do during last fall's campaign.
While Bush and Kerry were at Yale, the school had a numerical scoring system.
Bush received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year. Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, received a cumulative score of 76 for his four years. Those grades include four Ds in his freshman year and one in his sophomore year.
According to the Globe, the military and medical records released appear identical to what Kerry has already released, but this marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.
The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71, or a low C. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior year.
Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade.
''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said yesterday in a written response to questions, telling the Globe he has previously acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on his studies.
Bush received one D in his four years at Yale, scoring a 69 in astronomy. The president has described himself as a C student in college.
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said it's obvious why Democrats did not release Kerry's records during the presidential campaign.
"It would have made them a laughing stock," Limbaugh said during his show today. "They're out there talking about Bush as a dunce. ... He (Bush) gets better grades at Yale than John Kerry. ... It's typical. [The Democrats are] a bunch of pretentious, spoiled, lying brats."
Hahahhaha...I just went and asked the whacko lib who the President of the United States was...she said Kerry 4 times before I look at the nutball as said...come'on...really.
Finally said Bush.
Granted this was childish on my part but it brings to light thier continued bitterness. Granted I am still bitter about Carter, LBJ, and Clinton...but I have the facts on my side to be bitter about those fools.
i would enjoy seeing how the DUmmies are handling this topic, but i work for a defense contractor, no way i'm gonna visit that site from work.
the grade inflation excuse doesn't make sense, Bush had a higher avg, so the bottom line is Bush got better grades than kerry, and kerry is built up as an intellectual and bush is called a chimp and a moron by the party of tolerance.
hi-larious
The excuse is he was taking flying lessons? I thought one of their talking points from the election was that Kerry came from a poor family? Alright, I know he was a Forbes, so he was far from poor, but it is amazing about how the more they lie, the more they get caught.
I believe I had a 3.6 from a State College, and I must tell you, I worked my butt off for it.
I spent 4 yrs in the USN before college, so I got some motivation, which served me well. I knew I didn't want to be a jet mechanic for the rest of my life...that is tough on the body. I have never thought I had the best intellect, so I always felt (and still feel) I need to prove it to myself that I can do it.
I really didn't like the way the left painted Bush during the campaign, especially the Hollywood types who don't have any business at all commenting on the lack of intelligence in other people. I would never do it, I think to pin a person's worth or ability on what they did in school is disrespectful and ignorant. Some of the most intelligent and capable people I have known do not have more than a high school education, but I would take many of them over some of the supposedly well-educated and refined physicians I have met during my career in healthcare, and the decision would not even be close. (not all, mind you, I know some brilliant physicians as well!...:)
I personally don't believe that anyone who has been alive and listening to the MSM in the last ten years could look at Bush and believe he was a hard working rancher anymore than they would believe that of Reagan.
Where are you coming from?
Probably from seeing the pictures of him clearing brush with the cowboy hat and all...:)
If you want to see why I don't think President Bush is an empty shell, and is someone I would want on my side, check out the short video clip (you need Quicktime installed) on my homepage at:
http://homepage.mac.com/rlmorel/iMovieTheater50.html
Of note: Watch how much time President Bush spent deciding what to do when he realized one of his guards was in trouble. No vacillation, he did what any real man would do.
Also, from what I have read about Reagan, he really did enjoy working his land, FWIW. I do believe with Bush it is posturing...:)
I guess it just takes farm experience to see that Bush is just running around and doing the fun stuff. Look at the hands, that's all it takes.
Clearly, it didn't apply to Ronald Reagan, whose Economics training and his deep love and reading of the writings of America's Founders made him far superior in his understanding of the challenges of the Cold War era and how to deal with them. His handwritten letters and notes, as well as his own thoughts in his speeches reveal a far deeper intellectual ability than his critics would have had us believe.
Even the attempts at discrediting Dan Quayle were pathetic and reveal much more of the failed and failing ideas of the Left than they did of the qualifications of Quayle, whose conservative ideas were the Left's real target, not his mental qualifications.
If one wanted a quick check and comparison of the intellect and decision-making ability of George Bush vs. John Kerry, one had to look no further than the first choice each made for a Vice President for these United States. Really now! What did the millionaire personal injury lawyer from NC bring to the job except ambition and pompous rhetoric?
By the way, in this post-9-11 world, have you ever heard anyone (Right or Left) say: "I'm just so sorry that Al Gore is not our President"? Didn't think so!!
is it still called "Rocks For Jocks"?
Good for you! I highly respect folks who work through college and keep their grades up like that.
Nice score! And thank you for your service. :-) May I add I completely agree with your statement: "I think to pin a person's worth or ability on what they did in school is disrespectful and ignorant."
In reality, he had far deeper intellect and ability than any of his critics, particularly the obnoxious among them. Those who could comprehend his strength never tossed around the "affable dunce" slander about him. They kept their difference "professional" not personal.
The cool thing about RR was that he was so comfortable in his abilities, that the small minded critics never phased him in the least. He never felt the need to respond in kind to their venom. I see many of the same qualities in W.
Observe, ladies and gentlemen, the loving hearts of the left - especially when they do their panting dialectical dissections.
They hate President Bush because they know he is a million + more times a man than any of them will ever be. And even more because he submits to the Lord - that really gets them.
Beause he was born while his father was in grad school, living in student housing no less, does not make him "from" a state. After his infancy in CT, Bush grew up in Texas, where he attended the neighborhood public school through grade 4.
With looks like that, no wonder he turned into an America hating, Vietcong coddling, Jane Fonda following traitor.
How even the dems were stupid enough to nominate him, and expect he could win, is beyond my ability to fathom.
That means Dubya is MUCH smarter than Effin' Kerry - no?
I think of John Adams, who said:
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. --John Adams (1735-1826)
and,
"It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.--John Adams
Divine Providence, believed by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and others present at the creation of the "miracle of America," to have intended America to be a beacon for liberty, or, as Reagan remembered, a "shining city on a hill," yet inspires men and women to spread the philosophy of light and liberty to a world in which darkness and oppression rule.
Light and liberty vs. darkness and oppression: this is the battle. Reagan understood that, as did the Founders.
Adams' son, John Quincy, challenged all future generations:
"Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.