Well, pardon me for recognizing in your post the kind of guy who'd bore people around him with stories of how high his kids' GPAs are, their involvement in goody-two-shoes organizations, and the extent of their vocabularies. "Humble father," indeed -- if you were that humble, you'd understand better why Palin is so easy for regular folks to identify with.
For what it's worth, I have a degree in Journalism, and I agree 100 percent that it's a very easy degree to get and anyone who gets one didn't have to do much, and that includes not learning proper grammar nor expanding their vocabularies.
I will also say that I have made a humble but adequate and very enjoyable living as a writer for decades, and have interviewed and quoted literally thousands of people. BELIEVE ME, I know of what I speak -- the size of one's vocabulary and their use of it has ZERO to do with intelligence, native or cultivated. None.
How in the wide world of sports do you have idea what my "life experiences" may or may not be?
"Somehow, regarding the importance you put on such manipulative meant-to-impress fripperies like involvement in clubs, organizations or groups targeting peopel for academic excellence, or cumulative GPA"
I'm not sure how we got to this point, but somehow there's a percentage of Americans that think it's a badge of honor to graduate from college "just barely" and while there to demonstrate ZERO intellectual, social or cultural curiosity. And, not only that it's a "good" thing, but it's what we need in a commander and chief.
Listen, what we’re dealing with here and with Big Monkey(?) are what I perceive are the country club pubbies. These are the “conservatives” (McCain-backers) Sowell was referring to. They don’t like a common man’s candidate you can tell it how much disdain shown in their comments. Probably both high-end income earners (not mad at that) but the attitude is one of superiority and pedigree. The Republican Party is changing and we’re going with the plain spoken salt of the earth types. I’m no longer going for the professional politician nor the “It’s my turn because of my upbringing, background, and heritage” types-—bump that give me Sarah and Fred Thompson and Rush Limbaugh types.