I did a bit of searching and discovered this article from back then from the NYT. After reading it, it's quite obvious that the outstanding "trait" that qualified Obama for that position was the color of his skin.
The position used to be based on merit, but has since become another affirmative action post.
“You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who don’t get a chance,’’ he said, alluding to poverty or growing up in a drug environment.
BULLS**T.
You advanced through CORRUPTION Barry. You KNOW IT .
Most of us other poor souls - not those who voted for you - have a sense of honesty and integrity that you gave up on long ago... to advance(!). That’s how LOW you are bro. You broke in da head, you stay broke! You stay broke. There no try try. You stay broked bra.
And we KNOW IT.
Barry, those poor souls with out hope... they are BETTER and more deserving than you are. Best YOU can do is resign.
‘Cause you ain’t WORTHY homes. You dig? You one bugga broke in da head. You broke bro. You STAY broke. You no go. You stay broke. Aa?
(forgive the Hawaiian Pidgin, I speak that bastards loca language. Dat bastard, he stay broke a?)
~I never knew that Hawaiian pidgin would EVER do me so good. I have to thank God now, and I do. Thank you Lord(!), for delivering me from the corruption that lives and breathes in Hawaii now. God grant me the gratitude, the foresight, and the honesty to his Holy providence! He alone, through my parents, gave me the ability to see the difference between the light and the dark!
I KNOW what Hawaii, the DHOH is doing. I am a real witness. I am a real victim. They will NOT release to me... MY OWN BIRTH DOCUMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are breaking their own laws.... but Dr. Onaka of the DHOH does not care. I am a witness. Corruption and filth live under the guise of law. They are false. I am a witness to this fact.
Beware my FRiends. This fight is not imaginary. It is not merely a tale of centuries long past. We live it.
What have you?
Courage.
What have you to eat once courage fails you?
The bread of Christ, who says: “Believith in me, and you shall have ever lasting life.” Fear is the opposite of love, and love is GOD. Fear not.
Fearing not, victory is God’s. God’s victory is that of Freedom.
My Father, with his dying breath, taught me fear is the opposite of love. FEAR NOT. Love is the path forward.
We love freedom.
FEAR NOTHING.
I believe that previous FP posts have documented that the position was bought with Saudis money.
Harvard degrees are nothing more than high priced scholastic papers going to the highest bidder.
Anyone who respects an University that does not require final examines is foolish. Harvard is just a high priced scholastic paper mill, pure and simple!
I did some poking around on the subject of how one “makes Law Review” (i.e. is selected to be a member of a student-run law journal) at a law school. The “writing competition” seems to be generally known as the “Write-On Competition” and its weight for law review selection varies from school to school. In some cases the competition is the sole criterion and in others it is considered along with grades/class rank.
Some excerpts and links follow. Please forgive the length. Pause to read the Volokh link for a bit of refreshment and a few chuckles. The note at the end is of interest.
*********************************************
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/journals/WriteOnInformation.htm
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/journals/gjil/GJILWriteOnInformation.htm
Selection for Georgetown Journal of International Law (GJIL) is based on a combination of grades (50%) and on the write-on competition score (50%). Please feel free to contact me via email ( ram93@law.georgetown.edu) if you have any questions. We wish you the best of luck on exams and the write-on competition. Enjoy the summer!
http://www.law.udc.edu/?page=LawReview
Students are eligible to join Law Review at the end of their full first or second years at UDC-DCSL, either based upon their grade average or by participating in a write-on competition.
http://volokh.com/posts/1192207892.shtml
10.12.2007 4:28pm
(link) Eugene Volokh (http://volokh.com/):
Some law reviews are mostly, or entirely, write-on, with no grade-on element. The UCLA Law Review, for instance, is probably 80% write-on or so, though the precise formula is complex.
http://law.bepress.com/templelr/competition.html
Annual Write-On Competition
How does the San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law select its members?
Full-time students entering their 2L or 3L year and part-time students entering their 4L year or below are eligible to compete to join the San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law (JCEL). To be considered for membership, students must participate in JCEL’s write-on competition. JCEL’s write-on competition is held in collaboration with the San Diego Law Review and the San Diego International Law Journal.
What is the write-on competition?
The write-on competition is a cooperative effort between JCEL, the San Diego Law Review and the San Diego International Law Journal that enables interested students to apply to all three journals at the same time. The competition consists of a legal problem that each competitor must analyze and address. Each eligible competitor is provided with a copy of the problem and copies of all the relevant statutes, cases and other sources of law. No additional research is allowed. Students then prepare briefs, approximately ten pages in length, that address the relevant legal issues involved in the problem. Students must also perform a citation edit using The Bluebook. Grading of the write-on competition is completely anonymous, and selection onto JCEL is entirely merit-based. All competitors must do their own work and shall not confer with other competitors about the write-on problem. Cooperative efforts will be deemed honor code violations and will be reported as such.
http://www.nyls.edu/academics/jd_programs/law_review/write-on_competition
http://nevadalawjournal.org/
In addition to the Editorial Board, the NLJ is made up of junior staff members, mostly in their second or third year of law school. Junior staff members are selected based on their class-rank and/or demonstrated abilities as provided by an annual “Write-On” competition. At least 5% of the junior staff members are selected based on their grades, while the other portion of junior staff members have the option of competing in the “Write-On.” The Editorial Board determines the number of junior staff members selected for the NLJ and has the duty of selecting the top “Write-On” submissions.
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Law-Review-Write-Competition/dp/1594605203
Making Law Review: The Expert’s Guide to Mastering the Write-on Competition [Paperback]
Wes Henricksen (Author)
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press (September 19, 2008)
http://uclalawreview.org/?page_id=248
http://lawreview.tmc.cooley.edu/Default.aspx?pageId=117296
Prospective Members
Eligibility Criteria
Students who have completed 20 credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above and who have a grade of 3.0 or above in Research and Writing are invited, by the Law Review, to enroll in Scholarly Writing – a two-credit honors writing class. Upon completion of Scholarly Writing with a “B” or better, students are invited to interview for positions on the Law Review.
Students who have completed 20 credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 2.75 to 2.99 and who have a grade of 3.0 or above in Research and Writing are eligible to compete in the Write-On Competition.
The Write-On Competition
The Thomas M. Cooley Law Review is pleased to announce its Michaelmas 2010 Write-On Competition. The competition will run from October 11 to October 29, 2010. This competition offers students who would otherwise be ineligible for membership to participate in the Scholarly Writing class and demonstrate their ability to become a member of Law Review.
The Michaelmas 2010 Write-On Competition will begin on October 11 at 8:00 a.m., and end on October 29 at 5:00 p.m. To participate in the Write-On Competition, you must have:
A cumulative GPA of 2.75-2.99;
A “B” or better in Research and Writing;
Completed at least 20 credit hours.
Students who have a 3.0 or better cumulative GPA after completing 20 hours and have received a “B” or better in Research and Writing are automatically eligible for Scholarly Writing and need not participate in the Write-On Competition.
http://www.rutgerspolicyjournal.org/membership.html
The Volokh Conspiracy - Bizarre Harvard Law Review Student Note
http://volokh.com/posts/1211824928.shtml
AND
http://www.harvardlawreview.org/hlr_477.php
Harvard Law Review Membership Selection Policies
Membership in the Harvard Law Review is limited to second- and third-year law students who are selected on the basis of their performance on an annual writing competition. Harvard Law School students who are interested in joining the Review must write the competition at the end of their 1L year, even if they plan to take time off during law school or are pursuing a joint degree and plan to spend a year at another Harvard graduate school.
Information for prospective transfer students.[link]
In recent years, the number of students completing the competition has ranged from 200 to 255. Between 41 and 43 students are invited to join the Review each year.
Fourteen editors (two from each 1L section) are selected based on a combination of their first-year grades and their competition scores. Twenty editors are selected based solely on their competition scores. The remaining editors are selected on a discretionary basis. Some of these discretionary slots may be used to implement the Review’s affirmative action policy.
Oh yeah! We know what kind of anthropologist she was and what forms of humanity held her interest.
Easy/ They changed his low grades to A’s, kept his writing samples secret, and put him on Law Review.
Why else are all his academic records sealed?
This guy has never earned anything in his life. He and Michelle have rode the color of their skin their entire life. Yet Clarence Thomas gets grilled for truly working to get where he is. Thomas was not elected to the supreme court for the color of his skin. Everything in the O’s life has been color.
Oh but the New Yorkie said it was a relatively new system where a “special” writing competition “ was the deciding factor. Paper made no mention of any Black Panthers at the doors to the chamber—nor did it give details of the special
writing competitions charter-if any existed. I must conclude
you are ground Zero right on target with your assessment.
The article fails to mention that both this parents were Communists. Had it been noted, that pedigree would have qualified him for the Harvard Law Review.
You changed the title a lot.
The Ivy League schools are the most overrated colleges in the USA. One need only examine the mess that Ivy League graduates have made of our country in the leadership positions in our own gubmint that they have held. Having Ivy League credentials should be an immediate disqualification for holding public office, IMHO......
What kind of “field work” was his mom doing in Indonesia?
Excellent research. This one’s a keeper. Bookmarking....
bump
Miami Herald, The (FL) - April 18, 1990
LAW REVIEW’S FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT AIMS TO HELP POOR
His boyhood friends in Indonesia were street peddlers, and his grandmother still lives in a mud-walled house in Kenya. But Barack Obama is another world away, presiding over the Harvard Law Review as the first black president in the prestigious journal’s 103-year history.The charismatic 28-year-old, ensconced in the halls where tradition reigns, is taking aim at another custom: Obama’s sights are set on the South Side of Chicago, not on a U.S. Supreme Court...
Boston Globe - February 15, 1990
A LAW REVIEW BREAKTHROUGH
Barack Obama became the first black president of the influential Harvard Law Review last week, after a marathon 17-hour selection process that pitted him against 18 other candidates. But he says he felt the full significance of the honor only after a rival candidate, also black, embraced him.”He held onto me for a long time,”said Obama, 28, a second-year student at Harvard Law School. “It was an important moment for me, because with that embrace I...
The Washington Times - April 16, 1990
Law Review editor wants to help poor
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - His boyhood friends in Indonesia were street peddlers, and his grandmother still lives in a mud-walled house in Kenya. But Barack Obama is another world away, presiding over the Harvard Law Review as the first black president in the prestigious journal’s 103-year history.
Worcester Telegram &Gazette (MA) - February 6, 1990
FIRST BLACK ELECTED TO HEAD LAW REVIEW
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - The Harvard Law Review has elected its first black president at Harvard Law School, a move the new president said shows progress but should not be taken a sign that social barriers have been broken.”I wouldn’t want people to see my election as a symbol that there aren’t problems out there with the situation of African-Americans in society,”Barack Obama, 28, a second-year law student, said yesterday.Obama,...
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - June 7, 1993
The Diversity Battle at Harvard Law, At the prestigious law school, controversy rages over demands to add women and minority scholars to the faculty
WHEN students arrived at Harvard Law School the morning of April 14, they found some startling news waiting for them.A letter, printed on official-looking stationery and signed by Dean Robert Clark, announced that the law school would offer tenure to four “women of color”- including Anita Hill - in response to students’clamoring “for role models and a wide array of voices on the other side of the podium.”That...
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - February 27, 1990
FROM MEAN STREETS TO HALLOWED HALLS IN JAKARTA AND ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE, BARACK OBAMA SAW PLENTY. NOW HE’S THE FIRST BLACK EDITOR OF THE HARVARD LAW REVIEW.
Barack Obama, former street urchin and the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, drapes his long, lean body over a squeaky swivel chair and puts his feet on top of his cluttered desk.He is wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and battered boots that look to weigh about 40 pounds each. He is friendly, open and casual to the point of nonchalance.Obama, 28, spends more than 60 hours a week running what has been called the most influential legal periodical in the country,...
I wonder what this young obama fellow would think about what the blackish guy who is president is doing?
I never tire of posting this about his HLR days:
Carol Platt Liebau was first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.
It reminds me a little bit of my experience with him when he was president of the Harvard Law Review. You know, I hesitated to say a lot about this during the campaign because I really thought maybe it wasn't fair. That maybe, finally, when he got to be President, this would be a job big enough to engage and hold Barack Obama's sustained interest, because really, is there a bigger job out here?
[...]
[W]hen he was at the HLR you did get a very distinct sense that he was the kind of guy who much more interested in being the president of the Review, than he was in doing anything as president of the Review.
A lot of the time he quote/unquote "worked from home", which was sort of a shorthand - and people would say it sort of wryly - shorthand for not really doing much. He just wasn't around. Most of the day to day work was carried out by the managing editor of the Review, my predecessor, a great guy called Tom Pirelli whose actually going to be one of the assistant attorney generals now.
He's the one who did most of the day to day work. Barack Obama was nowhere to be seen. Occasionally he would drop in he would talk to people, and then he'd leave again as though his very arrival had been a benediction in and of itself, but not very much got done.
So, you know, you see that and you think, gosh, maybe that's the way the guy operates, but then you figure ok, obviously he always had his eye on bigger and better things.
But now he's President...there really isn't a bigger or better thing.