Posted on 03/19/2015 6:44:42 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
What do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Scott Walker have in common? They all changed America. And they didn’t need a college degree to do it.
On Feb. 12, Democratic former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean deemed GOP front-runner Scott Walker unfit for the presidency because he dropped out of college. “The issue is, how well educated is this guy?” said Dean on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I worry about people being president of the United States not knowing much about the world and not knowing much about science.”
The current Republican governor of Wisconsin attended Marquette University for four years but jumped at a job opportunity his senior year, trading his chance for a diploma for a job at the American Red Cross. He was 34 credits short of earning his B.A. in Political Science.
Presidents aren’t required to have a college degree. But in the last century, only President Harry S Truman lacked one. It’s about time we had another. If Walker’s smart, he may turn this missing credential into an advantage.
The Constitution simply states that to be president, one must be a natural-born citizen and 35 years old. Arguing for constitutional ratification in the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison — writing as Publius — held experience and virtue as the most important presidential qualifications.
What Walker lacks by not holding a diploma, he makes up for with real-world experience, good character, practical education, and significant policy experience. He holds the knowledge, skills, and proven track record to be a strong contender should he be chosen as the 2016 GOP nominee. Publius would endorse Walker.
Walker launched his political career just after leaving Marquette. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1993. After four re-elections, he spent the next eight years cutting spending as Milwaukee County Executive. After reforming a corrupt county government, Walker became Wisconsin’s governor in 2011. Now in his second term, Gov. Walker has turned a state deficit into surplus and enacted labor and educational reforms.
He intended to return to school to finish those 34 credits, but life got busy: He married, had children, and ran for office. In 20 years, he went from being a college dropout to governor, all while raising a family. His story proves that hard work and determination matter.
Walker is not too different from most Americans either. According to the Census Bureau, only 31.7 percent of adults over 25 had finished college in 2013. Walker can play these stats to his advantage; he already has.
We say we want our politicians to be “just like us.” We like the idea of a president who rolls up his sleeves and eats a half-slab of ribs — an average Joe (or a plain Jane, for Hillary). But the credentials of recent American presidents show the contrary to be true. Experience tells us that the American people want a president who is extraordinary while seeming just ordinary enough. They are hardly like us.
Just look at the other potential candidates. Hillary Clinton has degrees from Wellesley and Yale; Ted Cruz graduated from Princeton and Harvard; Bobby Jindal graduated from Brown and Oxford. Scott Walker stands out among this clan of educational overachievers.
Now more than ever, a college degree has become the entry-level ticket to economic and political success, as well as an indicator of worth. The America that once prided itself on real-world experience and common sense now depends on the credentials of a slip of paper.
Walker must continue to prove his credibility in other ways to have a chance at the Oval Office. He can use his lack of a degree to his advantage by relating to the majority of American voters who did not attend or finish college. Even those with degrees may find it refreshing that the next president didn’t come from an elite class of Ivy Leaguers. He can paint himself as a blue-collar hero.
In addition to appealing to the average voter, his experience makes him a strong competitor among his peers. Since 1990, Walker has run in 11 political races — not to mention a recall election in 2012 — and has won all but one. If he can articulate a clear agenda, he can turn his dropout status into an asset as he races for the presidency.
Publius was right that experience and character are the best presidential prerequisites. When choosing the next president, Americans should consider the qualifications that matter, not just paper credentials.
College records, pffft.
I dare them to compare his birth certificate.
However, the schooling he did receive was far better than the tripe our kids are exposed to nowadays. When he lived close enough to a school he could walk to he went to it. When his family moved to where there were no schools, he kept up his studies. He read and understood Euclid and used his book to exercise his brain for his famous debates.
I also read a testimony from his cousin who said that Abe would practice "speechifying" by standing on a stump giving long orations to all his playmates, even adding "large gesticulations," which included waving his long, lanky arms and bowing magnificently to his audience.
His cousins loved it all.
I would vote for Scott.
I will NOT vote for Jeb.
That’s NOT...as in absolutely positively no way would I raise the energy to spit on the picture of that creep.
I agree,
the ferociousness of some of the Cruz-Palin-bots in trying to take Walker down so early for not being talk radio pure enough sometimes is irresistible for me to join in and tweak them. Obviously is GOP poll rise has driven them nuts.
And Walker appears to be pandering on some stuff giving them ammunition.
I think its way too early to settle in.
Article draws comparison between Scott Walker, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Good read. Synopsis: all three have changed America without a college degree.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest pinng list.
“Education has nothing to do with greatness.”
Or intelligence! :)
I relate to Governor Walker on so many levels. I never finished my Business degree - a few credits shy - yet have been trusted to run two multimillion dollar operations (Construction & Ag-related) and one non-profit.
And by ‘run’ I mean, ‘not run into the ground,’ LOL!
Love My Gov! :)
Scott Walker is currently my favorite choice.
I thought the idea was to go into this primary with ONE candidate that we could all agree on. One candidate so the gope can’t get their guy nominated.
After the speech in Iowa that later had Walker up over 50% in the polls, that doesn’t pass the smell test. something very fishy is going on.
I honestly saw on another thread one poster wrote they thought Walker could unite the tea party and the gop. NO I want to defeat the gope.
It has everything to do with greatness. However, the current idea of "education", meaning ivy league totalitarian leftists are somehow smart and educated, may be the farthest thing from actually being educated.
Genuine education brings character, intelligence, and targeted action together. In politics, Reagan comes to mind here.
Win what?
After eight years of Obama and exec orders and gay marriage of DADT repeal .......there is yearning to not have that extended to 16.
They wont buy that Walker is the same as Hillary so we might as well let Hillary take the WH while we make our symbolic votes and lose to Dems.
Walker has a record of beating Dems over and over and driving them nuts, in fact there is a reason why they are targeting him over all the others, when at this time 2007 they were praising McCain.
Will he pee me off in future? Only time will tell.
Just a little correction here, so you can see a bit more clearly: Those who liked (and still like) Palin here are split about fifty fity over Walker.
I've been fairly vocal in chiding a few of the Cruz "bots" supporters for their over the top attempts to demonize Walker, as if tearing down another candidate was the way to further their own candidate.
Now you come along and seem to enjoy insulting those who prefer Cruz by using the "bot" brush.
You might want to rethink that, it's the same juvenile nastiness in reverse.
When your major is “Political Science”, having or not having a degree is meaningless. I’d have a different opinion if it was engineering, pharmacy, physics, medicine or any other technical or science field.
HAHA, read the quote from me that you copied into your comment to me.
It clearly says “...the ferociousness of some of the Cruz-Palin-bots in .....
Now focus on the word ‘some’ in it,
From online dictionary:
some
2. used to refer to someone or something that is unspecified
If the shoe fits its you, if it doesn't then its not.
That is my ‘rethinking’. Thanks for the useless lecture.
If the Obama regime proved anything, it is that advanced degrees from elite institutions mean you will dictate based on your theoretical utopian vision, not based on reality or what the people want and need.
He could also lose for the Republicans.
Your incapacity to go beyond thinking so highly of yourself is astonishing sometimes.
Such a jack ass post, in addition to being paranoid and fan boyish, might carry a little more weight could you point to a single post that is applicable. Until then STFU
I don't think so. I think Cruz or Walker will win if they can get the nomination. Why do you think Walker could lose (in the context of your reply above)?
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.