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.
dude, I supported Walker in post 5 - and I have many times on FR and elsewhere......you’re an abject idiot, period.
you’re too stupid to know I was supporting you with this post......I must admit, I hate, no, I loathe stupidity. No patience for it. You eat up with it.
Calling you stupid and idiotic and retarded is merely the proper use of descriptive terms.
“I'm with you on Walker being a RINO.
I voted for Walker when I lived in Wisconsin, but now I regret my vote for him. “
#75
For a RINO Dems sure treat him like a threat.
Walker is likely to SAVE the republican party from the country club elites, pink DC, and from stupidity EVEN if he does not win.
He has be the mark of “some thing new” to this whole generation. Not just another cookie cutter yale/Harvard/ivy league grad.
j.bush is not gathering support.
Hilliary will ruthlessly survive and be the tired old lady in the race.
A course on self control might be your best shot, no one takes those foaming at mouth in a rage serious.
they are in the middle of destroying the best medical care system in the world. As it continues to spiral down, the answer is to clamp down harder. Do not listen to the 70% who still oppose this socialist claptrap.
they brought us widespread unemployment that appears to be getting better only if you subtract those who have been out of work so long they don't have benefits left, or have gotten so discouraged they have given up. I know that from first hand. I was once out of work for almost two years. I was sick and no one could figure out what it was. It turned out to be an illness caused by red cedar sawdust. ( I unknowingly exacerbated the condition by building thousands of red cedar flower boxes during my layoff to help support my family). I was ready to surrender when a doctor discovered the cause and put me on drugs for asthma.
But I digress, the feeling of hopelessness is overwhelming. It destroys families, it leads to thoughts of suicide, it is one of the most destructive forces imaginable.
Fortunately for me, soon after I was diagnosed, I got a good job that lasted 18 years, until I retired.
These "professionals" are only concerned with perpetuating their own careers. We need to help them. They need to be fired from their cushy Washington jobs, so they can get a real job and know what the rest of us face in everyday life. Put the ordinary guy or gal in there and see what they can do. Get rid of most of the alphabet agencies and ALL of the unconstitutional police agencies.
Maybe it's time to ask what it would take to get manufacturing jobs back into this country. Not by asking some blowhard politician, but by asking the people who actually have the power to do it.
I don't care if it is making $5.00 kids toys or $500,000.00 luxury boats, it's a JOB. It's high time we put people in there who would really work for THE PEOPLE, not for a select few. I think we can achieve some of this if we will elect some citizen representatives who take a couple years out from their lives to effect these goals. Term limits? Destroy the seniority system?
Your hatred towards Walker is driving voters right to him.
This is very easy for me.
I do not trust the gope
The sudden popularity for Walker, the laughable drudge poll that had Walker up 50% after the Ia summit?
The same talking points: purity test, etc.
This is gope stank.
We must go with the one that the gope has actively fought, and that is Ted Cruz.
Donald Trump is the latest potential candidate sniffing Red Hampshire’s jockstrap today...
I don't think I could stand 8 years of Hillary after 8 years of Obama, at least with Walker he has Dems terrified because they know he is electable.
Thats why the endless attacks on him year after year, he is a huge threat to them, ,in fact I bet a few f them are here...
There’s no doubt that you support Cruz on his own merits, but the case you make in that post amounts to “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
Which I don’t think works very well here as an argument. As much as we need a solid Conservative (and both Cruz and Walker qualify) at the head of the ticket, the GOPe is still a significant and important force and can’t be dismissed. Go-it-alone won’t work for Conservatives; we need to hitch the GOPe to us and drag them along.
Thats how Reagan did it, and thats how a successful Conservative 2016 candidate will do it.
This primary is a contest between the tea party and the gope. ANY stench of gope on the candidate will not get my vote. If the gope succeeds in getting Bush nominated, which I think is the whole point of Walker, then yes, we will see president Dem.
Another 'only Cruz or Hillary-er' ?
Thanks, Some on this thread were claiming that you don't exist.
Maybe Obama didn't bother you as much as he did me, I think he's been a terrible POTUS.
Of course I don’t think Conservatives can go it alone!
However, it is time to make the gope not pick our nominee for us by game playing. I really don’t care if the gope don’t like Cruz, they can hold their nose this time and vote.
But, if we keep clouding the field with other candidates, they will, more than likely, with cheating (Mississippi) get their guy in.
I have been on Conservative websites for years, and the last couple of years, it has been all Cruz all the time. After ONE speech in IA. the drudge report has a poll with Walker up over 50%. REally?
That doesn't mean we shouldn't have a bit of concern, I mean, with friends, fools here that are SOL, we ought to have a worry or two.......
Cruz/Walker Walker/Cruz.
Now THAT would be a great ticket.
An article written by a college student? Well, if college students, with all their years of political experience and knowledge think that Scott Walker is the one, who are we to argue?
If he is Chamber of Crony Fascism approved I’ll pass on him.
Considering the crap our kids are being taught it might be time for citizens to rethink a college education...
Another ‘only Cruz or Hillary-er’ ?
IT doesn’t only have to be Cruz, it can be anybody who has stood up to the gope. Walker may be a good guy, but this time around I want proof. sorry if you don’t like that.
After Mississippi, Boehner’s and McConnells antics, I can’t abide the gope.
For me, this is not about beating the dems, it is about restoring our country. I don’t see the republican party trying to do that.
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