According to the AP, Sarah Palin attended 5 colleges and universities in 6 years before graduating with a journalism degree. In order, the educational institutions which can claim her as an alum are: University of Hawaii at Hilo (for 2 to 3 weeks; it’s not clear she ever actually enrolled there); Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu (one semester); North Idaho College (a 2 year school) for two semesters; University of Idaho, for one year; Matanuska-Susitna College in Palmer, Alaska (1 semester); and lastly back to the University of Idaho for 3 semesters before graduating.
For comparison, here’s Obama’s post high school education:
After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. […]
Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he was elected the first African–American editor of the Harvard Law Review. Obama graduated magna cum laude in 1991.
In the years between graduating from Columbia and entering Harvard Law, Obama was a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago. Upon graduating from Harvard Law Obama worked as a civil rights lawyer and taught classes at the University of Chicago Law School. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, never worked at any newspaper as a journalist. Reportedly she served a short stint as “sportscaster for KTUU in Anchorage” after graduation. Make of that what you will.
Update [2008-9-5 11:38:55 by Steven D]: For those who think we should avoid comparisons with Palin and Obama, and focus on McCain, here is my answer. Showing how poorly qualified Palin is compared to Obama is an attack on McCain. McCain has been touting his judgment, his experience, and his devotion to serving his country. Yet in his most important decision to date as his Party’s nominee, what did he do? He chose the least qualified person imaginable as his Vice President, a person one heart attack or stroke (or whatever) away from being our Nation’s most powerful office holder, for reasons of political expediency (i.e., to shore up his support among the radical right wing of his party). He had the Council For National Policy (a vehicle for enhancing the power of the Radical Right within the Republican Party) vet her and sign off on her selection as his running mate, for Christ’s sake!
What did we like best about Obama’s speech at the DNC? That he went after the Republicans and McCain hard for his lack of judgment, his impulsiveness and his poor temperament. Well, what better way to attack McCain than to attack his poor decision making in choosing Palin as his Veep? And how do we show McCain used poor judgment and acted impulsively, hastily, without due consideration for the good of the country? In large part by showing that he chose a person who isn’t fit to be President.
Clearly demonstrating that Obama is a flaming elitist. But wait, didn’t his Bushness attend Harvard? < cough, cough >
And Yale! Don’t forget Yale!
I think any time you compare Obama with Palin it’s a loser for democrats. He’s running against MCCAIN.
Yup. Follow the Obama campaign’s lead on this one…They’re running against McCain and his record, not Sarah Palin.
Still, if McCain wins the election, Sarah Barracuda (a high school nickname) is only a heart beat away from the presidency. And, McCain has had how many bouts with melanoma or skin cancer? And, how many operations on the right side of his face to say nothing of his age.
Wow, what are the Republicans getting us into? (Why this odd chill running down my spine?)
Sarah Barracuda, a VP for Armageddon!
It is frightening. But why elevate Palin to the level of Obama by comparing them?
The Republicans are already comparing the two of them. Whether we like it or not, we need to show that the comparisons they are making are false and based on lies.
Palin is quite possibly the least qualified Vice Presidential candidate in history.
The republicans are doing it because they want to elevate Palin. Why go along with the plan?
Americans repeat like Pavlovian dogs arguments they hear on teevee. If we don’t give them the arguments, that automatically elevates Palin because their brains aren’t being forced to question the pick. If there’s silence they’ll assume there’s nothing wrong.
Look, McCain’s adviser said she would have to LEARN national security. I thought we lived in a dangerous world? It eliminates other talking points of theirs. No, I think the GOP plan is to scare the media and Dems into not vetting her.
Well, this could work to our advantage if Obama were to do some ads saying something to the effect of, “The Republicans are comparing Sarah Palin’s record to that of Barack Obama. Why are they doing that? Barack Obama is running against John McCain . . . isn’t he?“
Or not. I’m no campaign strategist. Still, it makes me wonder . . .
I like it.
It seems to me Palin should be compared to Biden. Then Obama’s better judgment becomes evident. In fact it’s demeening to Obama to begin comparing him to Palin or the other way around.
Actually Palin’s chequered history would be endering if she had been a good Mayor and a good Gov, as it happens she has been neither.
not worth a hill of sawdust. Obama is smart to avoid Palin. It’s all about McCain.
over the next 8 weeks she’ll end up polarizing the electorate and self destruct.
It’s all about McCain– Meet the Real McCain “John Bush” the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear War.
What the election is all about: The markets and kitchen table issues. Since Palin was introduced the markets (DJIA) lost over 700 points.
Today, unemployment shot up over 6.1%, a 5 year high and Mortgage Foreclosures, Delinquencies Reach Highest in 30 years
The recession is now global due to US exports of fraudulent bonds.
Our local Repub Congressional candidate (who does not self identify as a Repub in his TV ads) is running on this platform:
Less Taxes
Less Regulation
Smaller Government
I own my own business!
In short, same old shit that led to the mess we are in.
Absolutely. Leave her to Biden. Let Obama get out there with what he’s going to do in office to get the country on track, and continue with the message of “We can’t afford four more years of more of the same.” Stay on message. Eyes on the prize.
If Obama refers to Palin at all it should be in the context of showing her as an example of McCain’s poor judgment. Or maybe wonder out loud, like I suggested above, why they’re comparing Palin to Obama. Which of them again is running for President for the Republicans?
Careful folks. Boo had a college tour too… and he became a community organizer 🙂
Boo’s not running for President or Vice President.
And why not, I say. Put a blogger in the White House.
It doesn’t matter how many colleges she attended. Lots of ordinary folks bounce around until they figure out what they want to do. Besides, a large portion of the American public is anti-intellectual. They either don’t trust people who are “too smart” or resent that some people had a chance (or the brains and discipline) to attend fancy schools. Attacking her for that makes us sound elitist.
I say we focus on her “Iraq War” as a mission from God. Now that is the type of thinking that is bound to say more stupid scary, stuff in the next eight weeks.
When does this appear on a larger radar screen than Andrew Sullivan’s blog? BTW, “emergency motion” is a link that doesn’t open. Hmmmmmm?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here We Go
Todd Palin’s former business partner files an emergency motion to have his divorce papers sealed. Oh God.
Actually, it appears to have been removed:
This webpage is not available.
The webpage at http://www.courtrecords.alaska.gov/pa/pa.urd/pamw2000.docket_lst?68762762 might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
Yep, here is what 6 years of college gets you:
http://deadspin.com/5045284/you-can-take-our-sarah-palin-videos-but-youll-never-take-our-freedom
a little video of VP Palin’s past. We report you decide.
What folks don’t really recognize is the fact that the repugs literally want to destroy the government, so having someone with no experience is a good thing – she’s most likely to fuck shit up in the way that only incompetence can bring about because incompetence has no conscience.
I was all aboard until I realized that rope-a-dope is the tactic McCain is using on us.
Dis Palin and you dis yourself.
Obama is the change candidate, but he has been whipped into this ‘make myself acceptable mode’ and can’t describe the changes he would bring without threatening that. The repugs are saying hell yes we are going to wreck shop and we are NOT acceptable to the folks you hate. They can say anything.
McCain 51%, Obama 48% is my prediction until the debates begin. Getting my passport updated.
Steven, usually your posts leave me exhilarated. This one, sorry to say, just leaves a bad taste. Palin’s less-than-stellar educational path is the kind of thing that resonates with most Americans from working-class families (like myself). For many, just getting through college is an accomplishment to be proud of. Dumping on that accomplishment and comparing it to a Harvard career only alienates people who can identify better with Palin’s educational path better than they can with Obama’s. This is what gives such intensity to the hatred of “liberal elitists” who are seen as lording it over the “real folks”.
Palin’s problem is not her college choices and record. It’s her whacko belief that we should teach children that the earth is 6000 years old and that all the scientists are wrong or lying about it. It’s her ignorant denial of climate change, environmental problems, and the benefits of real sex education for teenagers. It’s her belief that the police should force a 14-year-old to deliver what grew inside her after her daddy raped her. It’s her apparent addiction to serial lying, and to abuse of power for personal ends. It’s her stated belief the “God” is the one who planned the oil pipeline, and the rest of her nasty, stupid theocrat bullshit. Her problem is that she’s nuts, and not even in an interesting way. Her problem is that she’d be a complete disaster in the White House.
The Bushes and their cohorts prove for once and for all that an Ivy League “education” does not in any way suggest that the graduate is not a total asshole. I think our side needs to quit nitpicking Palin’s bio and focus on her vast ignorance of national issues and proclivity for lying. Leave the rest to the scandal rags.
“I think our side needs to quit nitpicking Palin’s bio…”
Except for the part of it that has to do with who her political connections are, i.e. who are her handlers?
For example:
http://www.themediaconsortium.com/reporting/2008/09/02/sarah-palins-party-loyalty/
And that’s by no means the whole story either.
I think this aspect of her bio is very important, because Sarah Palin is basically a sock puppet for certain factions of the extreme right.
Absolutely. On political stuff, no holds barred. I wouldn’t call that nitpicking. It’s the personal stuff not connected to politics, like her spotty college career, that I’d like to see left alone.
Except her first college was in Hawaii. Weren’t all the Republicans upset over Obama going to an elitist place like Hawaii for a vacation?
A few different things about Palin’s bio stand out for me: she majored in journalism and she was a beauty contestant. Sadly, television news favors winners of beauty contests for jobs over more highly qualified journalists.