This issue came up today on a
front page post about Kerry's release of his full military records, which apparently included his undergraduate transcript from Yale.
The Boston Globe lovingly reports:
Newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.
thoughts on the backside...
Rather than discuss, in a predictable and legitimate fashion, the various ways that Kerry is still much smarter & wiser than Bush, it would be much more interesting to hear from anyone who was honestly taken aback by this revelation and given to reflection.
The first most offensive thing about Bush has always been his agenda, followed by his dishonesty. I think third would have to be the way he's ridden his family name to success & riches. His real or affected stupidity has always been a distant fourth (for me at least).
Alternately, no one here voted for Kerry because he was the "smart" candidate, and I don't think many people are all that impressed by grades. For me, it was not this or even Kerry's war medals that I admired most about him. It has always been his actions after the Vietnam War that inspired me, that seemed the clearest indicator of both wisdom and courage - something Bush has never shown.
But does Kerry see his own life the same way? In the face of the Swift Boats ugliness, was he captive to his own vanity? His actions during the campaign, in hindsight, seem aimed at protecting his reputation as a soldier and an intellect.
The military and medical records, however, appear identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.
But in the process, what was lost?
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