Obama’s exact quotation (via Instapundit), in making his point about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth:
Somebody gave me an education. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance — just like these folks up here are looking for a chance.
Who was the somebody who “gave” Obama an education?
It’s a relevant question because Obama has made a political point of saying that both he and his wife carried substantial student loan debt, which implies that no one “gave” Obama an education, he self-financed at least in substantial part:
“When Michelle and I graduated from law school our combined debt was $120,000 and it took us 10 years to pay off. We were lucky because we’d gone to a law school where we knew we could earn it,’’ said the Harvard Law alum. “It remains smart to spend on things that are going to increase your productivity and your income over the long term. In the same way that law school paid off for Michelle and I,” he added.
The statement that someone “gave” Obama an education appears not to be factually accurate, at least if Obama’s student loan story is true.
More precisely, someone “gave” Obama the opportunity to borrow money to finance his education on terms which required repayment with interest.
Who, exactly, is being deprived of the same “chance” Obama had to borrow money to finance an education?
(chart via BuzzFeed)
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Comments
“…law school paid off for Michelle and I,”
It’s Michelle and ME! OMG, poor grammar, especially from an educated person, is like fingernails on a blackboard >:O
“Who was the somebody who “gave” Obama an education?” That would be the Ayres family according to reports….
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/what_the_mailman_knows_about_ayers_and_obama.html
Whoever admitted him to that law school gave him a chance.
Yes. I suspect that what Obama really meant was that he and Michelle were admitted to schools that couldn’t have got into on a blind merit selection basis via diversity programs.
I’ve always wondered about Michelle Obama and Princeton.
Christopher Hitchens in 2008, in a column about Michelle Obama’s thesis:
“To describe it as hard to read would be a mistake; the thesis cannot be “read” at all, in the strict sense of the verb. This is because it wasn’t written in any known language. ”
“…law school paid off for Michelle and I,”
I dunno how.
Neither of them has had a bar card in years.
between the 2 of them they went to higher ed schools for a total of 12 years … but they only ended up with $120,000 in school loans ? a low estimate should have seen their student loan debt in the 300K range … 25k per year …
hmmm … seems like somebody paid for the rest of their education … I wonder who that was ?
I’ll bet that he got a ton of money as a “foreign” student, and didn’t some person write to some Saudi Prince to help finance this “deserving” student?
I seem to recall someone doing that for Dear Leader.
Not to mention what publishing company contacts a nobody in his 20s to give him an advance to write his autobiography.
“Who exactly is being deprived of the same ‘chance’ Obama had to get an education?”
Statistically, someone of Asian extraction…
I think he means someone gave him a chance at a college education, something someone who scores in the mid-800’s on their SAT normally wouldn’t get.
OCBill, you would be amazed how many doors the CEO of ConEd can open at Harvard…
Ain’t Affirmative Action great? Ya get to jump over people who are more qualified*, to do work that’s at best mediocre*, and then to get jobs undeserved based on undemonstrated ability, and then you get to lord it over others.
*Okay, BHO, if your academic work and qualifications are bona fides, lets see the SATs, the LSAT grades, the ranks in class, your writings. We have been told – endlessly – how brilliant you are. Lets at least see the pre-presidency evidence of your brilliance. We have in hand the evidence of your post-01/19/09 NON-brilliance.
Everything’s sealed because he doesn’t like to brag.
A guy pretty high up with a big oil company (in the middle of deciding if CHV would buy MOB, hypothetically) was a friend of mine .. said women were pushed ahead too early (to fulfill quotas) and it did harm. Besides the ego and lording over thing, there is the problem of incompetents screwing things up, and the more qualified being disheartened.
Then the wrongly advanced person gets an attitude, and the whole process is short circuited. Imagine a sports team where one guy gets the ball all the time, because he is the coach’s kid, or his dad is mayor. It is poison to the system … but it is legislated from above with our current insane system.
It’s not just that some people get more money unfairly, it is that incompetent people (Obama) get power to fly an airliner, but can’t handle a single engine without the autopilot button and co-pilot. Fine … pay them more money based on race, give them a big title on their door … but don’t let the incompetents crash the plane with 300 million souls on board.
of course there are many blacks or women that are competent, but they too are often “handicapped” when they are pushed ahead too quickly. There MAY be a glass ceiling, but it also may be that men are more likely to be driven to higher position by societal norms.
The pool of “minorities” that are driven to achieve (even from their youth, early schooling counts) is limited. But certainly the likes of the Obamas playing the race card, can squeeze someone else out of a deserved position. Advancing anyone based on race or gender doesn’t help anyone, and can harm everyone.
Considering the lengths Obama has gone through to bury his college records – especially how it was paid for, you have to wonder if this is a conversation he really wants to have.
The mailman knows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPtw9WR7yr8
Everyone needs to see this. Buried by the major media.
1: Obama is incapable of making an internally consistent argument because he always discards the facts and because he has no moral or philosophical compass.
2: I don’t think he realizes what he just did to his daughters by playing the class warfare card and looking down on people born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
They will reap what their father sows. Unfortunately, so will the rest of us.
How about Affirmative Action and Bill Ayers. It is stunning that no one calls this guy on anything!
I graduated into a lousy job market in 1974 and by 1983 I had both an MBA and my JD with not one dime of student loan debt to pay off. Nor did my parents contribute to either degree. I did have one lucky break in the form of an employer who desperately needed a non relative in his business’s tuition reimbursement program so he paid for part of the MBA. The main factor was that business school and law school tuition was much lower in relation to what an underemployed college graduate could expect to earn in a couple of years’ work.
How Obama got into Harvard – http://israelinsider.net/profiles/blogs/is-obama-the-secret-son-of
Young Marxist Obama – http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/meeting_young_obama.html
OK, I bit. I read the IsraelInsider article. Question. Wouldn’t it be fairly simple to obtain DNA from something Obama has eaten off and left behind? I mean, look at all the restaurants and dinner parties he’s attended. I know there is something really fishy going on but I would think this one would be pretty easy to prove or disprove.
Who exactly is being deprived? Why, the Million-Straw-Man army rattling around in Obama’s head.
That’s who.
“When Michelle and I graduated from law school our combined debt was $120,000 and it took us 10 years to pay off. We were lucky because we’d gone to a law school where we knew we could earn it,’’
And we were lucky to have a good friend like Bill Ayers to help us earn a lot of money from book royalties which helped greatly–
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/04/hah-google-books-lists-dreams-from-my-father-as-one-of-bill-ayers-books/
I can assure everybody that the 1% are not getting any of the college grant money, and I doubt they get much of the loan money either.
VERY true.
I can assure everybody that the 1% are not getting any of the college grant money,
I agree with you, and I am a parent deeply mired in the 99%.
I have a child who is Ivy League educated. This child made it through with low student debt thanks to grants and by working many part time jobs (dorm counsellor, tutor, etc) that the school offered.
The real issue, IMHO, is not the grant/student loan vector, rather the cost/benefit analysis of the student’s aptitude, career goals and wotk ethic.
This particular child was a very good HS student, with high SAT scores and importantly, in this case, a nationally ranked HS athlete. The athlete part was the reason for the Ivy League opportunity, since there are a lot of good grade, high SAT kids looking at an Ivy.
During the recruitment process it became evident that it wasn’t going to cost anymore to go to My Hometown CC, My State U or an Ivy due to FAFSA and the fact that an Ivy’s endowments enable them to offer their students good grants.
Another child is the opposite of the first. I would have paid an arm and a leg and ended up mired in college debt for that student, even at a lesser known school and for a throw-away bachelor that is almost a requirement for employment nowadays.
That student is now in Germany where there are more tracks out of high school. Particularly, there is a business/trade school like track that allows a student to get a high school diploma with a major (yes, HS grads have majors) in a business subject. The business schools interface with German industry to maintain infrastructure and subject matter pertinent to future needs.
The Obama statement/policy outlined in the professor’s post concerns me because it doesn’t address the issue of needless student debt run up to produce a degree that, while a prerequisite for an entry level position in a white collar career, has a horrendous ROI downside.
Who is being deprived?
That’s important. But MORE important is what Obama is ushering in. His statements about student loans today are exactly the same as Stephanopolous’s ‘contraceptive” question during the debates. He is setting up #Occupy’s May 1 actions, and whatever meme they’re going to run with.
They’re using student loans to draw the pawns in to #Occupy.
What comes next? One “unexpected” consequence of millions of students reneging on their student loans? No more student loan program. No student loans for anyone. Pay up front and as-you-go.
If nothing else wakes up the liberal professors of America, this should – because this is going to mean YOU”RE NOT GOING TO GET PAID. It means you’re (and Obama is) encouraging your students to disrespect the education you GAVE them.
Our system was designed to withstand these things, and to self correct – but it won’t if people don’t stand up for what is right. (And oust what is wrong.)
Don’t the colleges get their money up front? It is the banks or government that will get stiffed. But there are programs that allow students to pay based on ability, and the terms are best if they get a government job.
Why bother even calling it class-warfare…
These themes Obama is expressing are marxist principles
Wouldn’t it be nice to actually see what kind of education Obama got and where?
Ya know, Romney apparently had a 3.97 GPA ….
I’m thinking he has a better GPA than Obama. No one has stepped forward to prove it wrong.
Well, Romney had a robot do his work for him, because Romney was on another planet being trained in interplanetary Mormonism. Oh, and he has x-ray vision and can shoot laser beams from his eyes.
All this must be true….because no one has stepped forward to prove it wrong. 😉
Oh crud…
Forgot to add “No one gave me an education. I had to learn (and earn) it.”
I guess he thinks it came about by some sort of RNA (or dollar) transfer.
And yet the Left thinks he is so smart…..*sigh*
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