The Occidental tourist

The media have gone after Sarah Palin harder in the past two weeks than they have gone after Barack Obama in two years. If the New England Patriot offensive line had protected quarterback Tom Brady as well as our "old media" have protected Obama, Brady could have played in the NFL until he was 65.

Aside from the media's vicious scrutiny and attacks on Sarah Palin, they have started rumors that her baby with Down syndrome was not hers, but her daughter's. The Palins brought this on themselves; if they had wanted to insulate themselves from such scandalous media attacks, they could have named liberal John Edwards as the baby's father and the media would have kept that quiet for at least two years.

If we start asking hard questions, I think it would be a fair to ask Barack Obama what his SAT scores were that got him into an Ivy League school.

All we know is that Obama graduated from Columbia with a degree in political science, without honors. Then, as any kid would do who graduated without distinction from undergraduate school, he got into Harvard Law School.

Even hard questions about his community organizing days haven't been asked. Just what is a "community organizer"? And how in the world have those communities stayed organized in his absence? It seems without Obama there to "organize" them, they would become a mess. How did he organize his communities -- alphabetically, numerically or by the Gomer Pyle method of "animal, mineral or vegetable"?

So far he has not been asked for, or provided, his SAT scores or his undergrad grades. Given his scant legislative record, this question seems even more important in judging him. Could Obama be as dumb as Sen. John Kerry, who was nipped by George W. Bush in GPA at Yale? Not possible?

We know that Kerry, Gore and Bush were C students. We are reminded with regularity that John McCain graduated near the bottom of his U.S. Naval Academy class. Then why has no one in the fawning Obama media asked him about his grades or about the years at Columbia that he seeks to avoid discussing?

It seems with politicians who are either connected like the Kerry, Kennedy, Gore and Bush families, which allowed their sons to get in Ivy League Schools, or Obama who got in on affirmative action pass, the debate might be moot. It is like arguing who is Valedictorian of summer school.

If Obama is going to hold himself out as an elitist, it is only fair that we know just how elite he really is. Just how did he go from Occidental College to Columbia?

I would also like to know what SAT score Michelle Obama made to get into Princeton. There is not an "anger" section on the SAT for her to ace. For a woman whose dad was a Chicago area municipal worker, got into Ivy League schools and now has a husband on the cusp of the presidency of the U.S., to say that she is not proud of her country is worth exploring.

My curiosity about Obama's grades began when I saw a news clip of him signing autographs for some kids. As politicians are predisposed to do, he asked the boys how they were doing in school. The kids replied "Not so great." Obama then said, "Well, I was not much of a high school student either." What immediately struck me was: Just how does a kid who, by his own admission, was not a good high school student get into an Ivy League school? Fewer than 15 percent of high school valedictorians get into Ivy League schools. How did Obama do it? I have my own hunch, but it would be nice to know the facts.

An "elite" education doesn't mean much to me anymore. George Bush went to Yale and then Harvard Business School, while Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College.

Even in a simple interview for a first job out of college, the interviewer would ask the applicant's SAT score. Curiously, for the most important job in the world, our media have not asked Obama that. My guess is that they will never ask this question since it is a "bridge to nowhere."

Ron Hart is a Southern libertarian columnist. E-mail: RevRon10@aol.com.