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<p>Definitely, I don’t see why wearing a Ferragamo loafers is a bad thing. He will probably get some votes from the fashionistas (a big if). I am not sure if he even knows the name of the designer, his wife probably bought the shoes.</p>
<p>No Ag54, he fed them with 5 loaves and 2 fish. </p>
<p>parent2noles, that churlish bit of banter was just for you.</p>
<p>p2n: I thought, probably not. But you had posted something earlier to which I was supposed to respond, but I did not quite know what it was. Can’t be that important:)</p>
<p>Tega: I read some of the lyrics and they are quite objectionable. Obama is right to disown the song. A propos McCain’s shoes, that carping is truly churlish, though much has been written about Obama’s suits (expensive and too European).</p>
<p>Churlish is the word for today. :D</p>
<p>Tomorrow, we’ll explore gleaning.</p>
<p>Obama no doubt knows that gleaning comes right after bringing in the sheaves. The sheaves are, perhaps, a good source of ethanol.</p>
<p>Well, clearly we should never bar the oxen from gleaning the kernels, but I offer solar and wind as better choices than a food source for fuel. ;)</p>
<p>Well! Just logged on and discovered all the churlish banter I’ve been missing!</p>
<p>Props to cartera for the funny joke - hadn’t heard the “walking on water” reference - that gave me a good chuckle! :)</p>
<p>And a big high five (or fist bump!) to my buddy, Hindoo, for mentioning how McCain has more & higher paid women on his staff than men. Appreciate you picking up the banner while I was away!</p>
<p>Now back to your regularly scheduled churlish banter…</p>
<p>What?? Was the tense wrong? 
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<p>;)</p>
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Not at all, Hindoo. I am actually going to hold my nose & vote for McCain. However, you ignored the fresh Obama quotes demonstrating his Messianic complex & rushed to post a handful of moldy oldy Mcain quotes, the ugliest of which has NEVER been substantiated. One reporter is the source.</p>
<p>I’ve just finished reading law professors’ comments on Obama’s syllabus for Racism and the Law, and I come away really impressed. He is exactly the sort of prof I would want for my kids: someone who draws his students to think, to see the complexity of issues, and to speak up; a prof who does not seek to impose his own views on them.
[Inside</a> Professor Obamas Classroom - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog](<a href=“http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/inside-professor-obamas-classroom/]Inside”>Inside Professor Obama's Classroom - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Thank you for posting this, Marite. I particularly am impressed with this comment from Akhil Reed Amar, a professor of constitutional law at Yale and a former clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer:</p>
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<p>There is no doubt in my mind that Obama has a first-rate mind and that he prepares exceedingly well and thoroughly, and even creatively, for his intellectual endeavors.</p>
<p>Think before you preach fool Bush 43 is a former drunk and cocaine user</p>
<p>When I told my mom about this article, and pointed how his tests obviously show a degree of intelligence that its lamentably swept under by his rhetoric, my mother replied that she didn’t care how smart he was: if she was in his electorate, she’d be ****ed that such a recently-elected Senator was wasting his time running around Germany and making speeches instead of voting.</p>
<p>I had no response.</p>
<p>Well, both McCain and Obama have been missing votes.</p>
<p>McCain has cast 36 of the Senate’s 169 votes this year, according to a USA TODAY analysis. Obama: 70 votes.
[Candidates</a>’ Senate votes fall by wayside on campaign trail - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-09-noshows_N.htm]Candidates”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-09-noshows_N.htm)</p>
<p>What is striking is that McCain has not cast a vote since April when he’d already secured his party’s nomination so was relatively free while Obama was still duking it out with HRC.</p>
<p>As well, tell your mom that McCain traveled to the same countries as Obama in March as well as others (Colombia, Mexico, Canada) It’s a good thing they both have been abroad.</p>
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<p>Guilty as charged. (Though I don’t for a minute think that Big Mac has changed his “colorful” style of speaking. :)) … On the other hand, I don’t see Obama’s speeches as being frighteningly messianic in tone. He effectively utilizes ornate, sweeping, inspiring rhetoric–as many great political leaders of the past have done.</p>
<p>And thanks for the fist-bump, bz! Does that mean we’re BOTH terrorists?</p>
<p>As is typical, Barack Obama has been quoted out of context, so that a somewhat self-deprecating remark is converted into the opposite:
Source: [House</a> Aides Push Back On Obama ‘Symbol’ Quote | The Trail | washingtonpost.com](<a href=“http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/30/house_aides_push_back_on_obama.html]House”>http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/30/house_aides_push_back_on_obama.html)</p>
<p>Senator Obama does represent the promise of America - where any citizen may become President. I will likely not vote for him (he’s too liberal and too inexperienced for me), but that does not mean I don’t appreciate what that means to many.</p>
<p>Had Obama not been African American in appearance and connected to the Chicago political machine I wonder if he’d still have been offered tenure without paying his academic dues?</p>
<p>How many others were given a similar chance?</p>
<p>Barack Obama never achieved such a scholarly stature—indeed, it does not appear that he engaged in legal scholarship at all.</p>
<p>I think the NYT article was erroneous in stating Obama was offered tenure; Factcheck.org says,
. source: [FactCheck.org:</a> Was Barack Obama really a constitutional law professor?](<a href=“http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html]FactCheck.org:”>http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html)</p>
<p>p2n:</p>
<p>The NYT article went back to check on the tenure offer issue. It appears that the Dean was sounding out Obama and suggested that Obama would have the support of the faculty; but that was erroneous because he had not actually discussed the possibility with members of the faculty (the author went back to 4 profs). Anyway, that became moot when Obama turned down the possibility (not an outright offer which no Dean could make).
Would he have gotten an offer if he had let the Dean pursue the possibility? Hard to say. True, he had no writing. But he had a great teaching record and he had been president of the Harvard Law Review–something that counts for a huge lot in legal circles and cannot be attributed to Affirmative Action; he’d graduated Magna Cum Laude from HLS–again, not an AA result. I have heard of people–not many–who have secured appointments on the basis of their teaching. So, it might–might, not would-- have gone through. I doubt very much that the Chicago Law School was particularly concerned to have more black faculty on its rosters, especially given it conservative tinge. I’m not suggesting that the faculty was racist, just that it would be unmoved by appeals based on Affirmative Action rather than merit. But merit can be gauged through writing or teaching or both.
What struck me, however, was not so much that he was a great teacher. I would expect that Chicago would not be keen to renew his contract if he were not. I was struck by his even-handedness in dealing with a topic where it is easy to use one’s classroom as a soapbox. I was impressed by his concern to get students to look at different angles, argue with one another, grapple with complex issues instead of lecturing to them. It does not happen as often as one might like in classrooms.</p>
<p>As for profs complaining he did not have lunch with them, after all, he had decided he was not going to be one of them. He did not owe them to engage in the famous Chicago lunchtime intellectual jousting.</p>
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<p>Marite were they at a research institution? In most research institutions, it is absolutely impossible to be granted tenure without a single publication. You can become a senior lecturer if your teaching is very good, but getting a tenure without a publication would be difficult. For a place like Chicago where competition for a tenure is very fierce, had Obama been recommended for tenure by the Dean without a single publication, it would have caused a major PR problem for the law school. As you stated, Chicago has a slight libertarian/conservative bent (especially their economics faculty), so this would not have sat well with a lot of the faculty at Chicago. </p>
<p>I know of a case where an Assistant Professor spent about 7 years building his portfolio (Publications in top journals, published a book, member of several departmental committees), but was denied tenure. His scholarship was fine, but he couldn’t get over the department politics, he sided with the “wrong” group when he joined the department. He eventually got tenure at another institution. </p>
<p>So Obama being recommended for tenure by the Dean would have caused a lot of problems.</p>