Franken is a Harvard graduate. George Walker Bush is a Yale graduate.

My father earned his law degree at Duke and taught at Yale.

All three have had successful careers by most measures. The irony is that the one of the three I mentioned who is a total dipshit got to be president.

Sarah Palin's CV must be given all the respect it is due: a 6-year undergraduate degree in Communications from the University of Idaho, which I am sure is a fine school.

(Soon to be ex-)Governor Palin's success is a testament to the potential in this great nation for an unqualified moron to achieve success. Surely this is why the right-wing takes such a dim view on the proletariat, undereducated poor and their niggling lack of opportunities (why haven't they read "Atlas Shrugged" yet? Don't poor whites, blacks and latinos realize that the world is their oyster?).

Sidebar -- seriously, why does Ayn Rand not appeal to, to pick a group, low-income blacks? Don't they realize that if they just turn their backs on the collective movements which lead to their emancipation and enfranchisement they too can become soulless, immoral Objectivist Libertarians?

In all seriousness, however, I will say this: like Franken, my father did not need to get into politics or public service. Both certainly could have parlayed their careers for entirely selfish aims. Instead, my father donates his time to monitoring elections among other charitable pursuits. Franken could be living high on the hog writing film treatments and producing or direction. He could be making millions a year writing for sitcoms.

I don't know what drove Palin or Bush into public service, but I suspect their motivations are not nearly as altruistic. And I wish they hadn't. I'm sure Palin would have made an excellent anchor, and Bush -- well, the baseball franchise owner ship has sailed, but I'm sure that he would have eventually found a calling.

Al Franken is an intellectual and passionate humanitarian. Sarah Palin is a narcissistic personality who uses her immediate family as set pieces. She is loathsome.

As for her folksy, down-home image.. well, while it may be fun or rewarding to go big game hunting with Palin, chances are the Al Franken knows how to fish (and may know how to hunt), and given the choice I would rather spend a day with the latter.

What I really would like is to spend more time with my old man - talking politics, religion, world affairs, listening to old albums, talking about music, drawing, making great food.

I think that if George Herbert Walker Bush spent more time with George Walker Bush doing the same, George Walker might be more curious about the world. I know I owe a lot to my sense of curiosity to my father. I can't speak for Franken, but I suspect that his sense of humor comes from his family, and that underlying his comedy there is a streak of wonder and curiosity that Bush Jr and Palin lack.

Yes, Palin is quite relevant these days, with obama's economic program failing, his health care package turning into mush, his disregard for civil liberties for detainees worse in some aspects than Bush's, his diplomacy with tough places like Iran/Russia/China looking like so much pap. Why not write about Palin, who really is relevant to the country's welfare? Good job, Joe.

Your faith in upper-class credentialism is touching but hardly confirmed by real-world experience! At my high school in Austin, which sent plenty of grads to Ivy League schools because of the faculty in Austin, Yale was considered strictly a destination for the rich and stupid! Some things never change!

for high school grads leaving town, Stanford was the first choice, followed by SUNY campuses; we generally took a pass on the university of second choice (USC)!

I know, Joe is just trying to be a good Salonista and collect a paycheck; not unlike Letterman.

Before the election and the choice of Sarah Palin, my esteemed Republican and Independent friends who had been planning to vote for McCain changed their minds when McCain et al chose Palin. They just couldn't see this End-Times Ignoramus in a position of second in line to a Cancer survivor (Yes, CANCER SURVIVOR like someone else got chewed out for saying --which is not an insult to cancer survivors ... it is just meant as meaning he is a little more mortal than the average bear, an average OLD bear)

Because of that they changed their minds, to a last one ...

Because of this I was under the not-so-unreasonable assumption that Palin pretty much lost the election for McCain.

Why is everyone so afraid that Palin will even be a ghost of a chance in 3 1/2 years? Does everyone think that Palin can maintain enough goofy tricks for 3 1/2 years to keep the MSM on her? One thing about Americans, we have the collective attention span a 3 year old.

Harvard and Yale where certain folks of low intellect have doors opened to them.

"Something Stinks" and "Terkoy" ... you are idiots.

Apparently unaware that Palin has received the postmodern seal of approval from a variety of sources (including this site's resident pomo authority, Camille Paglia), Conason continues to grind out the bologna just like it was last week! The more the clueless screeds pile on, the higher her stock goes!

I can't remember what you said from behind that brown bottle.

just a big keg and a tap ...

I don't have much faith in meritocracy/credentialism -- I believe that was the point I was trying to express.

I, to my father's great consternation, dropped out of college after about a month and after barely graduating high school.

Maybe I should have been more clear -- I consider Franken to be a smart individual, and if he had gotten his masters at the College of Wooster or even Phoenix University, I would still consider him to be a smart guy.

If Sarah Palin graduated from Yale, I would still consider her an idiot.

Personally, I make a good living doing work that I am skilled at -- I also make six figures a year and am considered by my colleagues to be an authority on a number of rarefied and arcane subjects. I did this in spite of schooling or training.

I think merit should be a measure of ones ability and ones willingness to apply that ability. I believe Palin and Bush lacked the skills needed to perform their jobs ("failing upward"), and I believe that Al Franken and Obama possess those skills.

I have no doubts at all about my father's abilities, and I certainly hope you didn't mean to suggest that any of his accomplishments in life were unearned.