Letters to the Editor
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Let's weigh the lies: Obama literature calls him a "professor" instead of "senior lecturer" / Clinton says she ran under threat of sniper fire
Gosh, I wonder which is a more egregious, bald-faced lie?
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Sounds like he's a professor to me
Obama taught classes at the University? That sounds like he was a professor to me, an ordinary Joe -- as much brain power as I want to give it; Oh, technically maybe not a professor? So the fuck what?
Now, if he DID NOT teach classes, but he's claiming the title, then you have something there. You now, the way someone might claim to have been dodging sniper fire, when in fact they were not, that would be bad. But as it stands now, I have no idea why the Clinton camp thinks this stupid Senior Lecturer/Professor parsing is important. Jesus, God!
McCain! Hillary, please talk about how you will be different than McCain. Remember him? The guy who thinks things are just fine in Iraq? That guy? The one who will give us a Bush third term? ATTACK HIM if you want my vote. McCain! He's the one!
Quit the sniping. Please God, before I go insane.
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The Bosnia War Hero Call the Kettle Too Black
Hair splitting academic minutia. Poor, poor Billary. Obama, former President of the Harvard Law Review, taught constitutional law for several years. His college says he was, de facto, a professor. No one claimed he was a PhD, nor must you be one to teach law. LLD will do nicely. Did at Hastings, where I went, and at Boalt Hall, where some of my friends went. the Klinton Kampaign is dead in the water. This is all they have left. The only senatorial colleague who hasn't endorsed Obama has endorsed LIeberman (this is of those Democrats who have endorsed thus far, nit pickers). How's that Pennsylvania senatorial endorsement comin' along, Hill? Oh. sorry. Bye.
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Yes, but...
Was he ever a professor under sniper fire?
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"When I write my resume, I list those positions as "adjunct professor"."
That's good, because if you left off the word adjunct you would be misrepresenting yourself.
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@ Xrandadu Hutman
You called it correctly. They are both lies. I don't know about, you but I think it is rarely defensible to argue about what sort of lies are worse. I would prefer a candidate who did not lie at all.
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AKA Ethical
So, those two untruths- one claiming that teaching law for several years made him a professor, when he was but an adjunct professor- and another claiming that she was in a fire zone of the Bosnian war, under sniper fire, valiantly going where the President would not (except that her teenaged daughter and a bunch of Bosnian school children were there- are equally egregious? Do you really think that's true? Man, I sure as hell wouldn't want you balancing the scales of justice. Just ludicrous.
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@ AKA Smith
While I respect your right to your opinions, as far as this 'professor' 'lecturer' thing, all I can ask is-
Are you fucking kidding me?
This you think is relevant, suggesting that he was fudging on his resume? This isn't even a case of Obama misspeaking. Its dickering over terminology. He taught required classes, the kids all called him professor; he did all the same exact things a professor did except work towards tenure. He very well might not have known himself his official job title wasn't professor. Hell, I didn't know there was any distinction till this war room posting.
This has to be one of the pettiest little criticisms I may have ever heard in a political campaign.
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Thomas Malkin - I USED to Feel the Same Way
Go read my previous letters. Six months ago I went on-and-on about how shocked I was regarding the hatred towards Hillary Clinton. I spent nearly every day accusing people on this site of misogyny.
For whatever reason, I wasn't able to see it for what it was. Man was I wrong! But I tell you, this isn't the media's fault, this isn't a country full of misogynists.
This is 100% purely Hillary Clinton's fault! She reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza decided he was going to do everything opposite of his instinct. Only in his case, it helped.
This person is a vile vile vile politician! She has no regard for ANYONE but herself. I mean even more-so than any other politician.
People are talking about how this is the most divisive democratic primary ever. That isn't Salon's fault, or the MSMs fault. It is a fault of ONE of the candidates. The candidate who would prefer the Republican win the presidency over her Democratic opponent.
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Ask Williams Ayers (or Bernardine Dohrn, his wife) about the difference - they're both professors now
Regarding definitions of lecturer and professor and truth and fiction, perhaps Senator Obama uses the same dictionary as his Chicago friend, William Ayers, does -- in a NYT article published (ironically) on September 11, 2001, the former Weatherman Ayers was quoted:
''Is this, then, the truth?,'' he writes. ''Not exactly. Although it feels entirely honest to me.''
But why would someone want to read a memoir parts of which are admittedly not true? Mr. Ayers was asked.
''Obviously, the point is it's a reflection on memory,'' he answered. ''It's true as I remember it.''
The article: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
BTW, I asked a tenured professor about the difference/similarities between "lecturer" and "professor" and the opinion was that to claim to be a professor when one was a lecturer is, at the least, resume inflation. Also, the principle of academic freedom does not apply to lecturers.
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Get your act together, Democrats!
I'm with AKA Smith on this. I come from an academic background, and a Senior Lecturer is by no means the same as a Professor. U of C's attempt to cover his ass post-hoc does them no credit either. Obama's legal career is good enough that it doesn't need any embellishment, so why did he try it on?
What I worry about is that this nonsense, including the invective found in this forum, is merely a forerunner to the Democrats handing victory to McCain in November. Stop the hate, let the people vote, and then unite behind a candidate *after* the convention has decided on one. Let the due democratic process run its course, don't try to usurp it. Why is this simple advice so hard for people to stomach?