George W. Bush, Stop Hatin’ on the Ivy League
First, George H.W. Bush, a Yale grad, derides Dukakis for going to “elitist” Harvard in the 1988 presidential election
Now, George W. Bush, the all-famous “decider,” is channeling, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and every other tea-party/Fox News pundit in directing unnecessary hatred toward the Ivy League.
In his new memoir, W blames the Washington Elite for blocking Harriet Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court because they could not accept her lack of Ivy League education.
According to Bush, these “elites” couldn’t accept that she was 1) not from Harvard/Yale, and 2) not even from the Ivy League. According to Bush, Miers’ education from SMU, or “Southern Millionaires’ University,” isn’t good enough for DC eggheads.
However, liberals were not Bush’s only target. Good ol’ Dubya points to Ann Coulter, even though she hates her “Plastic Ivy,” as part of this “Washington elite.”
Bush writes in his memoir:
It seemed to me that there was another argument against Harriet, one that went largely unspoken: How could I name someone who did not run in elite legal circles? Harriet had not gone to an Ivy League law school. Her personal style compounded the doubts. She is not glib. She is not fancy. She thinks hard before she speaks – a trait so rare in Washington that it is mistaken for intellectual slowness. As one conservative critic (Coulter) condescendingly put it, ‘However nice, helpful, prompt and tidy she is, Harriet Miers isn’t qualified to play a Supreme Court justice on The West Wing, let alone to be a real one.
Wait… Hold on a second! Coulter watched the West Wing?! How can she write a book entitled “Godless: The Church of Liberalism” after knowing about the Bible-quotin’ President Josiah Bartlet?
Also, Bush – you remember that you went to Yale and then Harvard Business School? Or did you forget that along with the Constitution? You owned a baseball team! Your father was the vice-president and your grandfather a senator. W, you are a case study of the Washington elite.
Let’s remind ourselves that the Ivy League is:
A) An athletic division
B) A series of academically-rigorous colleges
However, the Ivy League is not an elitist liberal conspiracy bent on destroying America and “non-fancy” outsiders. These “elitist” institutions reach out to students of all backgrounds to help further intellectual thought in this country.
In addition, SMU’s yearly tuition is $53,365. One would think this is fairly comparable to other Ivy League schools’ tuition.
The Ivy League, SMU, and colleges across the country are foremost institutions of “higher-learning,” and we should appreciate the opportunity to get a college degree. Many in past generations and today don’t get the chance. SMU is a fine school, and most of these Dallas students have damn expensive cars while at it. It is a cheap shot to use Mier’s lack of Ivy League education as an excuse for her evident incompetence.
Bush, please don’t use the Ivy League, a group to which you clearly belong, as cannon fodder to shape your presidential legacy.
| 
