Senator Reid Got Absolution-Right or Wrong

The comment made by the august majority leader of the U S Senate, Harry Reid, Democrat, Nevada concerning the candidate Obama is much in the news. Although the comment would have to be considered racially insensitive or worse, the President has in effect told Reid, no big deal, everything’s cool; let’s  move forward.

And, so say many prominent dems; Feinstein and Sharpton among them. The media is generally on board also with only those noxious Republicans refusing to play nice an d get on the real business of running the country. He has apologized they say, to the president and  any number of other black leaders.

I am much more interested in reaction/non-reaction, than in what Reid actually said. The first thing that gets my attention is that the comment was made in 2008. No apology has been forthcoming until the book recounting it  came out. Politically expedient apology- yep. CBS had the authors on “60 Minutes,” the home planet of hard-hitting no holds barred questioning. Somehow they forgot to ask a question  about Reid’s comment.

There are other things about which I wonder. Why so quick to brush it aside when questions about Limbaugh/McNabb still resurface from time to time? And, what the controversy that actually sunk Senator George Allen’s re-election campaign and made Jim Webb a star? And, of course we have the Trent Lott situation, an event that multiple democrats( Landrieu, Gore, among others)used quite well to force Lott from guess what, Senate Majority Leader? Great verbal battle yesterday on this issue with Ann Coulter winning a TKO over Al Sharpton.

Reckon Reid  will have to step down? Nah. But maybe November, 2010 could bring about a change, hmmm?

Where Do Presidents Come From?

A question that can answered in so many ways. As most of us know, the commonwealth of Virginia holds the distinction of birthing more of our nation’s chief executives than any other state, a total of 8. Hawaii, as with a number of other states has had one. You know who that is, do you not?

My native state of North Carolina is generally credited with 2, Polk and Andrew Johnson. Sometime we get Jackson, but not always. Polk, the 11th president, was elected way back in  1844. As time stature seems to be on the upswing and he  generally ranks close to the top 10 in rankings of our best presidents.

Polk has a singular distinction in that he is the  only president to attend my “adopted alma mater” of the University of North Carolina, having graduated as  a Tar Heel in  1818, less than 25 years after the school’s founding. That fact  made me wonder. How may presidents have graduated from public universities versus Harvard, Yale and other  Ivy League institutions?  No aspersion meant on these schools. I was just wondering how the numbers looked. Harvard had 8 and Yale had 5 to lead the way. The sources I  checked showed only 1 other  president to attend  a state university(Gerald Ford-Michigan).

Does this mean anything, probably not. But still, it has been a long time since Polk with only Ford to fill the gap. State universities, while they have high academic standards  and produce excellent graduates, are by nature a different animal than the private schools, i.e. cost, for one thing.

It would just be nice to have another chief executive from say, UNC, or Kansas or  some such school. Just to break up the private school monotony, if nothing else., ya think?

Still not sure if I answered the title question though.