More on Powell and the guard

Ron wrote:
Parents can not get you your BA or BS degree.

They can indeed, especially if they are alumni and/or are public figures.
They're what are called legacy degrees.

No, that is legacy in terms of points for university acceptance. But that
does not help you pass your classe or get you your degree. Never heard of a
legacy degree...But it can apply for acceptance into school and frats.

Even my old Chinese launderyman understood the concept of "no tickee, no
washee". University fundraisers understand "no degree, no contributions" well
enough the know how to keep the money flowing. You're kidding yourself if you
think it works some other way......it doesn't!

They cant get thru F-102 training.

The offspring of public figures often are extended courtesies and
consideration
not available to others.

I dont think an IP will care you are you or where you came from. Ask Ed if he
ever gave rats ass during Fighter Lead In who someone was.

Ed may well not have during his career, but then he may never had a bumbler on
his wing only because the guy's daddy had clout. I, too, flew airplanes, and I
did it often enough to know that it can and does occasionally happen. I daresay
we've both worked for people who were career oriented to the degree that they
would have been responsive to potential political influence. It happens.

Parents cant make you excel at pilot training and ACM.

I don't believe I ever read of a claim that he excelled. When he took his
AFOQT, his application form reflected a pencil entry of 25th pctl, which was
the
lowest level acceptable for entrance into pilot training. I'm not even sure
if
the pencilled in entry didn't replace a lower original one.

I have read often that he was a very good stick at UPT, and he was damn good
at ACM while as an F-102 pilot

I guess we must have read different stuff. I read that his flying abilities
were so limited that his ANG supervisors were pleased when they learned that he
grounded himself (by not getting a current flight physical) before he killed
himself and destroyed one of their airplanes in the process. Incidentally, I
hope you weren't relying on what was said about his performance on those OERs
that were written about him....if I was writing one on the son of an influential
congressman, I wouldn't have been brutally frank or honest unless my retirement
papers had already been approved. Doing something like that was not conducive
to a long and satisfying career for the evaluator.

They also cant get you your MBA.

He himself acknowledged that he was a mediocre student who spent most of his
time drinking and doing as little as possible in order to get through the
program. My father was a sheet metal mechanic and with a similar academic
performance from me, Harvard would have bounced me out on my ass in a
heartbeat.
Let's not be so naive about the influence of parents who are public figures
and/or alumni.

Hell, I was a mediocre student too. B average all the way thru..at best. But
my IQ, AFOQT, SAT, etc were usually pretty high. He (and I) had an SAT of
over 1200, which tranlates pretty high. He certainly had a far better
academic record that Gore, but you dont see any Democrats that ever
criticized Gore over it

You're much too modest. A B average is hardly what anybody would consider
mediocre.........it is quite respectable. As for the various test scores you
got, that's really quite irrelevent to the discussion.



It's all in the eye of the beholder. When all is said and done, he can't
divorce his parents nor can he deny that he knows them when they make a
judicious call here or there and good things result for him. It doesn't mean
he
did it all on his own. Bill Gates did it all on his own, but Dubya's nowhere
near in the same class.

George Z.

Yes, but it sounds like you are holding it against him, because of his
parents. But then Kerry, Kennedy, Roosevelt, all came from priviledged
upbringings too.

Sure they did, but the last I heard, none of them majored in Alcoholism 101, and
none were C- students. AAMOF, if I recall correctly, you would not have gotten
a baccalaureate degree from my undergrad school with a C- average.....it would
have taken nothing less than a C average. Let's not confuse earning a degree
with being handed one with little if any expenditure of academic effort by the
student.

At risk of repeating myself, I think I said elsewhere that my father was a sheet
metal mechanic and if I had produced academic results no better than those
produced by Dubya, Harvard would have bounced my ass out of their MBA program in
a heartbeat.

George Z.