Santorum: Liberal Penn State profs 'docked my grades'
If you thought that GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum was "out there" with his recent charges that President Obama is a "snob" who wants everyone to go to college as part of a "liberal indoctrination" plot, he has launched into another orbit with an incredible new allegation.
Santorum: Liberal Penn State profs 'docked my grades'
If you thought that GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum was "out there" with his recent charges that President Obama is a "snob" who wants everyone to go to college as part of a "liberal indoctrination" plot, he has launched into another orbit with an incredible new allegation.
In a radio interview this past weekend with a Michigan talk radio station, Santorum claimed that professors at Penn State -- where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1980 -- gave him lower grades because of his conservative ideology:
“I’m very careful about the colleges and universities our children go to,” Santorum said. “There are schools, I went to one — Penn State — that’s one of the liberal icons, unfortunately it’s gotten a lot worse. I can tell you professor after professor who docked my grades because of the viewpoints I expressed and the papers that I wrote, there’s no question that happened.”
“Your grades suffered because of your views at Penn State?” Langton asked
“Absolutely, absolutely,” Santorum said. “I used to go to war with some of my professors, who thought I was out of the pale, these are just not proper ideas. This is not something that’s not unusual, folks, I know this may be a surprise to some people … There is clearly a bias at the university."
Santorum's comments are indeed surprising, but more importantly, they strain credibility. For one thing, the notion that Penn State is "one of the liberal icons" is pretty absurd. He seems to be confusing Berkeley, where students demonstrated for free speech and against the Vietnam War, with Happy Valley, where students rioted after the basketball team lost to Temple.
More importantly, it's hard to believe that Santorum's grades were "docked" -- this is a very serious allegation -- for his conservative views, because numerous students and professors who knew the future pol when he attended Penn State from 1976 through 1980 said that Santorum's early interest in politics was all about strategy and nothing about ideology. Famously, Santorum led the campus campaign for the late Pennsylvania senator John Heinz, a liberal-to-moderate pro-choice Republican (yes, we used to have these). The New Republic recently did the definitive piece on Santorum's years in State College:
And Santorum himself admitted as much to NPR this past May, saying that his early interest in politics wasn't mainly a matter of ideology. "I was generally conservative, I was generally Republican," he said. "But I was more of a political operative than I was someone who had strong convictions about issues."
My own conversations with people who knew Santorum in college support this view. Bob O'Connor — who in 1994 told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "I have never had a student so blindly ambitious" — told me, "He was a very memorable student because he was an unusual one." Even in policy-oriented classes, like American Local Government and Administration, "he didn't ask a whole lot of questions, or talk, about policy and policy positions and what would work best. He did ask an unusual amount about what policies would be more popular, rather than engage in debate about trade-offs, and what would be more effective, and why."
The bottom line is this: If Santorum is to continue making this allegation about Penn State, he needs to present actual evidence. (Just how bad were his college grades, anyway?) Without proof, this whole thing smells like a lie, based on what we know about the candidate and what we know about Penn State. And it also feels like another blatant attempt at manipulating resentment among working class voters -- the work of someone who is still a "political operative," not someone who is serious about ideas.
I don't know, Will. I think that Santorum's grades probably were "docked" because of his ideology.
There is a wide body of literature that shows that when students attribute their success or failure to external variables rather than their own efforts, they do relatively poorly.
Santorum's ideology that he's a victim of some vast conspiracy (as, indeed, are all religious, white Americans) likely did result in poorer grades.— Talking point sleuth- Santorum is a moron. I went to PSU and it is about as right wing a school as you will ever find. — JonKap
- So we can add college professors to the list of people who are out to get the Republicans. Its such a sad thing to watch this party fall into a victimization death spiral. Conservatives are victims of goevernment regulation, political correctness, the liberal press, high taxes, the secret gay agenda, the poor and now, college professors.
- If they docked his grades its because he's self-serving moron. Of course since he's a politician he has to say they did it because of the party he's affiliated with. If the was a Dem he'd be calling them conservative, right-wing nuts.
Spin city baby! Its all about the spin!— Phils_World_Champs - Talking point sleuth your comment Santorum's ideology that he's a victim of some vast conspiracy (as, indeed, are all religious, white Americans) is insulting and racist. I am so sick of blacks making bigoted statements against whites and get a free pass. Look who is doing all the killing in Philadelphia. Yes it would be the blacks that cry racism at the drop of a hat. Santorum is an a** and so are you. — Bob H
- You and the others totally missed Slueth's Point. Please re-read it carefully and try to understand.
Sleuth's argument was that when someone thinks others are out to get them, they usually do poorly. Santorum thinks others are out to get him. Therefore, he did poorly.
He did not say that Santorum was actually a victim of a vast conspiracy, but rather a victim of his own self fulfilling prophesy.— ramjr - Anybody who has gone to college knows that professors are not all the same, even though they are mostly on the left. Yes, there are some who give worse grades to conservatives. There are also a lot who don't. And that is true everywhere. — altoonaaslan
- Unfortunately, most professors don't even know what their students' politics are because the classes are huge, and all they give you are multiple choice tests. — altoonaaslan
- I really wish we would have someone investigate Obama's grades.
Oh wait.......for some bizarre reason NO ONE can get to Obama's grades in college.
Why would someone- so intelligent-hide their amazing grades?
Please Liberals- let everyone know with your tremendous use of Logic?— Keep The Change - well, considering he was the president of the harvard law review, I'm gonna guess his grades were pretty darn good. — Ryan
- Except he was never elected to the position of president of the harvard law review. He was appointed by the administration. Wonder who paid his bills since he has never released that data either. Either way, we still don't know how smart he is since he refuses to release his records. Smells about as fishy as the Phila City Hall.
— cb54 - "Except he was never elected to the position of president of the harvard law review. He was appointed by the administration."
I always wonder about comments like these. Did you make that up, yourself? Or do guys like Rush and Beck use lies like this to ease ordinary conservative white guys' pain?
The Harvard Law Review is independent from the university and positions are awarded based on grades and a writing competition.— veetkoosh - At least one thing is obvious - you never went to Harvard!! To claim he was appointed as president of the law review confirms that your sources for "facts" are the Trumps, Limbaughs, and Becks of the world. What's the matter, the birth certificate thing didn't work out so now you deflect a moronic statement like Santorum's into a jab at Obama. If a professor gave Santorum a bad grade it was likely because he is an idiot. — MarkinSJ
Comment removed.- Why is it so hard for Conservatives like "Keep The Change" to stay on point and to focus on the issue at hand? This ludicrous tactic of flipping the subject because they can't contribute intelligently to the discussion is so bogus. It's sad. — CommonSense in Philly
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