Assessing Qualifications for the Oval Office

The following comments appeared in the November 20 issue of the National Review:

“Senator Barack Obama has been urged to run for president. He has served eight years in the Illinois state legislature and not quite two in the U.S. Senate. In short, he has done nothing at all. His only qualifications for the White House are his skin and the fact that he is not a rapper. Americans yearn to vote for such a person...”

Racial conservatives at the National Review may take note that Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review, which necessarily says that he was one of the brightest members of his class of more than 500 of the most brilliant students at the most selective law school in the country.

Let’s not compare the academic qualification of President George W. Bush, who is so admired by the National Review.