I thought Andrew Sullivan was a little overheated in critizing Mickey Kaus. But then I read this…
Obama is quoted as saying:
“I have no way of knowing whether I was a beneficiary of affirmative action either in my admission to Harvard or my initial election to the Review. … If I was, then I certainly am not ashamed of the fact, for I would argue that affirmative action is important precisely because those who benefit typically rise to the challenge when given an opportunity.” [E.A.]
<snip>
P.P.S.: Obama did graduate magna cum laude, meaning he got very good grades while running the law review–and as far as I know there was no race preference program in grading. … P.P.P.S.: Obama may not know whether he was a beneficiary of affirmative action. But there should be people who do know–people on the Harvard admissions department, and the editors of the law review who picked him after his first year. Have they been asked?
Emphasis Kaus’s
Why should they be?
The criticism of affirmative action is that it gives undeserving minorities an opportunity that should have gone to a more deserving whites. Obviously this is not true in Obama’s case, as he made excellent grades, and went on to great success both now and in the future.
Indeed, if it took affirmative action to get Obama into Harvard, then it would be a vindication of affirmative action, not a criticism, as Obama himself said in the unbolded part of the quote.
Raising it as a campaign issue now makes little sense except to tap into white racial resentment.
