Dear Commons Community,
Rick Santorum labeled President Barack Obama a snob for promoting a college education. The Washington Post reported: “Speaking to a tea party group in Michigan on Saturday, former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) accused President Obama of being a “snob” because he wants “everybody in America to go to college…. Not all folks are gifted in the same way,” Santorum told a crowd of more than 1,000 activists at the Americans for Prosperity forum in Troy, Mich. “Some people have incredible gifts with their hands. Some people have incredible gifts and … want to work out there making things. President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob.”
The President actually was encouraging all Americans to stay in school and get as much education as possible. There is absolutely no indication that he was denigrating those who are craftspersons or who otherwise make a living without a college degree.
To me, Santorum continues to implode because of his social conservative views on religion, education, and birth control. By the way, Santorum graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in 1980, then earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. In 1986, he earned a J.D. from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law.
Tony
Dear Commons Community,
The Huffington Post is quoting two Republican governors as questioning Rick Santorum’s comments about President Obama being a “snob” for recommending universal higher education. Here is an excerpt:
“WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some of the leading Republican governors are coming to President Barack Obama’s defense against charges from former Senator Rick Santorum that the president’s push for universal higher education amounts to intellectual and political snobbery.
Speaking to reporters outside of the White House after a meeting between the nation’s governors and the president, Gov. Bob McDonnell went out of his way to praise the administration’s education policy, calling it one of the few areas of bipartisan consensus. He added that the pursuit of a college education was something that all lawmakers should push students to consider.
“I wish [Santorum] had said it differently,” said the Virginia Republican. “I’m pushing in Virginia this year 100,000 new degrees over the next 15 years. I want more college graduates. But that means community college and four-year universities, but not to the exclusion of realizing that some people are going to graduate from high school and be in the trades. What we say is we want somebody to be career ready or college ready. If we haven’t done one of those two things for the young people, we have failed you.”
McDonnell’s comments represent the second time in as many days that a surrogate for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney sided with the president over Santorum. On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Gov. Chris Christie was characteristically blunt in downplaying Santorum’s criticism of Obama as a “snob” for wanting “everybody in America to go to college.”
“I think that’s probably over the line,” said the New Jersey governor, adding that if Santorum was against the proposition of ensuring children are college educated or career ready, “I don’t think that makes any sense.”
Tony