Comment on this article
The
Candidate and His Opponents
January 2, 2009
Bush’s Yale pedigree—and
his membership in Skull and Bones—came under sharper scrutiny in 2004, when his
opponent was fellow Bonesman John Kerry '66. But Bush and Kerry were not the
only Ivy Leaguers of their vintage in presidential politics. Howard Dean '71
and Harvard man Al Gore also figured in Bush’s electoral narrative.
Bush is
pandering smarter than Gore is pandering.
Dana
Milbank '90 in Smashmouth: Two Years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George
W. Bush—Notes from the 2000 Campaign Trail
reviewed in April 2001
If you
think of W. I as the guy who was tapped for Skull and Bones at Yale, W. II was
a kind of counter-W. I. We know W. II was soon to be replaced, because he's
told us he stopped doing any Bad Things in 1974. Except liquor: It was then he
turned into the hard-drinking W. III. To be succeeded in 1986 when he gave up
spirits as well by the solemn and preachy W. IV we have today. My feeling is:
Bring back W. II! I have a feeling W. II saw through the whole Skull and Bones
charade, the pomposity of its ritual posturing, the preposterousness of its
occult mumbo jumbo.
Ron
Rosenbaum '68, "Inside George W.’s Secret Crypt,” New York Observer, March 26,
2000
The two
candidates have something curious in common beside an Old Blue pedigree: that
their bright college years were largely wasted on them. Yale was wasted on John
Kerry '66 because he was too preoccupied with getting ahead. It was wasted on
George W. Bush '68 because he was so busy falling down.
Jacob
Weisberg '86
“Missed Opportunities”
May/June 2004
Three of
this year’s four Yale presidential candidates—[Howard] Dean ['71], Kerry, and
Bush—were in the less-than-1 percent of their contemporaries who attended exclusive private boarding schools. … The connections developed and
cemented in these retreats of privilege and wealth nurture the political
careers of today’s candidates. Roland Betts '68, Senior Fellow of the Yale
Corporation, was George W. Bush’s rush chairman at DKE. … And although he is
a Democrat, Betts was the principal partner in the deal that set Bush up in
business as head of the Texas Rangers and eventually yielded his personal
fortune.
Warren
Goldstein '73, '83PhD
“For Country: The (Second) Great All-Blue Presidential
Race”
May/June 2004
While most
alumni magazines would write proudly of two graduates competitively chosen for
the U.S. presidency, strangely you selected two graduate authors who show no
such pride. … I’m voting for Bush but proud of both.
Victor H.
Frank Jr. '50, '53LLB
Letters
July 2004
We are in
the hands of violent subversives. Neither of the two Yalies who are campaigning
to be the next commander-in-chief shows signs of changing that—and they
won't, unless we stand up and tell them that they must.
Stoney Bird
'67
Letters
July 2004
Bravo to Jacob Weisberg for showing how both Bush and Kerry missed out
on a Yale education. Their lack of intellectual curiosity was by no means rare at the time.
Frank Dobbs
'69
Letters
July 2004
I fear that
the president and Mr. Kerry represent the least educated and inspiring
graduates Yale has produced. The fact that both are Yale graduates should be
both a point of pride and of question.
Steven
Pettinga
Letters
July 2004
In the national interest, John Kerry and George W. Bush should resign
from Skull and Bones. Their repeated and identical assertions that this organization is
“too secret to talk about” are slaps in the face of voters who are
just now confronting the disquieting probability of a Bones-versus-Bones
presidential contest. Only resignation from this furtive leadership cult will
dispel the impression that the Bones code of silence has a higher claim on
their loyalty than the American people.
Steve
Sewall '66MAT
Letters
July 2004
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