Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
I don't think I have portrayed anyone in a false light.
The "false light" I was referring to was the way in which you conveyed the impression that he had pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
I set out the facts.
Vaguely at best, if at all.
Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
Smokescreen?
No, thanks. I don't smoke.

Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
If there is a pattern of social advancement his maternal family in the last 200 years (and I really don't know if there is) it would prove my point: it would have happened after they came to the US.
Why is it that people always assume that only "the poor, the tired, the wretched refuse, etc." moved to America? Pretty damned condescending, in my view. Unless, of course, you are trying to make some sort of obscure point about how unfair the entrenched social system is in Britain, and that only by moving to North America does a person have a chance of achieving his/her full potential. If that's the point you are trying to make, it can be refuted with four words: Richard Branson and Sean Connery. Both blokes made it to the top with a combination of intelligence, talent, and a lot of hard work. In Britain.

Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
You are mistaken re: his education. He did attend a private college prepartory school in HI, but worked during the summers at Harvard Law School, and took advantage of a program there that offered scholarships to students who agreed to practice some form of public service law after graduation.
I am not the least bit mistaken about the president's educational background-- read what I wrote: He has a first class education (the foundation of which was paid for by his maternal grandparents) and he took full advantage of it to advance himself both socially and politically. Those are facts. That he worked summers, between terms, or nights handing out towels at the YMCA is neither here nor there. In the United States and Canada virtually all third level and graduate level students have some sort of "after school" job, if for no other reason than to beguile the tedium of being a student.