Young Turks: Rand Paul caught lying about his college record

[acptulsa]

If someone were in a regular job interview and twice misstated their academic credentials, it wouldn't end well.

The reason I'm harping on this is...

You aren't just harping on it, you're overstating it nearly to the point of being dishonest yourself. I don't think you mean to, but I wish you'd exercise a little care.

He misstated nothing twice. He seemed to imply through the context of the conversation that he had a degree in English. He also seemed to imply at that point, and stated flatly later, that he has a degree in the biological sciences. And what's more, an M.D. is not only a degree in the biological sciences, but pretty much the crown jewel of them all.

 

[economics102]

You aren't just harping on it, you're overstating it nearly to the point of being dishonest yourself. I don't think you mean to, but I wish you'd exercise a little care.

You may be right. I think the people who are shrugging their shoulders and saying stuff like this is ok are a little far on the other extreme though.

I'm neither a doctor nor a biologist, but my understanding is that biology is the study of all lifeforms. I'll quote one of the reader reactions from this WaPo piece:

Like Senator Paul I have an M.D. (University of Iowa, 1984). Unlike Senator Paul I also have a bachelor’s degree in biology (B.S. in Biology from Wheaton College, 1979). I can tell you that my studies toward the B.S. were very different than my studies in medical school. Needless to say, my studies in medical school focused almost exclusively on human biology and clinical medicine. However, with respect to my biology degree, I took two quarters of human physiology, otherwise I studied the broad range of life science, from zoology to botany to cellular biology to ecology and more. I can’t imagine claiming to have a degree in biology based on having gone to medical school.

The thing I don't get is that among the demographics Rand seems to be trying to court are the young college audience, the tech sector audience, and liberals who are looking for an alternative to the establishment Democrats. These are exactly the kind of groups that this kind of behavior does not fly with.

I think I've said my piece though and you're right that I've gone on too long about this. I'll leave it there for others to discuss or not discuss.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

What difference does it make? Hillary Clinton is under sniper fire from ISIS as we speak! That's important news!

 

[Krugminator2]

Let's not live in a bubble here. If any politician we disliked did this, we'd be jumping all over it. He's running for a major public office. If someone were in a regular j
The reason I'm harping on this is because if Rand wants to run for president he needs to not do things like this. Again, unless the goal is to steal news cycles with mini-scandal after mini-scandal. And maybe it is, I mean that might actually be kinda clever. But I digress.

I would never criticize any politician for this. He has been asked about this numerous times since he first ran for the Senate and has said he left early. He isn't hiding anything and he is understating his credentials. In fact, I think much more of him for getting into Duke Med School after 2 and a half years of Undergrad. If you gave me the binary choice between having a Med school degree and no undergrad degree vs both I would snap choose no degree, unless it was something like physics, engineering, or business . It makes him sound smarter. Getting into Duke Med is insanely hard. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to get into a first tier med school. I would be curious to know what role Ron Paul played in it, given that he was an Alum and Congressman.

That said. It is incredibly sloppy on his part. I get his point that he was trying to convey. But I read the original quote in the article the day before this became an issue. I knew instantly that somebody would pounce. And the answer that a biology and med school degree are the same is BS and hurts his cause.

 

[LawnWake]

When people talk about a biology degree, they talk about a very specific degree. That medicine is a subfield of a number of biological and other sciences, does not detract from the fact that when you say you have a biology degree, you've studied biology specifically.

Had Obama, or any of Paul's opponents said something like that, you would've slammed them for it too. And rightfully too.

Rand didn't say the truth, but I think it was more a matter of him putting his foot in his mouth, which he's likely to do, than to actually trying to convince people he's a biologist.

 

[juleswin]

When people talk about a biology degree, they talk about a very specific degree. That medicine is a subfield of a number of biological and other sciences, does not detract from the fact that when you say you have a biology degree, you've studied biology specifically.

Had Obama, or any of Paul's opponents said something like that, you would've slammed them for it too. And rightfully too.

Rand didn't say the truth, but I think it was more a matter of him putting his foot in his mouth, which he's likely to do, than to actually trying to convince people he's a biologist.

I see you have been here a very short time. But I doubt anyone here would slam Rand opponent if he said the same sort of thing about his/her credentials. Lets just assume Obama did not get an English degree and got into law school without it. But he was studying for his English degree major and then left for Law school, I seriously doubt anyone would make a big deal about it if he said in an informal setting that he got an English degree when talking about his college background.

Its one thing if he benefited from making the statement like "I am a Native American" Elizabeth Warren. This was merely said to describe his undergraduate background. Leave the pettiness to the repubs and dems.

 

[LawnWake]

I see you have been here a very short time. But I doubt anyone here would slam Rand opponent if he said the same sort of thing about his/her credentials.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

Rand Paul is a Doctor. Walker doesn't even have a college degree. On the other hand, George Bush has a masters degree. Shockingly, Obama is supposed to be a Constitutional Scholar.

WE are Constitutional Scholars... Obama and his ilk are Constitutional Law Scholars.. Big difference... We enforce the Constitution an Obama et al find ways to go around those enforcements.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Qualified to be POTUS? check!

 

[RonPaulGeorge&Ringo]

I just dunno why anyone would say they have a degree in biology for credibility purposes. I actually have a biology degree, and trust me it doesn't mean anything.

Rand wasn't saying he has a biology degree "for credibility purposes." He was agreeing with you that biology studies don't mean anything as far as economics and Bitcoin.

 

[anaconda]

He didn't graduate from school A.
He had to make up the missing coursework at school B before or maybe concurrently in order to be accepted into the med school program. There is no way around that. He might not have been issued a diploma and gone through a graduation ceremony because of how it went down, but he technically has the degree the second he made up the missing credits and got accepted to med school.

He has the degree.

-t

Link for needing to complete undergraduate credits in order to get MD degree?