Kerry’s Grades

It’s common journalistic practice, if you can find more than 3 sources for information, you don’t have to credit it…but if you insist, take your pick of sources.

Kerry’s grades were nearly identical to Bush’s at Yale. I haven’t seen the complete transcripts, but the conservative slant is that Kerry got 4 Ds, and Bush only got 1 D. And the AP story mentions Kerry’s highest grade was an 89, and Bush had 3 88s. So the Conservatives are focusing on that too.

But knowing a little about averages, since Kerry got 4 Ds, he statistically needed to do better than Bush in the rest of his classes in order for their averages to work out to be the same. And he got all 4 Ds his Freshman year.

I of all people know one shouldn’t focus on grades. I graduated high school with a C+ average, and ended up being expelled from one college for low grades. I ultimately received a Bachelors’s degree with Honors, but it took a few years before I buckled down. One can get low grades because one can’t do better, and one can get low grades because one isn’t interested in the classes.

I’m not saying I insist Kerry is smarter. Earlier stories stated that Bush and Kerry’s IQs had been estimated as being similar (low-mid 120s). I didn’t vote for Kerry because I thought he was the smarter man. I thought he would lead America in a better direction.