Perry Explains His Poor Performance in College

[dtotire]

Perry Explains His Poor Performance in College

By RICHARD A. OPPEL JR.


LYNCHBURG, Va. — As a child, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was dead-set on being a veterinarian. “That was my heart’s content. It’s what I always wanted to do,” he said.Then came a day of reckoning, during the second semester of his sophomore year at Texas A&M University, when he went to see the dean of the veterinary school. His advice: switch to an easier major.

“He said, `Son, I’m looking at your transcript,’” Mr. Perry said. “‘You want to be an animal science major.’”

Mr. Perry told the anecdote here Wednesday morning to students at Liberty University in a speech that seemed to go to great lengths to explain and rationalize his poor academic performance in college, something that has already been an issue in the race for the G.O.P. presidential nomination.

Liberty University, established 40 years ago by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell — the founder of the Moral Majority — has become a whistle-stop for many aspiring G.O.P. contenders. In his 20-minute address, Mr. Perry almost totally avoided discussing politics and policy, a breather, perhaps, after he was attacked by Republican rivals in a debate Monday on everything from immigration policy to social security.

Instead, the governor delivered a much more personal speech about his Christian faith and his view that “God uses broken people to reach a broken world.”

But first, he tackled those bad grades. He described how being a member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets was like attending a military academy, and how he had to keep his shoes perfectly shined and avoid scratches on his belt buckle, otherwise upperclassmen would tell him to “drop down and give them 72″ push-ups, a number chosen because Mr. Perry was a member of the class of 1972.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/perry-explains-his-poor-performance-in-college/?hp

[Tesha]

1. "Ahh had George Bush as mah, watchamacallit, err 'mentor'!" (NT)

[DJ13]

2. Being a cheerleader is hard work

Right George... err... Rick?

[Erose999]

3. Because one's extra curricular activities like ROTC are more important than one's studies or grades,

right Prick Erry?

[Enrique]

4. then he switched to an even easier major

Governor of Texas.

[MineralMan]

5. He was a dumbass then, too?

[frazzled]

6. Ah, the old "God uses broken people" shtick.

Watch out for that one.

[wtmusic]

7. I knew it all along, Obama is too smart.

God needs someone who's broken to fix our broken world.

Kind of like how you'd use a broken screwdriver to fix a broken chair...it's all making sense now. :crazy:

[theoldman]

8. I also attended a military school.

I kept my shoes shined and my belt buckle polished. I had to do the same thing when I was in the Army. In spite of all this work I still made good grades and was nominated an outstanding officer. Wonder where I went wrong because I never became a governor.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Obviously you are an underachiever....

:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[11 Bravo]

9. I've heard it's more difficult to get into Vet School than Med School.

[wtmusic]

10. There's probably more money for DVMs than MDs these days, too...

at least until animal health insurance takes off.

[Ilsa]

14. Yeah, happened to my cousin. She was rejected by vet school, ended up in

medicine, but ultimately got a PhD for research, not to practice medicine on people. Funny, though, a lot of her research involved using animals, so I guess she felt a little like a vet.

[freethought]

15. I heard very much the same thing.

An old college friend who left undergrad with a nice 3.8 GPA. It was her ambition to study veterinary medicine. Sadly, she did not get into any vet schools. She was able to get into Cornell and study for PhD but not as vet student. Go figure.

[66 dmhlt]

11. Classic Texas A&M Aggie joke ...

Q: How many Aggies does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Only one - but he'll demand three hours of credit for doing it.

[dtexdem]

13. Now, see, his problem was that he went to a university that was too tough.

I bet that had he gone to Liberty University, he could have gotten right into the Creationist-Veterinary program. ;-)

[rpannier]

16. Faith Based Veterinarian

He'll pray for your dog to get healthy and the parrot of a guy 6 blocks away will be cured

[tanyev]

17. At least our loss is a lot of poor sick animals' gain.

[Gari]

18. Corps of Cadets and grades

Gov. Perry must not think that anyone else will remember or call him on this ridiculous lie. College Station has been home since my conservative Baptist minister father moved our family here in 1965. The 3 boys would go to A & M (all male at the time) and the 4 girls would get their vocational nursing certificate so they could help support their families if, as was the case with our family, the main breadwinner was disabled.

In the time that Gov Perry was Cadet Perry, there was a great deal of spit and polish required of cadets, as there is today, true. However, the Corp is also very focused on grades. Someone with Cadet Perry's abysmal grades would have been required to report for extra study sessions every day after his grades showed he was doing so poorly. The fact that he CONTINUED to do so poorly in spite of military discipline was applied to his studying is a testament to his dedication to remaining as ignorant as possible.