AS A college freshman, I was terribly challenged by my first essay exam in a history course. The professor, a tall distinguished man who wrote the book for the course, passed out blank 16-page booklets for our responses to his questions. I filled up the pages, turned it in and walked out of the room confident that I had nailed the test. Several days later it came back to me with a big "F" on the cover. I was shocked and met the professor at his desk. "I clearly wrote 16 pages and you gave me an F! How could you do that to me?" With obvious experience in such student complaints, he raised his long arm and replied: "Indeed, you did write 16 pages. But I think you wrote that much in hopes that the right answer would be in there somewhere. And I'm not confident that you still know what the correct answer is."
It might explain my reaction to Tom Brokaw's interview with John McCain on Meet the Press this morning. To each question, McCain went on and on, zigging and zagging, hoping to convince his doubters that he knew the answer even if it spun off from the original question.
Fully conditioned by my old history professor, I had no choice but to give McCain an F.
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1 comment:
You're not the only one handing out Fs. David Frum, former speech writer for W, has a piece in the WashPost to advocate triage - allow the House and Presidency to fall into the hands of the Democrats, but secure a filibustering minority in the Senate.
I wonder, though, if the McCain bear market has hit bottom. He may well rally into next Tuesday.
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