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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorge Will Says Mitch Daniels is the President America Needs
Purdue has the president America needsBy George F. Will Opinion writer June 15 at 7:29 PM
Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana and current president of Purdue University, knows that no one in the audience is there to hear a commencement speaker. When, however, he addressed his institutions class of 2016, it heard him distill into a few lapidary paragraphs a stance toward life that illuminates this political season.
A rite of spring in America is, Daniels noted, the dispensing of diplomas that are similar in what they announce but dissimilar in what they actually denote. They all pronounce the recipient to be a bachelor of this or a master of that. There is, however, evidence, as abundant as it is depressing, that there are enormous differences between the seriousness of the curriculums students study and the rigor with which their mastery of them is measured: As employers have come to learn, many diplomas tell little or nothing about the holders readiness for work or for life.
This matters, because diplomas often are credentials that are not credible, and because ample studies of happiness demonstrate that the most important predictor of it is, Daniels said, earned success. This involves sustained, difficult effort to surmount setbacks. And yet, said Daniels, perhaps the most dangerous of todays many pernicious ideas is that life is more or less a lottery. That we are less masters of our fate than corks floating in a sea of luck.
Daniels spoke six days after Barack Obama told Howard Universitys class of 2016: Yes, youve worked hard, but youve also been lucky. Thats a pet peeve of mine: people who have been successful and dont realize theyve been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasnt nothing you did.
Nothing. Hence the progressive agenda: Government must comprehensively regulate, redistribute and generally fine-tune society in order to engineer fairness to counter lifes pervasive and pernicious randomness (luck). Obamas words at Howard were, of course, congruent with his 2012 campaign statement that if youve got a business, you didnt build that. Somebody else made that happen. So society did, with you contributing a bit.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitch-danielss-one-lesson-for-success-work/2016/06/15/1167597e-3245-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html
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George Will Says Mitch Daniels is the President America Needs (Original Post)
DonViejo
Jun 2016
OP
Vogon_Glory
(9,117 posts)1. Ah, The Dream Countries of George Will's Imagination
Does anyone know whether they border the lands of "My Magic Pony" (tm)?
BeyondGeography
(39,370 posts)2. A predictably inspiring choice
Shadowflash
(1,536 posts)3. I think he misspoke.
He meant to say Jeff.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)6. There ya go :)
Even Will McAvoy would be a better choice!
PJMcK
(22,035 posts)7. I think he was hanging with Jack (n/t)
rock
(13,218 posts)4. Can't be
I read that Sanders is the perfect choice.
ryan_cats
(2,061 posts)5. Did George
Did George do a search and replace on Romney for Daniels and re-release a previous fawning article on Mittens?
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)8. Ask the faculty and staff of Purdue what they think.
Of course they are terrified to say, but in private they are pretty vocal. He hides his agenda pretty well most of the time, but then it comes out. He is destroying a wonderful University that we both love very much. No more money to Purdue until he is gone.