Artful Dodger:

> yet here we have a President who has had his lawyers early on seal ALL his college records. Why is that? No one asks that question because he's a liberal. Had Bush had private records sealed, you left wing nuts would have lost your shorts over it!

Just to remind ourselves, George W. Bush did keep his college records confidential during his first term. His records were released in June of 2005 after he was reelected. In fact, most presidents have done that while they were presidents. Obama's records are not "selad" by a court order but rather, they remain confidential.

"Obama’s college records are not “sealed” by a court order, as this graphic would have you believe. It would be illegal under federal law (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) for Occidental, Columbia or Harvard Law School to give any former student’s records to reporters or members of the public without that person’s specific, written permission. Obama hasn’t released them, but neither have other presidential candidates released their college records. George W. Bush’s grades at Yale eventually became public, but only because somebody leaked them to the New Yorker magazine. Bush himself refused to release them, according to a 1999 profile in the Washington Post."

> I'm SURE there is something to the story. You don't get into Harvard with bad grades and Obama was NOT a good student. Something is amiss and denying it won't change that fact.

George W. Bush was by his on admission (and as his records show) an average student. Obama has never claimed to be a genius. If there is anything amiss with Obama being admitted to Harvard, isn't that a problem with Harvard's admission procedures rather than Obama's manipulating the situation? We have to remember that Obama was not born with power and influence.

As for the stupid claims that Obama got foreign student aid, that started as an April's Fool's day joke:

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/was-obama-born-in-the-usa/

Well, ultimately it is all immaterial. Obama is the president and running for reelection, whether right wingers like it or not. Likewise Mitt Romney (with all his qualities and potential shortcomings) is the Republican candidate.

Both sides will sling mud at each other. It is how American politics works these days. To date, both candiadates are eak in what really matters: issues that truly affect American society. Who cares about who the candidates are or where they were born when American sociaty faces urgen issues like the economy, health care, education, rising violence, etc.?

The worst thing of all is that regardless of who is elected, Washington will stay the same. Washington will continue in its culture of secrecy, lack of transparency, lobbyism, and the subversion of democracy by big, powerful money.