America's Top 25 National Universities

US News is out with its top colleges and as we predicted two of our favorite schools (Wake Forest and Vanderbilt) both landed among the best of the best (top 25).
As you might expect, the top five are as follows: 1. Harvard, 2. Princeton, 3. Yale, 4. Columbia and 5. Stanford. Vandy was 17 and Wake came in at 25.
BTW: Penn State had an impressive showing as well, landing in the top 50. We are . . . !
See the whole list at US News.

Withold $$$ From 'Notre Shame'

From Dan Gilgoff at US News & World Report:
A group of Notre Dame alumni angry over the university's decision to feature President Obama as this year's commencement speaker is set to launch an online effort urging the school's financial backers to withhold donations until the university president is ousted. The group's website calls for current university president Rev. John Jenkins be replaced with "someone who will uphold fundamental Catholic moral principles."
The group launched its website, www.replacejenkins.com, yesterday and plans to begin promoting it with a press release tomorrow morning. "We feel strongly that the University should not honor President Barack Obama given his well known commitment to abortion in the broadest possible context," the website says. "Although we love Notre Dame, our conscience requires that we withhold all financial support from our University until such time as Father Jenkins is replaced as Notre Dame's President with someone who will be more loyal to the teaching of the Catholic Church."
The effort is being led by a coalition of seven university alumni and financial backers, mostly based in Michigan. "When the Obama invitation happened, some of us said we have to draw a line in the sand," says David DiFranco, a Notre Dame alum who is helping lead the campaign and who notes that conservative Catholics have been alarmed by some of Jenkins earlier decisions. "We don't feel justified in sending our dollars to the university and thought if we can quantify this effort we may raise some eyebrows."
The website asks Notre Dame boosters to sign a petition and state "the amount you will withhold from Notre Dame's General Fund." DiFranco, the CEO of a travel company based near Detroit, declined to give a goal for the amount of withheld donations. But he said he hopes the figure is large enough to publicize before Obama's May 17 graduation address.
The site asks petition signers to supply their contact information to help verify the legitimacy of large donations being withheld. It also advises donors to send donations to two campus antiabortion groups. Organizers say they currently have several dozen donors involved.

Geithner Falls Flat

From James Pethokoukis at US News :

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has gone from being the Indispensable Man to Indecipherable Man. With global financial community watching closely, Geithner laid out a confusing rescue plan for the U.S. banking system that did little to stem the ongoing dissipation of investor confidence. The reaction from Wall Street was withering.

"The bottom line from the Geithner speech is that it was too general, and it lacked the specifics needed to it to be credible," opined economist Brian Bethune of IHS Global Insight. Like many, economist Robert Brusca was perplexed about the plan to purchase toxic mortgage assets through some sort of sketchy public-partnership: "It is still not clear how this will work and how much cushion public money will provide and if it will involve any guarantees. I do not begin to understand how this private/public plan will work. Moreover, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed precisely because of their public-private identity crisis." Little wonder why stocks plunged and investors rushed to buy safe U.S. Treasuries.

Did He Blow It?

From James Pethokoukis at US News & World Report:
Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election?
No. Really.
You're kidding me. Barack Obama actually told that Joe the Plumber guy that he wants to "spread the wealth around." What, did Obama just get done reading the Wikipedia entry on Huey "Share the Wealth" Long or something? Was he somehow channeling that left-wing populist from the Depression? Talk about playing into the most extreme stereotype of your party, that it is infested with socialists.
A while back I chatted with a University of Chicago professor who was a frequent lunch companion of Obama's. This professor said that Obama was as close to a full-out Marxist as anyone who has ever run for president of the United States. Now, I tend to quickly dismiss that kind of talk as way over the top. My working assumption is that Obama is firmly within the mainstream of Democratic politics. But if he is as free with that sort of redistributive philosophy in private as he was on the campaign trail this week, I have no doubt that U of C professor really does figure him as a radical. And after last night's debate, a few more Americans might think that way, too. McCain's best line: "Now, of all times in America, we need to cut people's taxes. We need to encourage business, create jobs, not spread the wealth around."
And by the way, I just noticed that the IBD/TIPP poll, the most accurate in 2004, has McCain down by just 3 points. If the contest is perceived by the voters as a contest between a wealth redistributor and a wealth creator, then it could be a long night come Nov. 4. This is still a center-right country, gang. Note this Gallup poll from June:
When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today's consumer, Americans overwhelmingly—by 84% to 13%—prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
There you go.