There's a huge difference.  The University of Chicago will let just about any dope off the street be a "Senior Lecturer" on just about anything.  Hell, just last week I was down there explaining why The Flash would beat Superman in a foot race.  

"It's 3am. Your kids are safe and asleep. In the White House, the phone rings. Somewhere in the world, a crisis is brewing...

Wouldn't you want the person who answers it to be tenure-track?"

Yawn.  Is that all Hillary can throw at him?  This North Carolina voter doesn't care what she and her campaign says anymore.

Agreed Noam.  If Obama had called himself a PhD, there might be something there.  But college instructors are often called professors as others have pointed out.

I think this is the silliest argument I've ever seen coming from someone like Hilary a proven liar. They hypocrisy of this woman is amazing. A professor or senior lecture which is actually an adjunct professor he taught law classes at a presitigous law school and she is quibbling about nonsense after having the nerve to talk about dodging bullet which was a lie. The fact of the matter is she and Obama has comparable experience and this illusion that she is creating as if she was the President rather than Bill back 1992 is just that an illusion that is slowly being revealed with her lies. America doesnt need a slightly more experience professional Liar in the White House.

Carol

I agree the argument is a little silly.  But as long as TNR parses Hillary's statements for the slightest inconsistency, they should at least pretend to acknowledge the same with Obama's.  

It appears that Obama has more right to call himself "professor" than Clinton has to describe herself as "experienced."

Oh now...as Nobel Prize recipient Lord Trimble said on her Ireland assertions:  "...she is being a wee bit silly".

scottlooper, are you equating Obama's claim of professorhood with Clinton's claim of bullet dodging? Do you believe Obama was wrong to call himself a professor? Do you believe Clinton was doing anything other than lying? Do you think she misremembered bullets and a mad dash?

Prim - Does "Wouldn't you want the person who answers it to be tenure-track?" give new meaning to the phrase "publish or perish"?

This is the sad thing about the Clinton campaign - it cannot speak to us as adults - it does not even seem to recognize that adults are in the audience. How many times have Mike or Noam or any of the other Plankers and Stumpers deconstructed some ridiculous Wolfson (or Penn or Singer)conference call? Who knows, but one person who apparently doesn't know and doesn't even care is Wolfson. So he (and others) continue to make tenuous arguments (if you can call them that)  in blissful ignorance of the fact that they're being replayed for their entertainment value rather than the purpose for which they were made.

One can't help but reach the conclusion that Hillary sees her constituency as a bunch of ditto-heads who react based on emotion rather than reason and will take anything she says without thinking or reflecting for even a nanosecond. This may describe part of the Dem electorate (Rove thinks it describes the entire Republican Base), but it fails to recognize that left-leaning pundits, unlike most of their brothers and sisters on the conservative side, usually apply some analysis, even to statements from people with whom they sympathize, rather than take statements at face value. Thus, if Hillary or her surrogates let a corker rip, even pundits who'd love to love her have to call her on it. Sadly, the more corkers, the more derision, and it begins to seem there's not a pundit anywhere with anything nice to say about Hillary. (She still has Krugman, but I can't think of anyone else.)  This makes dedicated Hillary-philes apoplectic - the constant drumbeat of criticism makes it appear that they must all be conspiring against her.  

Aiming the campaign at the perceived lowest common denominator results in things like the Tuzla flap. Sinbad (Sinbad!) debunked the story several weeks ago. Everyone who reads TNR, HuffPo, the NYT, Slate,  Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein, etc.,etc. knew the story was a silly exaggeration. Did she quietly let it drop? Well, that's what you'd do if you thought people were actually paying attention. But she didn't let it drop, and instead used it to open her big Iraq speech on March 17th! And then, when the din of derision finally pierced the shell around her, she says she misspoke! If she had acknowledged her misspeak after Sinbad called BS, it would be defensible. Instead you have a situation where she tells a tall tale, gets called on it, ignores the call-out and continues to tell the tale, even bringing it into a big national speech that she must have hoped would burnish her national security bona fides, gets called on it again, and then finally says, "maybe I got it wrong."

For all her seasoning, for all her trips through the right-wing wringer, Hillary is remarkably tone-deaf. Maybe what she really needs is a little more experience, a little more practice trying to win over people who think instead of react, and then she'll be ready to unify the party and the country behind her candidacy.

psantillana: As my father taught me, a lie's a lie.  

elen --

You forget the Clinton team believes there are two David Trimbles. One being a Nobel Prize winner and the other being, in the words of James Rubin, "a crankpot and what he said about her was demeaning."

debatableland.typepad.com/.../hillary-of-belf.html

scottlooper - so you think Obama was lying by calling himself a professor, when that was the term used by everyone to describe what he did? If he had called himself a senior lecturer, that would have given the impression that he gave lectures, people clapped, and he left. But he taught a core course and gave/graded exams. The technical term for what the U of Chi calls him is at odds with the common understanding of his position.

Are you clinging to a technicality to make Obama a liar? Another question: If you believe that sexual intercourse involves vaginal penetration, then was Bill Clinton telling the truth when he said he did not have sex with that woman? If everyone else thinks blowjob = sex, and Bill knows it, is he still telling the truth?

scottlooper: are you trying to look like an idiot? this is the equivalent of arguing, "hey, he isn't a Managing Supervisor, he is a Supervising Manager." The man taught Law at one of the top Law schools in the country. To 99% of humanity except a few nitpickers he was a Professor.

Besides, Hillary has now said to every adjunct or associate Professor at every college, and community college in America that they are liars when they introduce themselves as Professors, even though that is how they are referred to by students.

When the term Senior Lecturer becomes part of our daily discourse, then call him on it but until then to call it a lie is itself a gross distortion of decency. I have a friend who is an adjunct Professor while I have tenure, he teaches just as hard (harder since he hopes to get tenure). I will thank you not to piss on his head to justify a rank idiocy of the Clinton campaign.

A lie is a lie? Bullshit. Hillary is a liar. Obama used what is perfectly acceptable shorthand for what he did. You tell me what is more prestigious? Senior Lecturer of Law at a top Law school, or a tenure Professor that teaches English 101 at a state college?

"I don't see the scandal in Obama describing himself that way."

Since you're an Obamaphile, of course you don't, any more than you see the scandal in Obama's lying about why he continued to attend the church of a race-baiting friend-of-Farrakhan.

If this Obama's most Clintonian statement of the campaign, I think we can trust him.

When I studied abroad at an English university, I was told that calling my instructor"professor" would flatter them, since in England, only the top few people in any department hold the distinction of "professor;" the rest are readers, lecturers, etc. They take these titles quite seriously. I'm not sure what it's like at other colleges in the US, but at Brandeis, any instructor may be referred to as a "professor," whether or not they are actually "lecturers," and whether or not they hold PhDs. At least, in my view, for Obama to call himself a professor at U. Chicago's law school is keeping with the norm in the American academic establishment...only in class-conscious societies like the UK does the distinction between "lecturer," "reader," and "professor," when casually referring to a position held at a university, actually matter.

dvilner - you beat me to it. i mean, since when did Americans get to be so British.

oh, maybe it was when we got a presidential candidate with all the charm of Maggie Thatcher.

Over at The Plank there is a post about Hillary supporters claiming that people are not supporting Hillary because of sexism. They are wrong. We are not supporting Hillary because of the petty, contrived attacks by her campaign and because she is blatantly and subtley using racism(and anything else) to advance herself. Our party should not tolerate the way her campaign has used such a divisive and unDemocratic issue to advance herself. Unlike her Bosnia remarks, which she made repeatedly to highlight her foreign policy "experience", their "Profgate" issue is empty and the sign of an intellectually(and probably financially and some would say morally) bankrupt campaign.

Bill it's the opposite of a Clintonian statement!

Clintonian means you tell the technical truth while knowingly misleading. Obama told a technical untruth in order to accurately represent the truth of what he did. "Senior Lecturer" would have misled the average joe. Like me, for instance, who went to law school, but who is not familiar with the terminology of U of Chicago official job titles.

scotlooper, of course you speak the truth.  Proof of this is the frothing of the pirañas, which one must expect nowadays, since TNR has become an Obama fansite.

Got news for you geniuses, no one called him Professor Obama when he was there (except maybe Michelle), and at any rate, if a person is not a professer, calling him one does not make him one, any more than calling the wife of an earl a countess makes her one.

The Obamaphiles here apparently don't understand the difference between being called a professor as a courtesy and calling oneself a professor. Obama's calling himself a professor is resumé padding.  Period.   In fact, I'd not be surprised  if the GOP take to derisively calling Obama, "The Professor".  Calling Hillary a liar for calling Obama on this only betreys the infantile stupdiity of the Obama fandom.

I must admit, though, if Ward Churchill and Blackton can get tenure, then I guess anyone can call himself a professor.

rice, he was offered the tenure track position but turned it down. And getting tenure ain't easy, I did my thesis on comparing the two tonal based languages Mandarin Chinese and Zapoteco. How did two tonal based languages develop in different parts of the world and the ways in which they developed. Did you know that both Chinese speakers and speakers of the Zapoteco can identify a musical note alone. Non tonal speakers are at a far greater disadvantage (this is why so many chinese are expert musicians)

But mock away. What did you write your thesis on? In what way have you improved man kinds knowledge.

Has anything elevated ever crossed your mind?

I have also written about Chinese medicine, if you want I can give you the isbn number and you can order it.

rice, he was offered the tenure track position but turned it down. And getting tenure ain't easy, I did my thesis on comparing the two tonal based languages Mandarin Chinese and Zapoteco. How did two tonal based languages develop in different parts of the world and the ways in which they developed. Did you know that both Chinese speakers and speakers of the Zapoteco can identify a musical note alone. Non tonal speakers are at a far greater disadvantage (this is why so many chinese are expert musicians)

But mock away. What did you write your thesis on? In what way have you improved man kinds knowledge.

Has anything elevated ever crossed your mind?

I have also written about Chinese medicine, if you want I can give you the isbn number and you can order it.

hey rice, Obama was offered a tenure track position but turned it down. As to me, I studied German at the University of Salzburg in Austria, later I learned Chinese at Jiaotong University of China, and I have since learned Spanish. I wrote my thesis comparing the development of the two tonal languages, Mandarin and Zapoteco. Did you know that tonal speakers can identify a single musical note? Non tonal speakers have a much more difficult time (this is one reason why so many Chinese are musicians). I have also co-written a book about Chinese medicine. If you want I can give you the isbn number so you can buy it.

So mock away. What have you done to improve the knowledge of mankind? I believe I am the only person in the world who has made a comparison between the tonal languages of southern Mexico with the tonal languages in china.

I don't speak Zapoteco, but had assistance from Mexican students who speak both languages.

How many languages do you speak again? I will compare my life to yours any day. In addition to Asia, Europe, Latin America, the USA, I have also lived on the southern Pacific island of Pohnpei (or Ponape). On your deathbed your great achievement will be what. that you visited Disneyworld?

Please mock me, because you are so easy to beat down.

sorry for the triple posting, internet got buggy. I am also sorry if it seems like I am showing off, but I am not going to be mocked by a neanderthal like Rice who is threatened by anyone who is more intelligent than he. ie. 95% of the posters here. I busted my ass to learn Mandarin, and the same with Spanish. I could write a book about the differences between learning these two languages. What is easy in Spanish is a nightmare in Chinese and vice versa. Believe it or not Chinese is, in some ways, much easier than Spanish. But educational matters is far about rice. Get that GED yet jm_rice? Tell us your life story and what makes you an expert on higher education.

dvilner, your reading of UK titling is not quite there.  One does not have to be a "stickler" to believe that for one to be called a professor, one should be a professor.  It's Americans who are sloppy and casual about it.  In everyday usage in UK, Mister is what's used, no matter who it is, unless a knight or peer. If one is a PhD he can be called Doctor.  Academic rankings are a bit ambivalent.  At Oxford and Cambridge, Professor is a university appointment, yet one is not really "in" unless he's a college fellow, the equivalent of tenure. (As for the degrees, advanced degrees at Oxbridge are fairly recent.  Before, you got your B.A., and after six years, without formality, got your M.A.  This is how most of the dons wound up.  Even a PhD doesn't have the cachet of a college fellowship.)

Professor is quite an exalted position in Europe.  One doesn't bandy it about.  Calling someone "Professor" who's not a professor, rather than flattering him, would probably make him blush with embarrassment, then glance around to see if a colleague was giving him a sharp look.  On the other hand, Obamaphiles regard Professor as an entitlement for their boy.

I 'm always trying to find any way to evade calling my optometrist "Dr."

I suspect that most actual professors find Clinton's attacks ridiculous.  There certainly are distinctions made within academia between professors and lecturers, and between assistant, associate, and full professors -- but these distinctions are typically ignored when communicating with people outside academia.  When people in the community ask me what I do, for example, I tell them I'm a professor; when colleagues ask about my position, I more accurately describe myself as an assistant professor.  Am I lying when I call myself a professor?  No, of course not.  Neither is Obama; he's addressing the populace, not the National Academy, and it's hardly surprising that he's referred to himself as a professor -- virtually all Americans would have called him the same.

So now we know the truth.  Professor Obama did NOT dodge sniper fire at Tuzla.

Adaglas you may think there is a huge difference, but I don't think you will be able to convince either the university of Chicago or its alums... Obviously you are not aware of the fact that the following judges of the 7th Circuit are all merely "senior lecturers at the university of chicago law school"  Richard Posner, Frank Easterbrook, Diana Woods.

As for Posner... he is one of the Kings of Conservative jurisprudence in the US of A and turns out about 2 books a year as well as being a very prolific writer of his own opinions (i.e. not written by law clerks).  It sure would be a surprise to everyone in the UofC community to learn that Judges Posner, Easterbrook and Woods are not "Professor" Posner, Easterbrook and Woods, but "Senior Lecturer" Posner, Easterbrook and Woods.  Know something about the institution before you pontificate.

yeah, ok rice, give me a break, you know full well there are a group of scientists who got their Doctorates from America who got reprimanded because they used the term Doctor, but so freaking what. Just because Europeans are tight ass about it is no reason we should be. beyond that, how much time have you spent at a European university? How the hell would you know it would make anyone blush. You really are so full of it sometimes.

Honestly, how much time have you spent attending a European University? Your wiki knowledge is funny. Try real world experience sometime.

Hey, in China they use the term Laoshi, does that meet with your approval?

So Obama translated university jargon for the public stage. This is a controversy? I suspect subscribing political reporters lithium (except Noam and Mike) might make political coverage much saner.

Oh, have you beaten me down?  All I see is a desperate little braggart.  And in triplicate!  It's really rather pitiful.

hey rice: I 'm always trying to find any way to evade calling my optometrist "Dr."

EVADE? to elude; escape, to escape from by trickery or cleverness

Learn proper English before pontificating. since you probably don't know what this mean I will help you. to speak in a pompous or dogmatic manner

blackton, my brother has studied both Mandarin and Zapoteca [ok he dabbled in Zapoteca on our trip to Oaxaca], and I bet he would want to read your thesis. Where can it be found?

jm rice knows full well that language is about communication, that Obama was what everyone considers a "professor" as a descriptive term - if you look up professor in the dictionary, you'll find what he did. Clinton of course knows this too. And scottlooper knows that for this reason Obama was not lying, unlike Clinton with the bullet-dodging. Tyler Marsh has the sense to be embarassed about that, why are jm and scott giving no ground at all? Because they are trolls. Ignore them. I know - I didn't. But when you see someone else get sucked in it becomes clearer.

Technically, Obama was a professor.  A professor is someone who gets paid to teach university courses.  Technically, he was not a Professor of Law.  The Sun Times got the capitalization wrong in their quotation of Nagorsky.

Presently, I am a lecturer in history at a Texas university.  I am in the process of writing my dissertation ("From Reformation to Revolution - Prophetic and Coercive Voices in the Register of Pope Gregory VII"), and hope to have it all wrapped up by the end of summer.  I teach five classes each semester, and two during the summer.  My position is not tenure-track, thus the title 'lecturer'.  My colleagues who are tenure-track are called Assistant Professors.  Those who have received tenure are called either Associate Professor, or for those who have published enough (with a certain requisite number of years of service) Full Professor.  

My students (and fellow faculty members) call me Professor Grant, not Lecturer Grant, essentially out of convenience.  Since I have not completed my doctorate, I do try to remind the students not to call me Dr. Grant.  This is not an issue for anyone at the university, or any university that I know. Even the elitist snobs in the department don't hassle the lecturers about this (plenty of other assorted nonsense, though, which leads me to believe that this is a very minor issue).  

It is shorthand folks, simple as that.  Obama is on perfectly solid ground.

Guys, the personal sniping is not necessary.  I come here in large part because I like the generally civil and thoughtful discussion.  Personal attacks on other posters don't help convince people of your arguments, and they tend to lower the level of the conversation.

Wow, one unflatterig mention, and a defensive diatribe is unleashed.  I'm embarrassed for you.  You really are desperate.

Your posts are pretentious pseudo-intellectual garbage.  And this is why, despite your occasional attempts to provoke a response, I seldom bother.  

Du er virkelig en trist lille mand.

rice, crawled out from under the bed after your beatdown I see. I also didn't notice any real rebuttal, ie. real world experience as opposed to your wiki knowledge. Ok, I will stop whipping you since your non reply I take as the equivalent of licking my toes in submission.

I am not bragging, simply stating my case as someone who has tenure and how you, as someone who doesn't, have no real idea what you are talking about. The topic is on being called Professor is it not? And on being one and addressed to as one in America.

If you were to talk about your field of expertise (advanced mental masturbatory techniques?) then I will cede to your superior wisdom. As it is, surely you acknowledge that you as an unskilled layman have less cause to speak on such a topic?

psantillana, it is down here in the University, locked away in some room and good riddance to it. Defending it was my nightmare. I hope you know I am just having useless fun provoking him. There are any number of other Professors here who are far more intelligent than I. Part of my job is editing the English versions of their papers. The Editing is easy, understanding half of what is written is hard. Statistics? good lord that is difficult.

You came to Oaxaca? Where? there are a number of ethnic groups here, zapoteco, chonatal, zoque, huave, mixe, chinanteco, chatino, mixteco, triqui, amuzgo, chocho, ixcateco, cuicateco, mazateco, nahuatl.

Nahuatl was the language spoken in that Mel Gibson movie. If you were in Oaxaca city they speak Mixteco there. It is funny but the Japanese answer to a telephone call (not sure of the spelling but sounds like mushi mushi) is the Zapoteco word for Homosexual. I found that out when I first moved here, my former landlady was married to a Japanese man so once I said mushi mushi as hello and I got such a look but it was figured out soon enough.

rice, Ward Churchill called the victims of 9/11 in the towers little Eichmanns, and you are surprised I am offended?

what is pretentious? break it down if you can. you are the one who flaunts wiki knowledge everywhere. "Oh a teacher in Germany would blush at being called Professor" honestly, how the f would you know that? Do you even know an honest to God Austrian or German or French Professor? Some of the nicest people in Salzburg are the teachers at the University, for you to pretend you would know how they would respond is the height of hubris. You are the quintessential stair well American.

hey kgrant, watch out, rice will accuse of pretension for writing about what you actually know.

alan, fair enough. I saw the Ward Churchill comment and blew a gasket. I will simply let such provocations pass in the future.

jm_rice wrote "Got news for you geniuses, no one called him Professor Obama when he was there (except maybe Michelle),"

This is false.  Regardless of his title, students at the schoo addressed him as Professor Obama.  I know this because I was a student there when he was on the faculty.

Of all the made-up controversies the Clinton campaign has tried to create about Obama (the Reagan thing, the "soft on choice" BS, etc). this is by far the silliest and most pathetic. Anyone who considers Hillary a Rovian genius after this silliness is just sad.

black - honestly, just skip his comments - there's nothing of value there ever.

I've been an Obama supporter from Day One and I can tell you this is the most blatant proof from the Clinton camp that he's not ready for the Oval Office. All this time I thought I was supporting a Professor!!! But I've been duped into getting behind a Senior Lecturer. I was too busy comparing the way they wanted to move the country forward to come across this fact. Shame on you Barack Obama. Shame on you!

Gabe, Hyde Park, Chicago

"I guess I don't see the scandal in Obama describing himself that way. But maybe the voters of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Indiana will see something I don't..."

I can't speak for the voters in North Carolina and Indiana, but my experience in Lancaster PA earlier today allowed me to completely forget about this "issue" as not one of the registered Democrats I spoke to mentioned it.

Also, Blackton > jm_rice

Since I am trying to become a professional college student, I was told that the safe thing to do is call all lecturers professor.  It avoids mistakingly calling someone doctor who does not have a PhD, and yet doesn't hurt anyones feelings.

jm_rice: I have taught law in four universities in continental Europe and at three universities in Canada; I am NOT a tenure track professor of law, but students call me "professor" our of respect, and I am introduced as such by the Faculty.  My resume states the specific position I had, but when I am asked by lay persons what I do, the answer is "lawyer and law prof".  

Outside of the Academy, no one really cares about tenure-track or not, and within the bounds of the Academy, it is clear what I do, and there is no risk of a misunderstanding.  It is generally understood that prestigious schools do not hire just anyone to teach, even if not tenure track.  To say that I am a "law professor" would be misleading only in a specific context: if, applying for an academic position, I represent that I already have a tenure track post.  

Whatever Mr. Obama's weaknesses, this is not one of them.

"Du er virkelig en trist lille mand."

Wow, jm_rice knows some Norwegian.  Now there's a useful language.  if i wanted to impress others with my command of important Eupoean languages, that's the one I would pick.

Only problem,  the closest translation to what Rice wrote is  "You are really a sad little Monday."

Damn Black, remind me never to cross you.

..icarusr..

Where do you teach law now, if you don't mind me asking?

(I'm a Canadian lawyer.)

Basman: gladly, offline. icarusr@gmail.com.

As Noam and a lot of ther people here know, the difference is between using the word "professor" generically and using it to indicate rank or appointment. If Obama capitalized it or used it on a resume, it is clearly a lie, whether or not the public cares about it.

I see Clinton's Tuzla problem as distorted remembering motivated by a desire to enhance herself--and she may have confused the CBS redorded visits with several others she made to Bosnia. But Obama's lies have to do with things he actively knows not to be true--they are not products of distorted perception or memory (which we are all prone to)--they are dishonest tactical moves in a stressful situation.

But Obama has routinely and deliberately lied--as in his initial and repeated asssertions that he hadn' t heard Wright's statements, as in his "professorship," as in the bill he told Iowans he passed to stop Exelon (which never passed), as in claiming credit for work on immigration reform in the Senate, as in claiming that he had never discussed the property with Rezko, as in claiming to hit the wrong voting button six times, etc.

Frankly, Obama sometimes looks a little pathological to me--he lies awfully easily, and he seems not to expect to be called on it. He also has the glib sense of being able to intuit and then to say exactly what the other person wants to hear. Not a good sign when someone is too practiced at that.

Take a look at Todd Spivak's piece at houstonpress.com. It will tell you alot about Obama's concealed character traits:

www.houstonpress.com/.../full

patricia

jm_rrice says "Professor is quite an exalted position in Europe.  One doesn't bandy it about."

Not entirely true, to the best of my knowledge.  In France and some Eastern European countries professor is a title that you bear if you are a qualified high school teacher.

I stand to be corrected on that.  However, everyone apart from jmr knows that, in America, "professor at a university" is perfectly valid in ordinary discourse as a description of working at a university as a faculty member in a teaching position (as opposed to being a grad student TA, or an administrative or technical staff member).

An analogy might help here:

If somebody describes themselves as having been "a pilot with Delta" I assume that they worked for Delta Airlines and flew aircraft.  So long as that is the case, I don't particularly need to know that they were in a group of pilots called "special aircrew roster" who have a different contractual relationship with the airline than pilots in a regular promotional track.

Man, this is small stuff to bicker over as intensely.

pcostello:

I favour Hillary, but let us not overbake our cookies and sully our favour with nonsense:

1. The "professor" complaint is a trivail distracion and a mark of some desperation;

2.  Hillary's overstatement about ducking sniper fire in Bosnia is a problem the way "professor" is not; and it's one of those things I just decide to grin and bear;

3. Obama is no more a liar than your typical pol. That's what he is: a typical pol, as calculating and opportunistic and ambitious as the rest of them. That's not bad, but it lays his rhetorical clams low;

4. He is hardly pathological seeming. That is your wanted conclusions talking, and willing to say anything for a desired result. It's counter-productive; and

5. The little piece you link to is silly and persuasive and revelatory of no thing. Sad it would be if such tripe constituted the argument to be made against Obama.

...rhetorical clams...

Best eaten in a white whine sauce.

. . . with a glass of suave (if it's Obama)

basman,

I'm sorry you disagree with me, but I think Hillary's misremembering a landing in a dangerous country ten years ago, and Obama's denying he spoke to Rezko about the land deal, denying he heard Wright make those kinds of statements, claiming an academic rank he does not have, claiming to have passed a bill he knew did not pass, etc. are very different. And I do think Obama's tendency to quickly tell lies that don't pass the smell test suggests something pathological.

If it's any comfort, pc, I disagree with you too.

Once again, we're back to Kissinger's axiom about how fights in academia are more bitter than in the real world because the stakes are so insignificant.

Does anybody give a shit the distinction between a "professor" and an "adjunct visiting whatsit"?

Anyway professor is someone who professes to know something about what he's talking.  Doesn't mean he does.

Chan, in answer to your question:  Probably nobody except the holder of the "adjunct visiting" position who would be delighted to have something more permanent.

PC,

Misremembering would entail that she actually participated in the event in question just at a different time or at a different place.

HRC has not said that.  Hence why I deem it a lie and a foolish one at that.  If she was telling the truth in 1 of the 4 times she mentioned this event she could have clarified that it was a different trip that she was remembering, instead we get more details that are even more ridiculous when confronted with the evidence of what actually happened.

It's good that Talkback on the blogs is closed to the general public so we don't see so many nonsensical arguments.

- Frippo

(adjunct faculty in Latin and History, but if I explain to a merely politely interested non-academic what I do, I confess I might occasionally usurp the P-word rather than say "visiting part-time lecturer")

PS Once I was in Thessaloniki and almost took a train up into Yugoslavia on a whim, but then I didn't. It was only a very few years later that the country fell apart violently, so I guess I dodged a bullet there.

PPS Jeg har glemt min norsk.