University Of Chicago: Obama Was A Professor

A recent Clinton campaign research document charged that Barack Obama was falsely claiming to be a professor:

Sen. Obama consistently and falsely claims that he was a law professor. The Sun-Times reported that, "Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter." In academia, there's a significant difference: professors have tenure while lecturers do not. [Hotline Blog, 4/9/07; Chicago Sun-Times, 8/8/04]

Today, the University of Chicago released the following statement:

The Law School has received many media requests about Barack Obama, especially about his status as "Senior Lecturer." From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School's Senior Lecturers have high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years as a professor in the Law School, Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position, but he declined.

Comments

[JeffinIllinois]

Of course he is a professor. Paris Hilton has a degree from Harvard.

[fiatpax]

If the University that employed him as a professor says he was a professor, then that's what he was.
Now gather up your bones and scuttle back under your bridge, troll. Your dark mistress is doomed.

[bauersox]

A "lecturer" is not a "professor," regardless of how much $$$ U of C has invested in the Obamas.

[richsmith]

Paris Hilton juxtaposed to Obama. That's a fairly inane remark.

[jsinclair]

If GWB could get an MBA from Harvard, I think there's hope for Paris Hilton.

[LightningJoe]

That was the whole point.

-----
don't dignify tv by watching it.

[SifSkade]

The University of Chicago says he's a professor. What part of that statement are you not understanding? Are you so blindly pro-Clinton that when it comes to Barack Obama, every day is Opposite Day for you?

[trickbunny]

snarky, stupid, sour grapes comments are the only kind hillary's supporters have left. they can no longer argue facts or policy. it has devolved into whining.

[Mojane]

Let's see, the press asks the University of Chicago if Obama taught there, the University answers pretty clearly that he was. How does that confuse you?

[GoldCanyonGal]

..teaching is different that being a tenured Professor.­..Graduate assists are allowed to teach, for example.

[PistonMoaned]

Well any idiot can just spout facts. It's his leaps of geometric logic that dazzle and baffle.

[realpolitic]

Yes, and I heard the University of Chicago turned down Bush's application to be a professor at the school. They simply said he did not know anything and they did not have a course in baseball.

[BIG JOHN]

YEA AND ANOTHER IVEY LEAGUE SCHOOL TOLD LAURA BUSH THEY DID'NT WANT HER TO SPEAK BECAUSE SHE WAS NOT QUALIFIED TO SPEAK WITH ONLY AN AA DEGREE. OUCH.

[ruscle]

Actually, he didn't know anything about baseball either. He had to get play a Tax scheme to make the team profitable, then he (and partners) sold the team for less than the tax difference was worth. I know this sounds hard to follow, but it is pretty easy. Here's an audio story on NPR about it. Very sobering look at how big businesses use tax loopholes to make money. Bush is just one of many who have profited from it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17808622

[TheHandyman]

But they do have cheerleaders don't they?

[PistonMoaned]

Much tougher to cheer for Chicago than Yale.

Gimme a Y.
Gimme an A.
Gimme an E.
Gimme an L.

[moderationsmuse]

Dodging. Sorry.

[fitconnection]

Your candidate is finished. She lost. Get over it.

[moderationsmuse]

This is SHOCKING! How does Obama get away with this? Law professor? RIght. How disingenuous.
One more reason to vote for Hilliary! She's got 35 years of experience! (Or was it 15? I remember it was alot.) And she's got 15 minutes of fame dogging bullets in Bosnia, too.

[BIG JOHN]

NO NO NO... IT WAS A LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCE. AND A LIFETIME OF DOGGING BULLETS NAME MONICA, JENNIFER, PAULA, WHITEWATER, TRAVELGATE , TAX RELEASING AND NAFTA.

[srtjsrtj]

This is the perfect example of not facing the truth even when it's coming from the University of Chicago. Lecturer's are professors, many of us knew that. We were amazed when this story came out. Ask your self what does a lecturer do, teach a class perhaps?

[SSDiva]

I am trying to type this while I am sucking sniper bullets in Bosnia...

A woman with her alleged credentials should not have to use dirty tactics to win. If she has the experience, the know how then run on that. Stop making false claims everyday to make your lies go away. This time next week it will be April, four months away from DNC convention and she is still pulling these silly stunts. Then, you have Clinton and Obama supporters going at each other, and saying they will not vote for either candidate..you have got to be kidding me! The Democrats main objective in 2008 is to get the Republicans out of The White House!!
People, you aren't making sense..if you are a true to heart democrat you have to and should follow the party's lead!!
A true patriot is a lover of it's country, but rebukes it's sins!

[soylentgreenleftovers]

The prints from Mark Penn's pudgy little sausage-fingers are all over this whopper.


Watching a presidential campaign self-destruct in front of your face is just fascinating.

[GrainOSand]

Watch the moving ball people its only your life.

This is a non-issue (to me) because I have no doubt that if the man had so desired he could have chosen the tenured professor trak. Words do matter Hillary and America is listening to the words of desperation you are spewing in the face of a campaign you are losing. I am not one calling for you to get out. I think everyday you stay in a clearer picture emerges and I love the truth. Its so rare we get a chance to see someone pull their veneer off in public to expose themselves for who they really are. The Bill Clinton 90s are fast becoming a misty memory for me.

So ride on sistah, ride on!

[madeyemoody]

The fact that the U of C offered Obama a full-time tenure track position should be enough to put this issue to rest.

[lisakaz]

It doesn't change things at all for me because "professor" in front of one's name applies in any situation. I was called that as a grad student. Still, I AM impressed that Chicago would think of him so highly as to extend this offer. It means they wanted him around as much as they could get him.

[GrainOSand]

Oh the petty nature of the desperate and ambitious.

[IndependentTogether]

Attacking Obama like this only makes him stronger! I find it amazing that the Clinton campaign has not gotten the memo yet. As I'd stated in the past, the Wright issue would give him a great platform to step up as a leader and illustrate one aspect of what he means by "Change". He did just that, and it will ultimately be a net gain for him.

Now, to attack him on the semantics of the term "professor" only gives him a platform to talk not only about the validity of the title but about a subject on which he lectured: the Constitution. This will only help him with conservatives. Further, this and the Wright issue continually references and validates his Unity speech, which is already being deemed historic.

I said it before and I'll say it again: Hillary should sue Mark Penn and her other strategists for malpractice.

[BigSid]

Sorry. Reverend Wright issue only helps him in the Democratic primaries -- it will prove to be a serious threat in the general election. I'm not claiming it will be enough to destroy his chances, but just because he was able to shore up his support in his own party, and more specifically his portion of the party, doesn't mean it won't be a factor for Republicans.

[IndependentTogether]

Actually, you forget that Obama will have a Republican opponent. He'll be going up against John McCain. I doubt very much that you believe that John McCain will continue to get a free ride from the Press all the way up to November. You likely also know that there are 527s that are just gearing up to go after him. If Wright resurfaces in the general, so will Hagee, Robertson, Parsley, etc.; McCain sought out their support and said he was proud to have it, *knowing* what they've said in the past.

Also, McCain is beloved now, but look for all that to change as his mental capacity and famous temper get tested. By the time we hit November, he'll be painted as a crazy, angry, and senile old coot that will be *WORSE than Bush*!

[candlewax]

Can someone debunk this? Otherwise, it's pretty compelling evidence of more lies and more of the same:

Hillary and Ireland-gate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBCmKkLdCuA

Hillary and Tuzla-gate
http://youtube.com/watch?v=It6JN7ALF7Y

Hillary and Nafta-gate
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wFuA0z4kKD4

Her SCHIP claims are also dubious.

Is she really going to try the war in Iraq?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7pj_hZn_rH4

[ruscle]

You are right on all of those Candlewax. She has had years of experience... lying. Thanks for the collection of links.

[LightningJoe]

Her SCHIP claims are pure bunk. I can't believe she thought that would fly.

[ObserverinVancouver]

Many of today's posts are hilarious, some even intentionally. It seems to me that the tone in this stream (hope this is correct usage) is a little different from others I've read lately. Many anti-Clintnistas are now making jokes instead of rants. When they start to laugh at you, you are likely toast. If similar jokes are turning up frequently in other blogs, it may really be the end of the road.

[Grunty1]

It probably helps that most of Hillary's supporters here have become so ridiculous in their spin, one cannot help but laugh

[KeysDan]

sorry about the wrong there, there.

[StephenS]

Anyone else notice the oddity that the University of Chicago statement exaggerates Obama's time as a law professor by 4 years? Obama was a senior lecturer from 1996 to 2004, and therefore a law professor. He was a lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and therefore not a law professor.

[candlewax]

Wow, I think you need a vacation.

[Ramirez]

Good point. It's a pretty sloppy press release. It's like they were making it up as they went along or something.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Ramirez, after reviewing the content of your profile -which runneth over with one-liners red herrings and snide insults to "liberals," I can only point out that if you think using a Latino surname for your HuffPo screen name is to convey you some sort of extra credibility with the HuffPo "progressives" and "liberals," you are sadly mistaken.

If there's anything sloppy, it's your reasoning.

To this *independent* voter and son of a WW2 US Marine, your military school prose and surname plant your credibility in my mind around the level of *Juan Peron.*

I will view your inanities and straw man arguments accordingly.

Hasta luego, Senor Rojo Piscado.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[MarcInCA]

Lame attempt to try to turn Obama into the liar that Hillary has proven herself to be. She's so pathetic.

[mickyx65it]

The fact is that Obama has teach in the Law School at the University of Chicago for 12 years. No doubt that is generally speaking a professor, and it shows how desperate Hillary is. When you don't have arguments, you invent things.

[Janney]

Yes, she invented this in order to justify her "dodging bullets" fantasy. Said Obama padded his resume of which it wasn't true. Just like her claims of the SCHIP insurance for 6 million children of which Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch had done. She tooted her horn on someone elses accomplishments! The nerve of this woman, and she wants to be our Commander in Chief? NOT!

[bauersox]

The person teaching at college level is only a professor if he or she has been promoted to that position. If he was offered the position, and didn't accept it, he still cannot pretend that that was his job.

[bauersox]

LOL. No doubt. Hillary didn't invent anything. At the end of the day -- even if they took his name off the web page -- even Chicago says he was just a Senior Lecturer. It's too bad that -- in order to help Obama save face -- they had to make Clinton look bad. That is stupid.