<p>the 80s was not a good time to be attending columbia. our finances were in the process of crashing, we had to sell lots of property we owned in the city (such as the land under rockefeller center - can you imagine how much of a goldmine that would be if we still had it?). He probably got the shaft in a number of respects.</p>
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That almost always requires pushing the envelope beyond your own personal comfort and well-being. It's far easier to be a practicing corporate lawyer than someone in the upper echelons of national or international politics, for example.
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no, it's not. It's FOOKING HARD to be in a highly demanding profession, no matter what it is, and requires enormous amounts of discipline, creativity, emotional bandwidth, and sacrifice. You think corporate hours billing 3500 hours a year, working till midnight and on the weekends, are thinking "damn, I got it good - those politicians sure are suckers!" Hell no, he's too busy to think about stuff like that. </p>
<p>You may be right that part of the prestige factor is the presence of alumni who are easily recognizable by Joe Q. Sixpack, but that doesn't mean you get to go yell at those of us who take a highly demanding career because it has a lot of personally fulfilling qualities.</p>
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no, it's not. It's FOOKING HARD to be in a highly demanding profession, no matter what it is, and requires enormous amounts of discipline, creativity, emotional bandwidth, and sacrifice. You think corporate hours billing 3500 hours a year, working till midnight and on the weekends, are thinking "damn, I got it good - those politicians sure are suckers!" Hell no, he's too busy to think about stuff like that. </p>
<p>You may be right that part of the prestige factor is the presence of alumni who are easily recognizable by Joe Q. Sixpack, but that doesn't mean you get to go yell at those of us who take a highly demanding career because it has a lot of personally fulfilling qualities.
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<p>Whoa, calm down. I'm going to law school too. And I'm certainly not yelling at anyone for being "personally fulfilling". But this is a discussion about what makes a school ueber-prestigious, right? Of course being a corporate attorney is hard. But this is primarily about visibility.</p>
<p>I say primarily because being, say, a Senator, is probably harder than being the average partner at a corporate law firm. Try coupling all those billing hours with concern about the fact that everything you say in public will be in the morning paper (or on TV). </p>
<p>Regardless, the rewards are quite different - pecuniary vs. publicity. And the difference for the associated Alma Mater? Some of that publicity inevitably flows its way (though some props help push things along), whereas financial contributions are far more at an alum's discretion.</p>
<p>It would help Columbia some whether he acknowledges us or not. When Newsweek printed a photo of him with "Columbia / Harvard Law" underneath, I got accolades from some relatives, for the first time, after attending for three years, for going to "a real good school". </p>
<p>Obama speaking at SNHU is actually a better move politically. Speaking at Columbia might make him seem like he's either aligning with the "far left" (a reputation which continues to haunt us) or parlying with elites at the expense of "real folk" - both are bad extremes. Plus, speaking in NH is free media/visibility in a state that's crucial in the primaries.</p>