I looked into a couple of those articles Lowing posted. How slanted can you get? While I can see some points in Obama's potential versus his achievements, to say that Palin overachieved because of her mediocre academic years reminds me of my old primary school where mediocrity was celebrated from those who were mediocre while smarter kids, (which would you believe included myself in those days,) were not celebrated due to fears that it would upset the slower kids. There's a culture of it here in New Zealand, we call it "tall poppy syndrome" where anyone thought to be overachieving is cut down to size while mediocrity is celebrated. There is nothing amazing about Palin being a councillor of a small Alaskan town, bored housewives become councillors. Her mayorality, sure it's a decent acheivement but let's not get carried away here, Wasilla has a population of just under eight thousand people. That first article only identifies one accomplishment of Palin's mayorality - lowering taxes by 40% which seems to be the only measure of success nowadays - and identifies nothing of her so-called 'distinguished' time as Governor which I see as absolutely unastounding. The reason this article puts these up as significant accomplishments is because of how average Palin was in her formative years. Fuck, you can almost understand why America would elect a C student President with that logic.
On Obama - I don't doubt that he has embellished his career and his resume - he's a showman and he's good with words. He can word a phrase to sound far more grand on paper than it ever was in real life while still maintaining the truth. I do it myself with my current job, (I call myself a "media writer" and let people draw their own conclusions about what that actually entails.) This can be seen with the most blatant example "Professor" Obama which I'm sure was more like lecturer Obama. The word 'professor' evokes images of a true scholar, a researcher, an expert in their field - what it means is just 'teacher'. In Europe and some other countries the word 'Professor' is a legal title bestowed on those who earn it. Not so in the US where professor describes anyone teaching at college levels regardless of rank. Again it seems dishonest because of people's own perceptions of what the word means but Professor Obama is entirely accurate.
Obama, I'm sure, is arrogant, I'm sure he has streaks of narcisism, he is not above game-playing and as 13rin seems to be focussing on for some reason, he's not above the occasional derp moment. He's a politician for Christ's sake, how is this not expected? A number of people have pointed out the juvenile nature of people like Trump and even Obama in this whole birth certificate thing; politics is juvenile. It's all a bunch of game playing, rarely are events determined by policy with most of the focus being on absolute inconsequential fluff like this.