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Cronkite, Novak, Safire

The public recently mourned the loss of three universally respected journalists — Walter Cronkite, Robert Novak and William Safire. No one questioned their brilliance, or their contributions to the culture, despite the fact that they all dropped out of college short of graduation. By the same token, sophisticated computer geeks may feel disdainful of Microsoft products, but they don't boycott that company because Bill Gates left Harvard without earning a degree.

Cronkite, Novak and Safire rose to fame in an earlier era, when far fewer Americans graduated from college. In 1960, only 8% of adults 25 or older had earned university degrees. Today, the percentage of college graduates is nearing a third of all adults. In the election of 1948, the voters paid scant attention to the fact that President Truman never attended college. But today, with college education far more common and accessible, no politician could run a credible presidential campaign without some post-high school diploma.

Ironically, the emphasis on intellectual elitism has become far more pronounced on the left than the right, despite the long-standing association of Democrats as "the party of the people." In 2008, college graduates voted decisively for Obama, and he won even bigger majorities of those with post-graduate degrees — not surprising for a candidate with credentials from Columbia and Harvard.

Not only do studies indicate a considerable liberal tilt in college faculties, but Democrats support increased government spending for institutions of higher learning. Because progressives attach greater significance to universities, it makes sense that they judge the educational backgrounds of candidates (and commentators) accordingly: In the past six presidential elections, every one of the Democratic nominees held degrees from Harvard or Yale.

This liberal infatuation with Ivy League affiliation, going back to the Harvard-trained Roosevelt and Kennedy families, also protects prominent progressives from doubts about their "unserious" early careers. Conservatives note that Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., spent most of adulthood as a comedian,or that New York Times columnist Frank Rich was a drama critic, or that MSNBC firebrand Keith Olbermann gained fame as a sportscaster. Liberals respond to such objections by insisting that whatever previous professional paths, their stars boast solid academic qualifications: Franken and Rich graduated from Harvard, and Olbermann got a degree from Cornell.