In a piece called "Poison Ivy," Burt Prelutsky notes a correlation between bad American politicians and Ivy League Schools:

...much of what I don't like about American politics -- namely, American politicians -- can be traced back to Ivy League schools. It can't just be a coincidence that four or five universities keep spitting out presidential candidates and their spouses with the sort of regularity that Notre Dame used to turn out All American football players.

What's more, it's not a sudden development and it's not limited to just one party. William Howard Taft, for crying out loud, went to Yale. Theodore Roosevelt went to Harvard, and so did his fifth cousin, Franklin Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson graduated from Princeton.

George Herbert Walker Bush went to Yale. His son, not willing to leave bad enough alone, went to both Yale and Harvard. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry, all went to Yale. Al Gore and Michael Dukakis went to Harvard. Ted Kennedy went to Harvard. Twice. The first time, they booted him out for cheating on a Spanish exam.

Barack Obama went to Columbia and his wife, Michelle, went to Princeton. With such a terrible football team it's really no wonder she was never proud to be an American.

Considering the politicians the schools have let loose on us, perhaps they should rename it the Poison Ivy League.

Pride goeth before the fall, and besides, someone has to run the world, right?

Anyway, as I was reading the piece I got to thinking that hey, at least McCain isn't another Harvard grad. He went to the Naval Academy. That's good, right?

Well, noit exactly. As Prelutsky just had to point out, so did James Earl "Hamas" Carter:

Dwight Eisenhower attended West Point and John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy. So it's no surprise that Ike was able to lead the fight against Nazi barbarians and that McCain was able to stand up to Viet Cong sadism for five long years. Which, come to think of it, is longer than Barack Obama has spent garnering leadership experience listening to the likes of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd spewing forth on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The only thing that prevents me from giving whole-hearted endorsement to a military education is that one of our former presidents also graduated from the Naval Academy: Jimmy Carter.

Well, to be fair to the Naval Academy, Carter also attended Georgia Southwestern College, Georgia Tech, and Union College. Moreover, Carter graduated near the top of his class, while McCain graduated at the very bottom! This difference was considered significant enough to be noted in a contrast between Carter and McCain in Haaretz recently:

Carter came to teach Israel how to bargain with Hamas for the release of Gilad Shalit. And while he was meeting with the father of the bride, Khaled Meshal - without the agreement of the Israeli groom - Hamas attacked in Kerem Shalom. Whether the attack was carried out with Meshal's knowledge and approval or not, this was a stinging humiliation for Carter. And if Ahmad Jabari and Muhamad Deif, of the Hamas military wing in Gaza, carried out the attack without Meshal's approval, then in any event the latter is not the address for a deal.

On a personal level, Carter has nothing left to lose; but his visit to Meshal certainly hurt his preferred presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Maybe not today, in Obama's fight against Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, but certainly in the future, in his battle against John McCain, if Obama wins the Democratic nomination.

McCain's campaign struck at Obama on the even of the Hamas attack. In his debate with Clinton last week, Obama refused - as is his custom - to condemn Carter for meeting with "the Hamas terror group, a group is supported financially, politically and militarily by Iran." The same Iran whose president is calling for the destruction of Israel, accused McCain, and stole the headline from Hamas political leader Ahmed Yousef, who had said of his organization: "We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election."

The difference is clear, McCain said. He wanted to say, here is an evil square: Iran-Hamas-Carter-Obama. He also meant: If Obama is like Carter, the weak loser, then McCain is like Reagan, his idol, and all that is left is to rerun the election results from 1980.

If McCain wins, he will be the first former regular military officer elected since Carter. Both graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Carter excelled and finished in the top 10 percent of his class. McCain goofed off and finished at the bottom of his class.

Maybe Carter is too. I used to wish there was some way to just shut Jimmy Carter up, but right now I'm thinking that what he's doing might be in the best possible interests of the GOP. If he keeps it up, he might be responsible for two Republican victories. (Perhaps two and a half, if you consider the closeness of the last election, and the spectacle of Carter going out of his way to kiss Michael Moore's ample posterior at the Democratic convention.)

I'm not sure how accurate or serious this endorsement is, but it wouldn't surprise me if many Naval Academy alumni want to see their alma mater vindicated:

Annapolis, MD (WTF). The Naval Academy Alumni Association (NAAA) has a long history of remaining nonpartisan and above the fray in elections. However, this week its leadership announced that "for the love of all things Holy, we want Senator McCain to win. We just cannot stomach having Jimmy Carter as our only President."

But can a Naval Academy grad can beat a Harvard grad? If history is any guide, the Naval Academy (in the form of Carter) won against Gerald Ford, but lost against Ronald Reagan. Ford was a University of Michigan grad, while Reagan graduated from Eureka College.

It's tough to conclude much just from looking at wins, though. I'd also want to see losses. How many losing presidential candidates went to Harvard? Al Gore comes to mind, as does Michael Dukakis. But so did Rufus King, who lost in 1816.

Reagan's Eureka College, however, has a 100% win record.

You'd have to be a statistician to calculate the odds.