Everything I've read about Zero's academic "performance" suggests that he was, in a word, a non-entity. He was unremarkable (okay, two words.)
As president of the Harvard Law Review, he was simply not around all that much. That's evidenced by this:
NY Times, Feb. 6, 1990
Law reviews, which are edited by students, play a double role at law schools, providing a chance for students to improve their legal research and writing, and at the same time offering judges and scholars a forum for new legal arguments. The Harvard Law Review is generally considered the most widely cited of the student law reviews.
On his goals in his new post, Mr. Obama said: ''I personally am interested in pushing a strong minority perspective. I'm fairly opinionated about this. But as president of the law review, I have a limited role as only first among equals.''
Therefore, Mr. Obama said, he would concentrate on making the review a ''forum for debate,'' bringing in new writers and pushing for livelier, more accessible writing.
Translation: I ain't gonna do squat but take the credit for being the "first among equals."
And he set out to demonstrate his laziness.
Here's another interesting followup as to his overall performance, as evidenced by the typical fallout for being elected as president of the Harvard Law Review:
For what it's worth, a quick look at volume 104 of the Harvard Law Review suggests that not surprisingly given the genre, Obama didn't succeed in publishing "livelier, more accessible writing." But with regard to "new writers," the extremely prestigious Supreme Court term Foreword that year was written by Robin West, now of Georgetown, but who was then a professor at University of Maryland. Prof. West, moreover, didn't have the typical pedigree, having graduated from University Maryland Law School (yes, in theory completely irrelevant to her credentials to write the Foreword, but if I know my elite law review editors, something that gave many of them significant pause.) More typically, the Review invited Guido Calabresi (dean, Yale), Kathleen Sullivan (professor, Harvard), and Morton Horwitz (professor, Harvard) to write the next three years' Forewords. Prof. West is a very prolific, influential scholar, and was an inspired choice from outside the usual group of elite law school professors the HLR would consider.
VolokhNow, those who are all too quick to play the race card would suggest that Zero wasn't selected to write SCOTUS' Forewords because of his color.
I'd suggest that Zero wasn't selected because he didn't live up to the standards required as president of HLR. He was too comfortable having others do the work, preferring to "lead by non-example."
In short, the bastard is lazy. He's not incompetent, he's lazy. He's not stupid, he's lazy.
Barack Obama has never had to do an honest days' work in his life, and that is reflected in his scholastic record.
That's why his grades and thesis haven't been released.
