Christine O'Donnell and what she didn't learn while not attending Claremont Graduate University*

For a constitutional scholar, Christine O'Donnell, the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware, made some strange statements today in her debate with Democratic rival Chris Coons about the contents of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

From the Associated Press:

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools."

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

It is in the First Amendment. In fact, it's the first line: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".

A campaign spokesman later said O'Donnell was saying the phrase "separation of church and state" didn't appear in the Constitution. But she seemed extremely skeptical about the "shall make no law" bit, too.

O'Donnell also stumbled when asked about the 14th and 16th Amendments, which enumerate citizenship rights and federal powers to collect income tax, respectively.

Why the added scrutiny for O'Donnell? First, because she says her legislative priorities are based on her understanding of the Constitution. Second, because she claimed to have taken a graduate course in constitutional government from the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank (that is not an accredited college and offers no graduate courses). Then there was the LinkedIn profile that claimed she'd studied constitutional government at Claremont Graduate University, a real college that she did not attend and that has nothing to do with the Claremont Institute.

*Update: Let's go to the video:

Christine O'Donnell posts are not a hit in Delaware

Since Christine O'Donnell is running for the Senate in Delaware, I wondered how many people from the state had clicked on my posts about her falsified educational background. I didn't expect large numbers - the state is small, this isn't a place people come for news about national politics, and bigger media picked up the post, making it less necessary for people to stop here for the scoop. But the total is still smaller than I expected.

The day after the story broke, this site saw a fairly large spike in readers, with 1,463 page views. Of those, 87 percent were new visitors. The majority of new visits came, not surprisingly, from New York and California. Only 16 clicks originated in Delaware, and those came over a three-day period that included the initial scoop and several follow up posts.

NYT skips over Claremont

The New York Times picked up the story about Christine O'Donnell's errant educational background - sort of. The profile, written by Mark Leibovich, mentions the false claim she'd attended England's Oxford University but not the false claim that she'd attended Claremont Graduate University. East Coast bias? Here's the relevant passage:

Ms. O’Donnell has faced charges this week that she lied about her educational record — a claim on two online business networking sites that she had attended Oxford University when in fact she participated in a summer program from the Phoenix Institute, which was housed at the elite British university. “I was never dishonest about my education,” she said. “Whether someone put it there to call me a liar, whatever

The Christine O'Donnell kerfuffle

If you are a candidate for U.S. Senate who's made some misleading statements about your educational background and then someone finds more false claims in a profile posted on a popular social networking site, you probably need to craft a serious response. And if you respond that someone else created the profile to embarrass or entrap you, you need to do more than shrug it off an annoying hoax. (Especially when new evidence comes to light.)

Which basically brings us up to date with Christine O'Donnell, the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware, and the mysterious LinkedIn profile that got yanked offline yesterday. After the Washington Post and this blog pointed out inaccuracies in the profile, she called the profile a sham. Who planted this alleged educational time bomb? No one knows, and the O'Donnell campaign doesn't seem that interested in finding out.

For those who'd rather dismiss this as a liberal media witch hunt, conservative blogger Patterico offers some wisdom:

I am amazed (and yet I’m not) by the people who want me to ignore this.  Joe Biden misrepresented his own academic record and I mocked him unmercifully for it.  Why would O’Donnell deserve different treatment?

Had she simply padded the resume and then fessed up, mockery would probably be all that O'Donnell had to contend with. If it turns out she lied about constructing the LinkedIn profile page, the political repercussions could be much worse.

LinkedIn deletes disputed O'Donnell profile

LinkedIn has taken down a profile of Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, as she requested, but has yet to determine whether the profile is a fake, as she has claimed.

Yesterday, the Washington Post and this blog reported that the profile falsely asserted that O'Donnell had studied at the University of Oxford and Claremont Graduate University. Today, the O'Donnell's camp said the LinkedIn profile wasn't hers and asked that it be removed.

O'Donnell has yet to explain why she didn't challenge the profile's authenticity when the Post first asked about the Oxford listing. In fact, the campaign had a two weeks to think about it: AOL News raised the same question in a story published Sept. 15.

O'Donnell's educational background has come under scrutiny before. As CBS News reports:

She claimed for years that she was a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson Unversity, but she in fact only received her degree on Sept. 1 of this year, years after attending the school. ... Additionally, O'Donnell suggested in a lawsuit that she was pursuing a Master's degree at Princeton University, but she later acknowledged she has not taken any graduate courses at Princeton.

Four today

1. The newest Senator from Delaware argues for a robust federal shield law for journalists. LAT

2. The San Francisco Chronicle claims that it has cut itself to profitability. SF Weekly

3. Caught in trap of naughtiness, Canada's second-oldest magazine will reluctantly change its name: "Market research showed us that younger Canadians and women were very very unlikely to ever buy a magazine called The Beaver no matter what it's about." Reuters

4. The sportswriter who outed Mark McGwire's steroid use gets some vindication. E&P in Exile