Scott Johnson, the head of Yahoo, is going to lose his job because he “inflated his credentials” on his resume. Apparently he lied about earning a computer science degree. Now if shareholders want to get rid of him for his duplicity or even for poor performance as CEO, that’s their business, of course. But to suddenly say that he can’t do his job because he didn’t get the degree is preposterous.

A college degree is no guarantee that anyone will succeed in the business world–nor is its absence proof that someone will fail, as the Yahoo! exec’s career proves. It is merely an entry-level requirement in most white-collar fields these days–a crushingly expensive one for many folks. But the man will lose his position because he dishonestly transgressed the academic requirement, not because the lack of a degree proves he can’t do the job.

I wonder how many degrees are like that today–expensive, but not strictly necessary?

If Mitt Romney’s high school sins (real or imagined) are fair game for the Obama campaign, then it’s just as relevant to discuss the current president’s admitted teen drug use, don’t you think? All’s fair.

Last evening I read one of those motivational posters in my son’s elementary school. It read: “Effort is the measure of success.” Call me overly critical if you want, but is effort really the measure of success? Is that the message we want to communicate to our kids? Yes, effort is important, perhaps indispensable to academic achievement, but it is hardly the measure of success. In the end, in most of life, results are the real measure of success. Telling our kids otherwise–sugarcoating this hard fact of life, in school, of all places–ill prepares them for the real world.

Republicans keep telling themselves that they can’t bring up social issues in order to focus on the economy, and yet Mr. Obama and the Democrats keep bringing them up (partly to avoid scrutiny of their abysmal handling of the economy and federal budget). Much as some would like to, we can’t sign a social issues “truce,” because the Democrats won’t.

North Carolina just became the 31st state in the nation to ban so-called “gay marriage,” which has been rejected in every state where citizens have actually had a vote. No, we must not ignore economic issues, which are vital to the survival of this nation, but if the liberals want to change the subject to social issues, this is a conversation we should be ready and willing to have.