Covering the full slate of GOP presidential hopefuls as they appeared one after the other at the “first in the nation” Republican Leadership Summit in New Hampshire this week was no easy task, but Mark Halperin, covering the speeches for Bloomberg Politics, had a novel approach: grade each candidate on a report card divided into letter grades for Style, Substance, and Overall.
Take, for example, Donald Trump’s report card.
My @realDonaldTrump report card: Style B+. Substance D+. Overall B. Full report card here http://t.co/DUCqEl0fIf pic.twitter.com/KDgkB3joXp
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 18, 2015
Individuals are certainly welcome to agree or disagree with the individual grades, but the idea of a B+ for Style and a D+ for Substance averaging out to a B overall?
The underlying statement here is pretty amazing: https://t.co/CujWFQMP5C
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) April 18, 2015
If my math is correct, the way that a B+ and a D+ yields an overall grade of B is if the B+ portion is worth 75% of overall & D+ 25%.
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) April 18, 2015
Treating the two factors equally would give you a final grade of C+.
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) April 18, 2015
@derekwillis I wish my grades worked that way. Would have helped me out a ton in college.
— Eric Lagergren (@ELagergren) April 18, 2015
@derekwillis Someone earlier pointed out that Halperin is over-weighting "style" over "substance," which perhaps isn't surprising.
— Jason Krishnan (@overlayered) April 18, 2015
Style counting over substance? That shouldn’t come as much of a shock, should it? This is politics. As long as he’s consistent, right?
@MarkHalperin @realDonaldTrump Hmmm.. I think I'm seeing a slight case of what we in #engineeringschool call #gradeinflation
— Thinking, quietly (@GregStaskowski) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/Stefan_BC/status/589498400892014592
@MarkHalperin wish I had you doing my report card when I was in school ???
— Justine? (@butterflybesos9) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin @realDonaldTrump Is this grading how full of shit they are?
— Hank Garant (@Curmudgeonville) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin @realDonaldTrump please stop with the idiot enabling and actually cover things instead of click bait. You're better than this.
— Chris DOWN WITH ALL BILLIONAIRES Jester (@Jesterrificness) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin @realDonaldTrump Okay. Now I get it. This is a joke.
— Jim Reisner (@Jim_Reisner) April 18, 2015
@Stefan_BC @MarkHalperin @realDonaldTrump that should be a C, Mark Halperin.
— Rev. Dr. Jacuzzi Toblerone (@Spammyjazzhands) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin @bpolitics @realDonaldTrump How does D+ and B+ average out to B?
— W. Clayton (@weciv01) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin Remind me to be a student in your classes.
— Doran (@doranb) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin @realDonaldTrump You have to be kidding me….. Unfollowed.
— Stan Miller (@milbo11) April 18, 2015
@MarkHalperin Seriously, show me one time you have given anything other than B, B+ or B- to anyone. A B to a clown like Trump? Losing it?
— Stan Miller (@milbo11) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/lbourgie/status/589499805958803456
https://twitter.com/tennisfollower2/status/589500584446840833
https://twitter.com/BoschsPoodle/status/589509414781988864
https://twitter.com/BoschsPoodle/status/589509896183255040
@MarkHalperin @SamWangPhD @realDonaldTrump Who taught you grading as an activity? Whoever it was, you ought to draft an apology.
— Night Monkey (@TurgidJacobian) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/BuffaloRude/status/589512001342283776
@MarkHalperin @SamWangPhD @realDonaldTrump Mr. Halperin can't be a New Yorker. B-plus for style? Um, no.
— Naomi Fein (@joyofsuing) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/BuffaloRude/status/589512309665619968
https://twitter.com/_bluepaint/status/589512407971532800
https://twitter.com/_bluepaint/status/589514272398422018
https://twitter.com/SamWangPhD/status/589512498862231552
https://twitter.com/Apinak/status/589513153605570561
https://twitter.com/tanaemclean/status/589532338091995136
All right, all right. Maybe it’s the fact we’re dealing with Donald Trump that’s so messing with the calculations. Let’s check in on, say, Ted Cruz.
My @tedcruz report card: Style B+. Substance C+. Overall B+. Full report card here http://t.co/DUCqEl0fIf pic.twitter.com/gzfoJZHUJk
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 18, 2015
Better?
https://twitter.com/joshgreenman/status/589530588274630656
@joshgreenman The metric system is so wacky!
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/_brentus/status/589531073220075522
https://twitter.com/JasonFebery/status/589533926634323968
https://twitter.com/joshgreenman/status/589530957729914880
@joshgreenman @MarkHalperin Actually substance worth nothing at all
— Leslie Miller (@cleentonn) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/bw31018/status/589536231219822592
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/589536276157751296
https://twitter.com/ClarkPettig/status/589536600096428032
@BuzzFeedAndrew to be fair, it is style over substance.
— Hari Sevugan (@HariSevugan) April 18, 2015
@BuzzFeedAndrew Wow. I wish it worked that way with my undergrad GPA.
— Fire On The Mountain (@toodeemo) April 18, 2015
For the curious, here’s the whole mess in one spreadsheet.
Here they are, @MarkHalperin's presidential candidate report cards from today: pic.twitter.com/SJPuHp54cJ
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) April 18, 2015
@derekwillis @MarkHalperin This was an A+ tweet, for an overall grade of Q#.
— Joshua Tauberer (@JoshData) April 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/ChadMurphyUMW/status/589551810874101760
@chadmurphyumw UNPOSSIBLE.
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) April 18, 2015
@derekwillis the weather is beautiful derek. why waste the day proving what a hack Halperin is?
— Nolan Hicks (@ndhapple) April 18, 2015
@ndhapple just trying to help out.
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) April 18, 2015
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