Kerry: Dunce is not enough

John Kerry while at Yale University

Newly released Navy records of Sen. John Kerry show the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, who was portrayed as the intellectual superior of President Bush, actually received a lower academic average than his rival while studying at Yale, including five Ds.

The transcript of grades, which Kerry has always declined to release, was part of a set of Naval records requested and finally received by the Boston Globe. Last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to release the records to the paper, something he refused to do during last fall's campaign.

While Bush and Kerry were at Yale, the school had a numerical scoring system.

George W. Bush while at Yale University

Bush received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year. Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, received a cumulative score of 76 for his four years. Those grades include four Ds in his freshman year and one in his sophomore year.

According to the Globe, the military and medical records released appear identical to what Kerry has already released, but this marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.

The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71, or a low C. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior year.

Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade.

''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said yesterday in a written response to questions, telling the Globe he has previously acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on his studies.

Bush received one D in his four years at Yale, scoring a 69 in astronomy. The president has described himself as a C student in college.

Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said it's obvious why Democrats did not release Kerry's records during the presidential campaign.

"It would have made them a laughing stock," Limbaugh said during his show today. "They're out there talking about Bush as a dunce. ... He (Bush) gets better grades at Yale than John Kerry. ... It's typical. [The Democrats are] a bunch of pretentious, spoiled, lying brats."