You know, by accusing the CTers of being racists it doesn't make you anything but a political demagoguge. Pulling the race card out in response to either legitimate or illegitimate critcisim (and this is the later) against Obama is distasteful. It could just be they don't like his politics and in the usual CT mode make up stuff about him, you know.
I also do not like Obama. I study government for a living - getting a PhD in Public Administration, the administration of the public sector itself. My academic opinion is that all evidence points to his policies being an utter disaster. Just because I think so does not mean I am a racist, especially when I was involved in the movement to get Colin Powell to run.
HOWEVER, moving on to the CT - this is absolute nonsense. ANYONE who went to a large college and focused on studying is going to be a unknown to their classmates and their professors. I went to a small college of about 15,000 students so my graduating major class was anywhere from 25 (religious studies) to 150 (political science), I got a few degrees so it varies. I tried very hard to get good grades so I'd guess none of the students would remember me because I didn't socialize (to many degrees in too few years).
As someone who now has to TA for large sections of undergraduates at a top research school (not ivy league, but very close), none of the professors know any of the undergraduates unless they do something stupid or do so well on the stuff I have to grade that I mention it to the professor. The only way this would be odd is if he had a graduate degree, since graduate school requires a close relationship at least to your thesis adviser and committee. This has changed as masters degrees have gotten easier and programs are dropping the thesis requirement, but it would have been true in his time. I also didnt socialize much for my masters degree and no student would remember me, but the faculty would because I had to work with them or for them. However, his graduate degree is professional and professional programs (JDs and MBAs) have so many people they are much like undergraduate in that you don't get as much close time with faculty. I considered going to Harvard's MBA program after they admitted me until I saw the cattle call that was the everyday experience when I went to visit.
What happened is that Obama faded into the unwashed undergraduate masses at Columbia like most undergraduates. Like most, his grades probably were not enough to floor anyone, so that is why he isn't releasing transcripts.
