'Transcripters' challenge Obama's grades

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WASHINGTON, May 29 (UPI) -- President Obama's college transcripts have become fodder for some of his detractors who claim he's not as smart as he says he is.

Last week, the Web site The Trenches said it was offering a $20,000 reward -- up from $10,000 -- for Obama's transcripts from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

"We're not convinced that Barack is as smart as you media elitists keep insisting he is," The Trenches posted on its site. Several media outlets said Brooks Bayne, a conservative blogger, admitted he was behind the reward.

"You've had over three years to vet President Barack Obama," the posting said. "Yet in three years in office and over a year of campaigning beforehand, you have either been oddly uninterested or purposefully ignorant of Barack Obama's educational history."

School transcripts are private, protected by the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and can be released only when the grade-earner gives written consent, the Times said.

Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review, taught constitutional law and has two best-sellers.

In his new book, "Barack Obama: The Story," author David Maraniss quoted the president as saying his grade point average at Columbia was 3.7. The Times also noted he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

The president's presumptive Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, did well academically, too. Several news reports indicate Romney graduated from Brigham Young University with a 3.97 GPA and was in the top 5 percent of his class at Harvard Business School while simultaneously earning a law degree.