Are Law Professors Giving Senator Obama a Bad Name?

This morning I've been listening to Fox's interview with Senator Obama.  Dig this from Chris Wallace (transcript here):

WALLACE:  But some observers, and some liberal observers say is that part of your problem is you come off as a former law professor who talks about transforming politics when the lunch bucket crowd really wants to know what you’re going to do for them.  Bob Herbert, columnist for the “New York Times”, [who] happens to be a black man, says that Hillary Clinton seems tougher than you do.

How about that!  Makes me want to look into some more on public attitudes towards law professors.  And, perhaps even more importantly, do we spend a lot of time talking about transformative politics?  Not the law professors I know--though every once in a while, at the end of a book, some of us talk about the future (and even think it's one in which race plays a smaller role than it does today).

Alfred Brophy

Comments

[Alex Geisinger]

Al,

Interesting comment. However, I do think there is at least one flaw in your reasoning. It is not just (or even much) what actual law professors actually do that influences what the public thinks about us. Rather, it is how the stereotypical (or prototypical) image of law professors is created that probably informs most people's understanding of the profession. My sense is that we are painted in part the way that you describe.

[Al]

Absolutely, Alex--there's, of course, a possibility (indeed, I'd say a high likelihood) of a difference between public perception and what we do.

So there's the question: what does the public think we do? I might have thought--based on The Paper Chase and maybe Legally Blond and maybe interviews with former law professors (like Justice Breyer and Justice Scalia)--that the public thinks we talk about really dull and boring stuff (and that maybe we terrorize people).