Christine O'Donnell's LinkedIn Bio Says She Studied at Oxford

(Sept. 15) -- Did Sarah Palin-backed tea party heroine Christine O'Donnell really study at Oxford?

A public LinkedIn profile under her name appears to claim as much. Under the education heading, it lists "Post Modernism in the New Millennium" at the University of Oxford. Have a look:

O'Donnell, who swept to an upset defeat of nine-term Congressman Mike Castle in Tuesday's GOP primary, hasn't yet mentioned an Oxford connection on the campaign trail. So what was the course, and how long ago did she take it? Surge Desk searched Oxford's course library and did not come across any current class or symposium under this name.

Oxford personnel couldn't provide any clarity on the matter either, aside from directing our calls to the continuing education department, through which the course likely would have been taught.

But a clerk in the department of continuing education, whose name is withheld here by request, said, "No such course is currently offered. It may have been offered in the past."

Surge Desk has reached out to the campaign headquarters of Christine O'Donnell for Senate, the Delaware GOP and the Delaware Tea Party for any further clarification and is awaiting responses.

Sponsored Links

Of course, O'Donnell may have indeed taken such a course. But given the reports that surfaced in the weeks before Tuesday's election, in which O'Donnell was accused of exaggerating her educational record, the claim merits further investigation.

Those reports include the fact that O'Donnell just last month received her bachelor's degree in English from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, 17 years after she walked in the commencement ceremony. O'Donnell explained this lag as a matter of "unpaid bills," a claim that's been challenged by the media and O'Donnell's former campaign manager and met with skepticism from GOP strategist Karl Rove.

Then, on Sunday, the conservative Weekly Standard reported that O'Donnell "falsely implied she was taking master's degree classes at Princeton University in 2003" in a gender-discrimination lawsuit filing. In fact she had taken no Princeton courses, as she acknowledged to CNN.