No, Harvard didn’t hire Louisiana’s failed ex-governor, who ran off a number of Louisianans close to the population of Baton Rouge in net outmigration over the eight years he was in charge of the place, to replace its disgraced DEI plagiarist ex-president Claudine Gay.

But John Bel Edwards is nevertheless headed up to Cambridge to do more damage. In case you missed this…

Former Gov. John Bel Edwards has been appointed as a spring 2024 visiting fellow by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School.

Edwards joins a group of eight fellows chosen to offer their unique expertise and insights to Harvard’s students given their diverse experience in elected office, global politics, journalism and legal affairs. According to the university, the Institute of Politics’ fellows program is aimed at providing students with the opportunity to “acquire a more holistic and pragmatic view of our political world.”

Edwards is the only visiting fellow among seven other resident fellows, meaning his stay at the Institute of Politics will be a “short yet comprehensive” one.

“I hope that sharing my experiences as a public servant with our future leaders will help prepare them for the challenges that lie ahead in their professional careers,” Edwards says.

What lessons do you think Edwards learned from his “experiences,” do you think? Those hagiographic interviews he did shortly before Jeff Landry’s inauguration didn’t indicate much in the way of growth or understanding. According to Edwards he did an amazing job.

Doubled the budget in a state which lost population in net outmigration while every single one of our neighbors grew. Oversaw a rash of violent crime. Accomplished virtually nothing with respect to either infrastructure or economic development. Tyrannized the public with stupid and illegal COVID lockdowns.

And somehow this is Harvard material?

Apply the Edwards model to Harvard and it’ll have double the tuition with less students, and less-accomplished students, definitely worse and more politicized faculty and dilapidated buildings by the time he’s done with them.

The truth of the matter is Harvard is a declining institution. The Claudine Gay debacle proved that pretty conclusively.

So maybe Edwards is a fit for the place.

The seven “resident fellows” include a former mayor of Athens who lost re-election in a landslide last year, a local TV anchor in Boston, a couple of former Republican congressmen (Jeff Denham and Will Hurd), a left-wing POLITICO reporter (Josh Gerstein), Kamala Harris’ former Director of Legislative Affairs and Panama’s former foreign minister.

It’s not a particularly robust group, but even within that we can’t really say Edwards is the headliner.

What we can say is it’s too bad Edwards is only a visiting fellow. After all the outmigration he engendered while governor, we think it would be only fair if he were to export himself to Massachusetts for at least a while.