Affirmative Action - you serious?

I came across an opinion recently by an American Politician http://whereistand.com/MarkWarner/24751 who feels that as long as their is discrimination Affirmative Action is necessary.

Personally, I can't make sense of this at all. I mean, I think we've come along far enough to be able to judge a person on their own merit, and ability. Affirmative action to me is the ultimate form of discrimination. Any institution that has a policy to allow a certain number of people based on their ethnicity or race, or whatever is discriminating towards the people who actually deserve acceptance.

I can't tell you how many friends and family members I have that did not get into their college of choice from high school, but the African American or Latino student who had a lower GPA and was ranked lower than them in the class got in. I truly believe that people of all countries have their advantages and disadvantages, and the difference between successful people and those who aren't is their will to become succesfull. I went to class with a brilliant girl who was African American and got a scholarship to MIT. She was smart, and determined. It had nothing to do with the color of her skin, but more to do with how bad she wanted it.

As a college institution your job is to place the most deserving people into your lecture halls. Not to make sure that at least 20% of the lecture hall is African American (or any race). For an institution to support Affirmative Action is to say that it is discriminant. Not towards any specific race, but to the people who are most deserving of acceptance according to their objective criteria. I just don't understand how a university can say that a person will need at least XXXX on the SATs, and a 3.8 GPA, and all these other criteria, and when a person meets those criteria if too many others from their race or ethnicity have been admitted, well then they are out of luck. If you want to stop discrimination you've got to look beyond someone's skin color, beyond where they come from, and see who they really are. Put it this way, if I need a doctor and my life is on the line, that doctor better be the best damn doctor for the job at hand, I don't care if its a guy or girl, black, white, brown, or green, nor do I care about their religion. The same way, if your a medical school or a law school, you should want the very best doctors and lawyers graduating from your institution regardless of anything else.

Its just that idiots and geniuses come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. In the global world we live in, for us to still discriminate on anything more than talent, to me is just sad. We live in a world where Indians dance like Michael Jackson, and Europeans are getting better at basketball. We're all just full of interests and potential, and for institutions to not acknowledge that is pretty sad regardless of what they are established for.