After yesterday's event, Mr. McCain told reporters he felt "fine" about his reception. "I feel sorry for people living in a dull world where they can't listen to the views of others," he said. Sadly, a whole lot of people from all sorts of political persuasions live in this particular dull world.
McCain set himself up on purpose to garner sympathy from wayward hard righties, just like he went to bat for Jerry Falwell, and just like he's prostrated himself to the Wyly brothers (who ran attack ads agaisnt him in 2000 and who he denounced as sleaze.....who he is now kissing and hugging) Look's like it's working.
Well, not surprised but for a guy who postures himself as the moderate middle way outsider who's above regular old interest group politics it's disappointing.
My wife is in her sophomore year at the New School! Yeah! "Our commencement is not your platform." Love it!
no, no...i meant would you be surprised if he didn't run in 2008? it's pretty much a foregone conclusion, right?
It'd be interesting to see what kind of reception John McCain would get when he faces Vietnamese Americans, whom McCain unabashedly called 'gooks.'
Uh no, he was invited by his Vietnam war buddy and fellow senator, Bob Kerrey. He even sent out a personal email to students about a week ago defending his decision to invite him. The student body had no say in the invitation.
What in the world has happened to McCain? He's gone from the guy you could count on to tell it like it is to being a yes man to pander to the right wing of his party. What a damn shame. Watching him cozy up to Falwell after rightly ripping him in the past for being a nutjob is just sickening.
I had no say in who gave the comencement speach at my graduation either. It was a public school teacher speaking to a predomionantly Republican School of Engineering. Sometimes that is just the way these things go. If someone like McCain - both a very famous person and an American hero - is willing to speak at your graduation, one would at least expect civility.
I agree to an extent and wish the new schoolers would have not played into the right wing caricature that this whole thing was set up to be. However, McCain knew what he was getting into and was essentially using these folks graduation solely to create a scene to further his own political ambitions. Selfishness on both sides. Finally McCain didn't get up there and deliver a speech on how great it was to graduate or something like that that you usually hear at commencements, rather he got up there and, from what I've heard, gave a political speech about how awesome it was that we went to war in Iraq. The other thing was that McCain made a big deal about having an open mind and listenting to other points of view - well he just read a canned political speech and made no attempt to open up any dialogue at any point in time with the student body - so who's got the closed mind here?
McCain learned the painful lesson from 2000 that he has no hope of even making it to the general election unless he panders to the rightwing of his party. All of his independent maverick appeal doesn't play well among party activists. What's going to be interesting is if McCain does win the nomination will all of his maverick appeal be completely gone since he has so visibly pandered?
College students are stupid. The man should've been treated with more respect, but McCain is going to see a lot more of this. For now, I'd pick him because his track record is much better than most Republican and Democratic candidates. His window is closing. Republican primaries are brutal. Just the mere rumor of having an interracial child can derail your campaign....
