Comments on: McCain Blasts Columbia for Ahmadinejad Appearance

By: The Right’s Field » GOP Candidates United on Ahmadinejad's Status as Red Meat for Base

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:18:02 +0000

[...] McCain Blasts Columbia for Ahmadinejad Appearance [...]

By: Matt Ortega

Matt Ortega — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:12:17 +0000

The removal of the U.S. military from federally-funded campuses gave me some concern as well, among other military-related issues. (I included the military/campus dichotomy as providing context for McCain’s point.)

But extending from that, I think it was the Campaign for America’s future that wrote about the change from Krushchev’s visit in 1959 and Ahmadinejad’s this week.

I think there’s such an added value in confronting political opponents in such a way. Bollinger didn’t invite Ahmadinejad to the campus for drinks and a movie. He denounced the guy to his face, as opposed to in the newspapers and on television. I think there’s a certain level of courageousness involved in that.

Plus, the whole point about free speech and the “market place of ideas,” and all that, completely contradicted by politicians that are blasting Columbia.

Ahmadinejad’s “ideas” are outrageous and loony, and in the “marketplace,” are resoundingly rejected by sensible people. (This also gets into another tragic angle of the Iraq War — a stymied moderate movement that included many Western-friendly youth.)

By: matt

matt — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:10:09 +0000

its not about out-debating him, selecting him for what was a very selective series of speakers gives him credibility that he normally wouldn’t have. just look at how iran’s propoganda state media spun the event. it put him on a higher level that he didnt deserve to be at. hell, he should have been arrested for his confessed involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis.

By: Paul Curtis

Paul Curtis — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:37:00 +0000

I actually think the ROTC should be allowed on campuses, generally. Banning it has never made any sense to me. And Don't Ask, Don't Tell is an execrable policy, but I think we should be taking it up with Congress and the administration, not recruiters.

That said, all the wailing about Ahmadinejad is pathetic. We could handle Khruschev touring America, but we can't handle this tinpot dictator airing his noxious views? Have Republicans become so weak that they can't out-debate a dimwitted petty tryant?

Edit: I should have said tinpot puppet, not dictator. Amadinejad is all the more a clown because he doesn't even hold the real power in his country.

By: The Sleep Thief

The Sleep Thief — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:33:18 +0000

I have a (non-rhetorical) question: when was the last time a US President spoke publicly before a possibly hostile foreign audience? How about ANY US politician of any standing? I don’t mean in a place like Iran — but how about France or Germany or even Canada? I’m not saying it never happens — maybe it does, but I never hear about it. Foreign trips seem to consist entirely in state visits and anodyne press conferences. It would be nice if we could show the world what freedom of speech and dissent means when we go out into the world, and not be shown up by a crazy person.