Cornel of the South Here's one review of a recent Cornel West speech at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Key quote: "Anyone who came out to hear West would have found a patriotic and deeply religious man talking about democracy as a spiritual imperative in a way that is refreshingly - at times even jarringly - inclusive."

West had an audience of about 1,000....or about 300 more than Maureen Dowd when she visited UNCG.

Appeal to a popular audience is hardly the only measure of an academic's worth—although it does seem to be one that Larry Summers generally values—and it's certainly not the most important measure, but still, I wonder: Is there any current Harvard professor who could travel to the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and draw a crowd of 1,000 people?

Which is not to slight Harvard professors, but merely to suggest that the banishment of Cornel West is a deep and ongoing loss for Harvard.  ¶ 8:15 AM