Shots In The Dark: Commencement Crises

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Commencement Crises

At New York's New School, students are up in arms about the choice of John McCain as a commencement speaker. At Boston College, students and professors are unhappy about the decision to invite Condoleeza Rice to speak and the awarding of an honorary degree to her.

Meanwhile, Harvard has Jim Lehrer speaking at its commencement, and Yale has Anderson Cooper.

What's wrong with this picture?

As misguided as some of these controversies are—how could you get upset about John McCain?—at least the students are doing what students ought to do: getting involved, making noise, discussing issues of the day. And the reason that's happening is because their schools have invited topical, major public figures to come and talk.

Meanwhile, Harvard has Jim Lehrer speaking at its commencement, and Yale has Anderson Cooper.

Shouldn't our country's greatest universities be challenging their students a bit more on such an important day, at such an important time?

¶ 9:09 AM

Comments:

I think John McCain's stay-the-course rhetoric on the Iraq War, when the current course is obviously not going well and it's unclear that Rumsfeld or Bush can defeat the insurgency and leave behind a functioning gov't, combined with his visit to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University to deliver the commmencement address there, have greatly dimmed that star.

Does B.U. really want Liberty's sloppy seconds?

# posted by Anonymous : 10:40 AM

Silber still walks the halls, out of step as ever

# posted by Anonymous : 12:48 AM

mccain speaking at new school is absolutely antithetical to the school's beliefs. it's like having jerry falwell speak at sarah lawrence. he's absolutely anti-choice, and i think it's extremely short-sighted of kerrey to stand his ground on this.

# posted by grumpygirl : 5:41 PM

Boston College should be able to do better for its graduates than Condi Rice. She should have been fired on September 12, 2001 (if not the evening of September 11th for her incompetence in facilitating 9-11. Some National Security Advisor she was.

# posted by Anonymous : 9:26 PM

Right, Condi should have issued a stern warning prior to 9/11 about the possibility of fundamentalist muslim hijackings and all airplane doors should have been reinforced and we should have taken preemptive action against Afghanistan...that really might have helped, and boy would it have been popular...

# posted by Anonymous : 11:43 PM

The prior post is astonishingly pointless. Your point seems to be that there is nothing Condi or the U.S. could have done to prevent 9/11. Is that really the lesson of the Sept. 11th Commission? What would you have done w/ a PDB entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike? Nothing, I guess, just business as usual, worrying about the Russians.

# posted by Anonymous : 11:04 AM

You dolt, "Bin Laden determined to strike" is not actionable intelligence. Everyone has known his intensions against the US since Clinton underestimated the African embassy bombings. You're right that there were failures, failures across the board and across the isle. Condi bears equal blame with most other leaders. Blaming Condi specifically for 9/11 is asinine at best. You obviously have many other issues with Condi, which hopefully doesn't stem merely from her being an African-American, female Republican. Don't hide your aversion for her behind 9/11. That's petty.

# posted by Anonymous : 12:34 PM

Ed Glaeser-level argument re: Condi's race and ad hominem name-calling. I have big problems with Rumsfeld, am I anti-white male Republicans?

Whether it's actionable intelligence is not the point. The point is that everything possible should have been done to prevent attack, but we know from the 9/11 Commission, Richard Clarke and others that it wasn't properly prioritized. Condi was the head of the NSA, so her share of blame is greater than those whose responsibilities for protecting America were less direct.

# posted by Anonymous : 12:54 PM

Ok, the 'dolt' comment was indeed ad hominem, sorry for that. And you're right that it is fair to blame Condi more than other, less directly related officials--but that's still a big leap to blaming 9/11 on her. I don't believe in blaming such an unprecedented, bloodthirsty act on anyone specific other than the bloodthirsty hijackers--that gets to the heart of how Repubs and Dems differ. You can also take issue with her approach to foreign affairs in general, that would be fair and possibly substantive. What I am accusing many people of (maybe not you, sorry) is bashing Condi without substance, can't think of many women that successful that have been treated this way--which winds up looking like her fault is only being conservative. And that evidently precludes her getting any respect. Were she a Dem, she'd have more clout than Hillary.

# posted by Anonymous : 3:00 PM

Rice is a flunky of a failed president, whose term anybody of any intelligence wishes could end about two years before it will. Don't pretend anyone should take her seriously. If she had any merit she would have resigned long since. I liked the failures "across the isle" bit of this idiot poster. He/she means the aisle, but let's think "isle" and extend that to "across the pond", and so add add Bush's poodle Blair to the odious and pseudo-smart idiotic Rice, both to be ejected asap, along with our own disastrous freak, Bush.

# posted by Anonymous : 1:33 AM

Brrr. You do sound frustrated. Keep the faith the next two years, then we'll give you another excuse for your bitterness for four years more. Don't pretend Hillary can win, people will come out of the woodwork, literally drop what they're doing when it comes time to vote against her. She's doomed and she owns your ticket. The Repubs future is bleak, but with no presidential candidate--as usual--the Dem's is bleaker still. Keep that chin up, old boy, and put on a happy face.

# posted by Anonymous : 2:12 AM

Aha! One of the 29% speaks up.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:04 AM

Cheers--it is getting pretty lonely these days ;)

# posted by Anonymous : 12:54 PM

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