John McCain is an idiot!

[ProSense]

Argue?

'Let Us Argue'

The speech the Angry Left tried to suppress.

BY JOHN MCCAIN
Monday, May 22, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

(Editor's note: Mr. McCain delivered this commencement address at the New School in New York Friday. A related editorial appears here.)

Thank you, Bob . Thank you, faculty, families and friends, and thank you New School Class of 2006 for your welcome and for your kind invitation to give this year's commencement address. I want to join in the chorus of congratulations to the Class of 2006. This is a day to bask in praise. You've earned it. You have succeeded in a demanding course of instruction. Life seems full of promise as is always the case when a passage in life is marked by significant accomplishment. Today, it might seem as if the world attends you.

But spare a moment for those who have truly attended you so well for so long, and whose pride in your accomplishments is even greater than your own--your parents. When the world was looking elsewhere, your parents' attention was one of life's certainties. So, as I commend you, I offer equal praise to your parents for the sacrifices they made for you, for their confidence in you, and their love. More than any other influence in your lives, they have helped make you the success you are today and might become tomorrow.

Snip...

Let us argue with each other then. By all means, let us argue. Our differences are not petty, they often involve cherished beliefs, and represent our best judgment about what is right for our country and humanity. Let us defend those beliefs. Let's do so sincerely and strenuously. It is our right and duty to do so. And let's not be too dismayed with the tenor and passion of our arguments, even when they wound us. We have fought among ourselves before in our history, over big things and small, with worse vitriol and bitterness than we experience today.

Let us exercise our responsibilities as free people. But let us remember, we are not enemies. We are compatriots defending ourselves from a real enemy. We have nothing to fear from each other. We are arguing over the means to better secure our freedom, promote the general welfare and defend our ideals. It should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our conscience, and heed its demands; each of us, despite our differences, united in our great cause, and respectful of the goodness in each other. I have not always heeded this injunction myself, and I regret it very much.

more...

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008409

Where was McCain when Bush attached a signing statement to his torture amendment?


Angry left? Asshole!

[babylonsister]

1. I may be 'left' but I sure wasn't angry at the speech. I adored seeing

all the bright young people from the New School showing McCain how they really felt! I hope he felt the full scope of their 'love'!

And that title suggests he too is trying to create more of a divide than there already is.
He's now pandering to anyone that will listen, because the 'angry left' is done!

[SteppingRazor]

2. Quite the opposite...

McCain knew he'd be booed. He was speaking at the freaking New School, for God's sake -- the place makes Berkeley look like Oral Roberts University. He knew he'd be booed, and he knew that outlets like the WSJ would subsequently write articles about how much the left hates McCain, thus transforming right-wing opinions about McCain from maverick who sometimes votes with the traitors (i.e. you and me), to man hated by the traitors, to whom we should therefore give another chance.

Idiot? Hardly.

[ProSense]

3. The title of his speech is idiotic! n/t

[SteppingRazor]

4. That's just the title the Journal gave it n/t

[ProSense]

5. "Let us argue with each other then. By all means, let us argue." n/t

[karynnj]

6. This is the only school I can think of where the average student

is far to the left of the average person at DU.

It's too bad they didn't do something unexpected like stay totally silent when he was introduced and spoke - not a single bit of applause, laughter, boo - nothing absolute silence. Same message sent, but not backlash. This was a complete set up.

The idiot is Bob Kerrey, who invited him.

[ProSense]

8. I don't buy that this was a smart move.

McCain believes he has the middle and is playing to the right, but I believe his moves will backfire. Even the hawkish TNR is criticizing him:

05.22.06

JOHN McCAIN AND KIDS THESE DAYS:

When I was in high school, I landed a summer internship with Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini. (One of my Hebrew School teachers was his office manager. It really is all about who you know.) A big perk for the interns was getting to have lunch with famous Arizonans--including John McCain. It was 1990 and one of the big issues on the Hill that summer was a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw burning the American flag. McCain was a staunch supporter of the proposed amendment and so, during the lunch, I asked him why he supported it. I guess McCain figured I didn't support the amendment (I didn't), because his jaw clenched, his face turned red, and he launched into a tirade.

This all happened 16 years ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy on the specifics of what he said, but the gist of it was that he had served his country, I hadn't, and therefore I could never understand what the flag meant and I had no right to question him about it. I think I tried to interject something about how I was just 16 and therefore not yet eligible to serve in the military, but there was no stopping McCain, and he continued to browbeat me for my lack of service and patriotism. (A few years later, a rough simulacrum of this scene would be enacted by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski--with McCain in the Goodman role and me as Buscemi.) When he was done with his tirade, McCain turned to other questions and the rest of the lunch went off without incident. And in the years since that lunch, when I've dealt with McCain as a journalist, he's been nothing but polite and charming.

But I was reminded of my first encounter with McCain when I read this. It seems like he (or at least a member of his staff) still has a problem with young people who have the temerity to disagree with him.

--Jason Zengerle

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=18006

Opinion
CONSERVATIVE SPEAKERS UNWELCOME ON COMMENCEMENT DAY By John Leo
Sun May 21, 8:35 PM ET

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) had a rough week in New York City, facing protesters who resented his speeches at Columbia University's Class Day and the New School for Social Research commencement ceremony.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucjl/20060522/cm_ucjl/conservativespeakersunwelcomeoncommencementday


Opinion
New School Fallout: When McCain Attacks The Nation
56 minutes ago

The Nation -- John McCain is renowned for his supposedly thick skin and deft handling of adversity. Who knew a 21-year-old student singer from Nutley, New Jersey, could pierce that veneer?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060522/cm_thenation/1585633

[gratuitous]

7. The Angry Left tried to "suppress" this speech?

Yeah, I know that U.S. Senators have a dickens of a time getting a chance to speak their minds, and all the opposition and silencing they face is just unconscionable. Won't someone please think of the poor, beleaguered Senators? Just once?

Ignore that fact that McCain gave the speech at the New School, just as he delivered twice before at Liberty University and some other place that I forget right now. The only difference being that at the New School, someone had the moxie to pre-emptively call his lies and oversimplifications for what they are.

I guess 22-year-old women are too much opposition for the diaphonous Mr. McCain to have to face anymore. The poor baby.

[RethugAssKicker]

9. The New School ? Never heard of it.. but based on what I've

read here as being extremely left I'd like to know more !

[pocket]

10. he's also a psychotic war criminal

what else is new?