Posted on 11/14/2003 2:28 AM EST by kattracks
November 14, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Some Dartmouth College students unfurled Confederate flags to embarrass Democratic 2004 front-runner Howard Dean when he spoke at the New Hampshire campus yesterday. The nine students were reacting to Dean's vow to be the presidential candidate for white Southerners with rebel flags on their pickup trucks. Dean belatedly apologized, but many critics weren't satisfied.
"We felt his apology was insufficient," said student Xi Huang, 19, of Boston.
The students stood with Confederate flags draped over their shoulders when Dean was introduced.
In his speech, Dean proposed repealing President Bush's tax cuts so college students could get $10,000 yearly in federal aid.
The flag flap - and Dean's initial refusal to apologize - sparked questions about his temperament, but didn't stop two unions with many minority members - the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union - from endorsing him this week.
That might be one of his dumbest, most pandering moves. All that $10,000 would do is to allow colleges to raise costs by $10,000 and everyone still ends up paying the same. It would also be a nice subsidy for those "students" who could then go to a state college for free, party on until they flunked out, and make serious students miserable.
But, alas, he's pandering to Dartmouth students in this speech. The $10,000 sounds like a nice start for the cost of their educations there.