Posted on 05/19/2006 5:18:22 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
McCain Finds Unfriendly Audience in NYC
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago
Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) received a cantankerous reception Friday at the New School's commencement, where dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised protest signs and a student speaker mocked him as he sat silently on stage.
The historically liberal university has been roiled in controversy in recent weeks over the selection of the Republican and likely 2008 presidential candidate to speak to its 2,700 graduates and thousands of family, friends and faculty.
The Madison Square Garden crowd cheered loudly as Jean Sarah Rohe said McCain "does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded."
Rohe, one of two distinguished seniors invited by the university's deans to address the graduates, spoke before McCain did but noted that he had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University last weekend and Columbia University on Tuesday.
"He will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions," Rohe said. "I am young and though I don't possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
McCain later thanked Rohe for her "Cliff's notes" version of his speech.
Sticking to the remarks he made in earlier speeches, McCain reaffirmed his support for the Iraq war but urged debate and dissent. And he repeated the theme that drew Rohe's derision.
"When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
McInsanity.
And these are his biggest supporters.
Well stated!:)
McC should run for president. Of Mexico.
He can come to Northern Ohio and get a similar hostile reception.I know a lot of people here and not one of them think he's worth a damn.
I think radical leftist Presidential hopefuls like Hillary Clinton and John McCain are working behind the scenes to arrange for these left-wing booing protesters to show up and make them appear not-so-liberal.
This is what happens when you're a fence sitter (as opposed to a fence builder).
You are rejected by both sides.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving jerk.
McCain would get the same reaction or worse from conservatives. I hate his guts.
McCain is no longer a useful idiot for the MSM and Democrats.
McCain should just retire, he's up for reelection in 2008 anyway.
I'm absolutely no fan of John McCain...but I am sick of rude, obnoxious, elitist brats who think they know it all. I include in that group the disgustingly smug group of students at Boston College who have behaved so boorishly against Condi Rice.
Same here. Don't even know why he's bothering; too old, too inform, and he will putter out once he gets past the RINO-friendly primary states.
How can you people sit here and condone this?
McCain is a featured speaker to agreed to come and speak at a Graduation Ceremony. Whether you agree with him or not, that was NOT the forum for dissent, and these little misfits severely needed a mother to tug them by the ear, lead them to their room, and put them in their place at some point in their pathetics lives.
This is not appropriate conduct. At all.
Where on earth has any sense of civility gone on this planet?
If you want to boo McCain, do it in the proper forum. Making an #$# of yourself at a college graduation is not the place.
No, he took some of his wife's drugs.
In 2000 McCain was a novelty and a lot of people bought the "Straight Talk" schtick. By now most have witnessed the McCain kook factor and he repels all but the most deluded supporters. A non-factor. (It was the strawberries, I tell ya, the strawberries.)
Not til 2010 do we get to punch the Libertarian box again.
I agree that it is not polite to deride someone who has accepted an invitation, but you must realize these selections are not made by the entire graduating class. Personally, I think the little ignorant leftists are fools, but they should bleat all they want. Today they're graduates, tomorrow they're unemployed imbeciles.
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