June 10, 2005
Commencement Speeches Follow-up - Liberals Still Dominate
Back on May 14th, we had an entry titled "Commencement Speeches - Last Opportunity to Brainwash." It centered on colleges picking liberal speakers for the commencement addresses--boring and insulting parents while spewing their leftist agenda in one last effort to influence the graduates.
That entry was made before a comprehensive list of speakers could be compiled. Now that the graduation exercises are over, below is a broader evaluation of the commencement addresses. There seems to be some improvements for political and philosophical balance, but clearly the colleges are still weighted heavily for the left.
Here's a section of the article which is referenced at the bottom:
Notably, successful conservative media personalities such as Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and Tony Snow are absent from the list of commencement speakers at top universities despite FOX News Channel’s growing ratings and the success of talk radio. Instead, speakers similar to Tim Russert, Tom Brokaw, and Andy Rooney appear on the list each year.Prominent intellectual conservatives such as Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, and Dinesh D’Souza, are absent from the top school commencements while liberals such as Thomas Friedman, Howard Zinn, and controversy-ridden Kweise Mfume frequently speak at top schools’ commencements.
In a time of war, there was only one military official, a liberal, who spoke: General Wesley Clark at Cornell University. Conservative military heroes such as General Tommy Franks, General Colin Powell, and General Norman Schwarzkopf were absent from the list.
Then this:
Pulitzer Prize winning writer William Kennedy asked graduates at St. Lawrence University, “Does [President Bush] actually have a mind? If he does, why don’t we detect it?â€ÂÂ
Ha Ha. Isn't he cute? And, we know that he elicited some smiles and snickers as he looked smugly over the audience. That's generally how it works as liberals seek adoring approval. Popularity is more important than doing what is right or saying something intelligent. Well, if any proof is needed for Wm. Kennedy, Bush did have better grades than his opponent.
Well, the graduates now have taken the smartest move of their college careers--finally getting away from their liberal professors. Welcome to the real world, graduates--and good luck applying some of the "feel-good" ideas you were fed.
For your interest, here's one commencement speech that will never be heard but would be a bigger help than the others: The Neal Boortz Commencement Speech
And...here's the link to the article:
Young America's Foundation (Not to be confused with "Rock the Vote")
Liberals Again Dominate Spring Commencement Exercises
Some Balance Found
Your thoughts?
Posted by GM Roper at June 10, 2005 11:40 AM | TrackBackSo let's see here. You're post the other day had Bush squeeking out a 77 as opposed to a 76 for Kerry. Hmmm. that makes the both...eewow! C students. They were afforded the opportunity to attend one of the premier universities on the planet and all they could manage were C's! And, now you say, one of them is the PRESIDENT??? Oh, boy, what's wrong with this picture?
Posted by jim hitchcock at June 10, 2005 12:58 PM
A C at Yale is like an A at Podunk U. or even an A double triple plus at Berkeley. Or perhaps Texas A&M (the last was a joke folks, I teach in the UTexas system). OK, the Podunk U. was a Joke too.
Posted by GM Roper at June 10, 2005 01:31 PM
Sean Hannity should give a commencement address? what could he possibly talk about? it'd be like inviting father coughlin to give a commencement address...
but what's the big deal about inviting 'liberals' like Brokaw or Russert anyhow? they are dye in the wool supporters of American capitalism, empire,...
Powell, of course, has given commencement addresses, and i would guess Schwarksoff has also, so what's the big deal? And are they really all that different from Wesley Clark anyhow?
Posted by steve at June 10, 2005 02:13 PM
"Columbia Business School’s commencement speaker, PepsiCo President Indra Nooyi, apologized on the company’s website for comparing the United States to a country making a rude gesture toward the rest of the world."
Wow, these guys think of the CEO of Pepsi-Co. Inc. as a 'liberal'. ha ha ha...They're one of the biggest funders of Ahnold in California...boy, between him and Thomas Friedman and Russert as 'liberals'...I think they need to work on their measuring apparatus?
_________________
Are you sure it wasn't the Columbia School of Broadcasting?
W
Posted by steve at June 10, 2005 02:17 PM
Jim, my only point was that, even though the commencement speaker said that Bush didn't show evidence of having a brain, Bush demonstrated that he was better at school (even if only slightly) than the best that the speaker's political party could put up. The rantings of "Bush is stupid" come from the heads of those who oppose him--which doesn't show much evidence of them having brains.
Regarding qualifications for being president, I think one of the biggest qualifications is being willing to have your entire life opened up and taking abuse every day. I'm smart enough to avoid jobs like that.
Posted by Woody at June 10, 2005 02:30 PM
Oh, I know, Woody...I was just having fun with GM's
'Bush having better grades than his opponent' remark. Was tempted to have fun with his response (don'tcha hate being talked about in the 3rd person, GM?) also, but that would have been carrying things too far :)
Posted by jim hitchcock at June 10, 2005 05:09 PM
"Bush demostrated that he was better at school (even if only slightly) than the best that the speaker's political party could put up."
The speaker is a president of a major US corporation that funds the Bush campaign and the Ahnold campaign ...I don't really see the big deal. Freedom of speech, no? Even for capitalists.
Posted by steve at June 10, 2005 06:09 PM
Jim, I don't mind being spoken of in the third person... as long as it comes from you ;-)
Third person? I still want to know Who's on First?
Posted by GM Roper at June 10, 2005 07:09 PM
