Graduates didn't like McCain speaking so gave him a rude into

Things got off to an interesting start at the New School graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden, where John McCain is set to give an address.

Jason Horowitz just called in to say that a student who was scheduled to perform a song and give a short speech departed from her prepared remarks at the beginning of the event to deliver a somewhat ruder introduction than school officials were expecting.

After finishing her song - it was about world peace - the student laid into the Senator from Arizona, saying that he didn't reflect the ideals of the university, and objected to his support of the war in Iraq.

McCain was about five feet away at the time. He didn't seem to have much of an immediate reaction.

The student returned to her seat with her arms raised in triumph as the crowd applauded.

Said New School President Bob Kerrey when he got to the microphone moment later: "We're having fun now, aren't we?"

We'll bring you reaction from McCain - who used a speech earlier this week to call for civility among people who disagree over the war - shortly.

http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/05/i-got-your-civility-right-here.html

edit: update

According to Jason, McCain could barely get through his speech - which was nearly identical to the one he gave this week at Columbia -- for all the catcalls, heckling and jeering from the graduating students.

When he got to the part about believing "rightly or wrongly" in his stance on the war, they screamed "wrongly!"

About 100 students stood up and waved the now-familiar "McCain does not speak for us" signs.

And when McCain got to an anecdote near the end of his speech about a Democrat friend of his who died, some of the students burst out laughing. (Seriously.)

days ago. They were VERY upset that Bob Kerrey had ignored suggestions of the committee and chosen McCain to speak at their graduation.
The New School was founded by Progressives, and these folks felt that they wanted someone speaking at their graduation who represented THEIR ideals.

went over with the grads.

Next time hopefully the admin will listen to the students when they say they dislike the choice.

Did he really think this student body was going to just sit quietly and listen to this hypocrite babble his bullshit?

:hi:

those guys scratch each other's backs.

What's that all about? Were the graduates open-minded progressives, or closed-minded, bigoted, hateful, bullheaded, knuckle-dragging conservatives? I know the what the answer is "supposed" to be, but I don't think this kind of behavior is reflective of progressive ideals. I understand people are angry, but this is not the type of behaviour I'd like to be associated with. I'm glad I wasn't there.

"some of my best friends are blacks" kind of thing. I guess we'd have to see more of the transcript.

...deserves to be treated with disdain while actively serving the Bush regime. Who knows?

I can speak for myself, however. Sleaze-bags like McCain like to blather about "civility" while propping up an administration that is killing and torturing innocents, and destroying our way of life. So anyone who treats this asshole with utter contempt - however they wish to express it - is fine by me.

But that's just me.

about a man who protested the war, and it was piped into McCain's prison cell, and after the war the man apologized, showing, of course, how wise and brave McCain has always been.

It is a story designed to show how open-minded McCain is, since he became friends with the dissenter. Being young, they probably recognized it for the self-serving pablum that it is.

Just a guess, however.

... In 1917, two Columbia University professors came out against American involvement in World War I and were promptly fired. The academics formed alliances with other intellectuals — notably John Dewey and Thorstein Veblen — and in 1919, the New School for Social Research was born. From the start, the college was radical and anti-establishment; the founders stated that there was to be no administration and no endowment. Later, in the 1930s, the legendary "University in Exile" was created, the faculty made up of 167 scholars rescued from Hitler's Europe ... http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0119,kamber,24579,1.html