Staying Up Late With The President
I stayed up until about 4am watching the Iranian President speak at Columbia University. It was pretty odd. Bollinger, the Columbia administrator responsible for inviting Ahmadinejad, had been getting grief for giving him a public forum in which to speak. I think, in reaction to that pressure, his introductory speech was a harsh condemnation – full of venom and name-calling.
I thought this was poor form. It looked like a childish political attempt to generate the appearance that would earn him media points. It was a rude introduction of his guest, regardless of how we may feel about him. It burned half of the alloted time for the speech. It gave Ahmadinejad fuel for his arguments that he and Iran are victims.
Personally, I strongly disagree with Ahmadinejad’s position on pretty much everything; however, I have to give him points for presenting himself reasonably from a debate perspective.
When the Q&A session started, he failed miserably; although, public opinion may be more easily swayed than mine. He avoided answering any direct questions by demanding that the audience first answer some counterpoint question, but then never coming back to the original question. A lot of obfuscation was thrown in the way.
- Do you think Israel should be eliminated?
- Do you think the holocaust occurred?
- Do you plan to produce nuclear weapons?
- What did you want to say at Ground Zero?
These are some of the questions that were asked and got no answers. I would have been interested to learn his position on any of these, but no such luck.
My summary: no new information came to light, I should have gone to bed before the speech started.
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