At a minimum, I guess the liberal love affair with [tag]John McCain[/tag] is over.
“I haven’t heard anyone aroused about me speaking at the New School,” John [tag]McCain[/tag] said in April, defending his decision to address Jerry [tag]Falwell[/tag]’s Liberty University.
Nobody at all, except for virtually the entire crowd at the New School’s Madison Square Garden graduation ceremony in New York City. At the beginning of the event, New School President, and former Senator, Bob [tag]Kerrey[/tag] predicted a raucous affair. “Our founding purpose is proudly liberal,” he said. “We began as an act of protest.”
The school’s tradition of dissent carried on today. Scores of New School students held orange signs, and a few banners, reading “McCain Does Not Speak For Me,” and “Our Commencement Is Not Your Platform.” What began as mild rumblings of disapproval before McCain’s speech soon exploded into boos, catcalls and turned backs.
The spark was provided by undergraduate keynote speaker Jean Sara Rohe, a composed, seemingly innocuous jazz musician and singer. After beginning with a short folk song (true to classic graduation speech form) Rohe quickly tossed aside her prepared remarks to directly address McCain. […]
She paraphrased McCain’s words on the folly of youthful stubbornness and ignorance. “I am young, but I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong,” she said. “Osama bin Laden has not been found, nor those weapons of mass destruction.” The vast majority of the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
Who knows, maybe this will end up helping McCain. He can go to the far-right base in Iowa and say, “See? Liberals hate me. I’m with you guys.” Or maybe yesterday’s hostility is a discouraging sign of things to come for McCain — the [tag]GOP[/tag] base that never liked him still doesn’t trust him, while the liberals who used to admire and respect McCain no longer like what he has become.
As Ari Melber explained, “The New School met the New McCain — a self-proclaimed maverick who panders to bigots and supports President Bush’s every failure — and it looks like people don’t like the New McCain.”
Apparently not.