One of many depressing thoughts today:
McCain at the NRA gathering on Friday: Four Code Pink protesters interrupting the event, leaping up, waving signs, screaming at the top of their lungs, forcibly removed by security.
Ahmadinejad at Columbia: No protesters of any kind.
(To clarify, no protesters of any kind within the auditorium. There are protests outside the venue.)
Let me be a bit pessimistic. John Bolton just said on Fox News that Ahmadinejad “got exactly what he wanted out of this.” He played the crowd like a violin. He seemed to get a decent level of applause after every answer. I suspect we will not have to look far for comments in the vein of “he sounded quite reasonable.”
He answers every question with, “I would like to raise a question of my own” and quickly points to the U.S. and Israel as terror sponsors, the cause of instability in the Middle East, etc. He compares Iranian and U.S. capital punishment, and that line gets applause.
The only line that garnered boos from the audience, that I saw, was when he said that Iran has no gays. I’m glad that the crowd didn’t agree with everything he said, but it was striking that this particular absurd assertion was necessary to stir some expression of disapproval.
Candidates will be responding in 3… 2… 1…