All the hoopla surrounding Sen. McCain being shouted down at the New School can be defined only one way: a brilliant campaign stunt. What could be better for a Senator who is seen by the right-wing base as being too cozy with the Left than to be heckled and rudely shouted down by a bunch of bratty liberal kids in New York City? Now, even conservatives -- who, lest we forget, loathe McCain -- find themselves defending him. Or perhaps this is just a convenient excuse for them to start mending fences with their former punching bag before he becomes their nominee for president.
McCain's Chief of Staff's hysterical response notwithstanding (Top McCain Aide Insults Entire College Graduating Class..."Very Unlikely Any Of You Will Ever Possess...) it's hard to imagine that McCain, or anyone working for him, was really that surprised by the response he received when he defended his position of supporting the war at this most liberal of liberal bastions. Maybe San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom should go give a speech at Liberty University about his support for gay marriage and act shocked when people protest him. Of course, he would never be given that platform at such an institution, and why McCain was given his platform at the New School -- by his friend Bob Kerrey-- would be a mystery were the political benefits to him being harassed by a bunch of "angry liberals" not so immediately obvious.
It would be slightly less suspicious if McCain had addressed the students without defending the war; something he knew to be more than a touchy subject. But that, of course, would have defeated the purpose of being there in the first place.
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