Victor Davis Hanson, Hugh Hewitt, Islam, The Left, Kerry, and Run Like Hell

Here's an exchange between Hugh Hewitt and Victor Davis Hanson, in a recent interview:

HH: I want to talk about Kerry, but before we do, during the last segment, when I was replaying Mark Steyn from the first hour, I was sent an e-mail, and I went to the Democracy Project. I've linked this at Hughhewitt.com. And there are pictures posted there of a Halloween party at the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday night at the President's house, at which a student showed up dressed as a suicide bomber with a Kalashnikov. And the pictures are just very disturbing. And the President of the University of Pennsylvania appears alongside a suicide bomber and is laughing. Your comments, Victor Davis Hanson?

VDH: Well, I saw that, and again, I think it's emblematic of this endemic problem on the left, that they don't really see that we're in a war, they don't really see that there's a moral difference between suicide bombers and people who try to deliberately kill people, and people in the war who have collatoral damage by accident, when they try to target terrorists. So I mean, it's a problem we're having, these Freudian slips. John Kerry didn't mean to slur soldiers, but he has a problem. And when he makes a mistake, and he makes a gaffe, that's the type of things that comes out. It reveals a deep-seated distrust, just like Kennedy, just like Jay Rockefeller, just like Senator Durbin, just like all of these people when they have these outbursts, and they lapse into sort of a stream of consciousness. What you expect to come from them is a 1960's deep distrust of the United States socio-economic and military system. And then they do silly things, such as President Gutmann, who was provost at Princeton University, allowing a picture of her with a suicide bomber. They just don't have the same antenna that most of us do.

Okay... So what I'm wondering is, what is their opinion of the Brooklyn Teen who showed up at school dressed in a Hitler costume, including a Swastika? I don't hear any griping about that. Was the high school teen an agent of the left? Did his lefty teacher make him do it? Was it a joke, a gag? Why make an issue about a [probably] drunken college moron? I dressed as Superman for Halloween, does that mean I stand for Truth, Justice, and the American Way? (It just so happens I do, but WHATEVER)

This should be a non-issue for VDH or Hugh Hewitt, they have better things to talk about, like Kerryism. That argument is more legitimate.

For some reason I get this inkling, this whiff of a hint that Hewitt set up Hanson to go on a rant about the status of America's collegiate elite [pandering to his viewers?]. Hanson teaches at Stanford. My feeling is that he's allergic to the noxious scent of incense that probably permeates the clothing of most of his stoned out students, but get real. Drawing the conclusion that a student has no morals because he dresses as a suicide bomber for Halloween?

Tasteless, lacking class, dumb. Each one of those adjectives more accurately describes the Princeton college student. For all VDH knows, the student is a card carrying Republican. But I won't hold my breath and wait for them to talk about that High School Hitler student.

Instead, I would have liked for VDH's to preface his comments with: "While the United States has by far the greatest University system in the world, responsible for churning out graduates who keep our country at the top of the economic heap, driving innovation at every level, attracting top talent from around the globe, and giving us so many sequels to "Girls Gone Wild, etc, etc."(Okay, maybe not that last part, but you catch the drift)

Slow down and take a deep breath, VDH. You've made the jump, the foray into political discourse from your Academic roots... don't go partisan nut-job on us yet.

Now, I know what you're thinking: What does the 'Run Like Hell' mean in your heading? I'm glad you asked. During the ING New York City Marathon on NBC, Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell was played during interludes. Great song. Brilliant.