In a diatribe that is long on words and short on logic, Vidhu Pandey (My View, The Polytechnic, March 9, 2005) takes President Jackson to task for the choice of Senator Hillary Clinton as the commencement speaker.

According to Pandey, Senator Clinton’s disqualifications include her “being in politics, extremely controversial, and hated by a lot of people in the country.” One could suggest to Pandey that people with strong points of view and having interesting things to say are often controversial, or refer Pandey to the March 16, 2005, Op-Ed page of the New York Times, where Nicholas Kristoff quotes a Times poll that found the Senator with an approval rating of 69% in the state. That, however, would be beside the point. If Pandey wants a commencement speaker who is not a politician, does not arouse controversy, and is universally loved, then we may as well bid goodbye to the tradition of commencement speeches altogether. The last person satisfying Pandey’s criteria was Bob Hope, and he is no longer available.

A. K. Kapila