Letter: Yale’s presidential dishonor

Among the past residents of the White House:

Harvard can lay claim to John F. Kennedy; Princeton can boast Woodrow Wilson; Columbia can field Franklin D. Roosevelt and now Barack Obama; while poor Yale’s standard must be borne by George W. Bush ’68.

I don’t know about you, but if I were a Yale alumnus I would find this state of things deeply humiliating. The only remedy I can see is to put more money in your football program.

Chris Cobb

London

Jan. 22

Comments

Hieronymus

I am confounded as to why the YDN would print such trash, demeaning to both a former U.S. President and to Yale itself--not to mention reflecting a certain level of liberal self-loathing on the part of the editors.

Thank you for your thoughts, Mr. Cobb: perhaps when you straighten out Britain's demographic nightmare, held at bay--temporarily--by the man you denigrate, your thoughts might hold some sway.
Anonymous

Bill Clinton.
Recent Alum

Why was this partisan hackery even accepted for publication? Is this European guy in London even a Yale alum? I am proud to count President Bush as an alumnus of my alma matter and I hope that other alumni, whether they are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, are proud too.
Observer

I am somewhat confused; the headline of this letter suggests that it is about Bill Clinton, but Clinton is not referred to in the letter. Is this some sort of mistake?
Anonymous

Recent Alum-

Seriously? You don't shrink a little in your chair when the man who cuts your hair thinks that because you go to the same school, you're like him? You've never gotten the looks of contempt that people like Bush have earned all of us who go here?
Y11

No, we're elitists like Bush, so we don't give a damn what the guy who cuts our hair thinks. He's an average american, so he's probably wrong about everything.

Over a decade of Yale in the White House is A-okay with me.
Recent Alum

#5: The average American is a lot more likely to be a Bush supporter than the average Yalie, so I don't think your point makes much sense. My point is that even if you disagree with Bush's policies, you should recognize that Bush is obviously a honorable man who did what he thought was right and who kept us safe. You don't need to be a Republican or a conservative to admit this.
jb

how is this letter and its responses "partisan" or "liberal"? seems pretty politically-neutral to me.
#5

Recent Alum- Why are you so keen on separating Americans and Yalies? It smacks of Palin's proclamation that liberals aren't real Americans, or that Obama, having had a decent education, isn't a real American. I am both a Yalie and an American, and I am proud to be both. But considering Bush's approval rating is somewhere in the 30s, I'm not sure your statement that the average American supports him is accurate.

As a moderate independent, I don't feel I can speculate on whether or not he did what he thought was right at all times. However, it was not honorable of him to lie about the WMDs and throw Powell to the wolves. And while there was only one domestic terrorist attack during his eight years (the worst in history, no less), he failed to encourage personal responsibility (isn't that a basic tenet of conservatism?) in either the rich or the poor and thus left us vulnerable to our own greed.

On the rare occasion that I tell "average Americans" where I go to school, I get mixed reactions. But when people think it means that I'm greedy or that I think I'm better than they are, I know who to blame.