Snow prefers Iranians to U.S. college professors

On the one hand, I realize that American college professors, in general, are featured prominently on the list of conservative boogeymen. They’re all a bunch of ivory-tower eggheads, we’re told, who were drug-addled hippies in the 1960s. Worse, they’re poisoning the minds of our youths, the argument goes, by teaching college students a bunch of liberal, sometimes socialist, claptrap.

On the other hand, I also realize that conservative talking points emphasize the pro-American inclinations of the Iranian population. Part of this is to help justify a military confrontation — we can launch attacks without fear of inflaming the Iranian population because, at heart, they all really like us. (Indeed, we’d be “greeted as liberators.”)

But leave it to former White House press secretary Tony Snow to link these two disparate points nicely last week. (via the Washington Times)

Tony Snow, former press Secretary to President Bush and Fox news anchor, spoke to the Academy of Leadership & Liberty at Oklahoma Christian University last week. The winsome and articulate Snow charmed his audience with wit: “The average Iranian is more Pro-American than virtually any college faculty in this country.” And with serious talk about the war on terror and “the second war in this country, the war on God.”

Seriously? This is so dumb, I’m almost surprised Snow would make the comments out loud, in public.



He added these words of wisdom:

“(These) Times demand leadership. A leader is someone who has a compelling vision of a better world. Courage, inspiration to go for it and use their creativity and freedom. Character separates a leader from a demagogue.” […] Snow also said he loved being on a stage where he could say the word “God.”

First, I’d say Snow is bona fide expert on demagoguery, given his tenure at the Bush White House.

Second, I’m curious where, exactly, Snow is prohibited from mentioning the word “God.” He used it from his White House podium with some frequency, and as far as I can tell, never faced any censorship.

Maybe Snow got confused — I suspect the only place he might have trouble talking about his faith is in Iran.

Update: Apparently, Faiz and I were writing the same post at the same time, but his adds some additional insights on Snow’s perception of a “war on God.”