I said, come—on—Ahmadinejad…

A mil­lion points to Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity for invit­ing the man to speak. Obvi­ously he’s a ter­ri­ble, unen­light­ened per­son, as the university’s own pres­i­dent pointed out in his inci­sive open­ing remarks. But he is a leader, and a day of open aca­d­e­mic dis­course amidst a cli­mate of hard­ball pol­i­tics is a mighty step for­ward for the cause of world peace.