3 UW Professors to President Obama: 'Not in our back yard.'

The Reich wing, as Thom Hartmann refers to them, turned rabid over the inconvenience of a presidential visit to our university. I'm not kidding. The irony of the following statements, by grownups who should know better, calls into question the competency of some of those we have teaching on the UW campus:

WSJ: Ken Mayer, a political science professor who criticized aspects of the rally maintained Friday that putting the event in the center of campus was unnecessarily disruptive. "I continue to think the university could have accommodated the president in a way that didn't shut the campus down for a day," he said.

This is a political science professor, got that? On the same day he complained about the inconvenience of a historically significant visit by a sitting president, his lecture topic? “Introduction to American Government." It would be laughable if it weren't so sadly ironic.

The other trumped up controversy; the Obama rally required attendees to sign up, so the easy solution was to distribute those tickets via email. In fact, with only 3 days to work with, that was the only option. But…

Mayer also objected to the Obama campaign requiring attendees to provide a phone number and email address to get a free ticket to the rally.  "If you want to go to this hugely important and interesting event you have to register with the campaign," said. "That raises questions."

Yeah, questions about your competence. This guy is teaching our kids? But Mayer wasn't the only partisan whiner either; he was joined by political science professor Donald Downs and conservative law professor and blogger Ann Althouse. These individuals seem to think students are too stupid to know better, and have no will of their own. That didn't sit well with the UW:

Vince Sweeney, vice chancellor for university relations, said … “ultimately if it's a problem for those wishing to attend, it's an individual decision" whether or not to provide an email address and phone number, he said.

The ultimate stupidity; The president disturbed the peace and tranquility of campus life:

Mayer criticized the location. Surely there were other venues that would pose less disturbance." Mayer wrote … "The UW is penalizing staff (or, at a minimum, dramatically inconveniencing them) for an event that they had no say in organizing or scheduling."

You would have been overruled.