Wednesday, September 29, 2004

I knew him when he was young!

Matthew Downer makes it big, getting this article in the Harvard Crimson linked to by the good people at RealClearPolitics. Comparing both the form and the substance of his article with this anti-Bush piece by Princeton grad student Kai Chan, I think that Matthew's piece is the better article both stylistically and rhetorically. I am not compelled when a non-citizen (Chan is apparently Canadian) tells me why the rest of the world loves Kerry and hates Bush, and that America's problem is just that we can't see the plank in our eye. We just need our wonderful international friends to point it out to us.

But hey, in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I am predisposed to support Mr. Downer. He is one of a group of extremely bright young homeschooled students who I had the honor and privilege of coaching at the National High School Mock Trial competition for two years in a row. Incidentally, those two teams were the only back-to-back national champions in the history of the competition. Matthew, when you are elected President of the United States twenty years down the road, all I ask is for a nice cabinet position. Defense would be nice. Or maybe I could be your own personal Dick Cheney. I'm still working on those Big Oil ties.