Readers respond to Princetonians' donations

[Editor's note: Yesterday, reporter Melisa Gao's article 'Professors fund liberal candidates' was linked on the online news site drudgereport.com. Below are some of the letters the 'Prince' received from across the United States.]

Look here! I found some funny-looking fish!

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

God, I love reading about the cloudy little liberal fishbowl that is academe!

Prof. Chiara Nappi: "America will not survive the way it is if we let President Bush continue." Too funny!

Prof. Andrew Appel: "Does it surprise me that smart people should be supporting Kerry? No."

These jokers have no idea how partisan they are, how it colors everything they say and do or how their partisanship makes its way into the classroom.

I call such people coelacanths: Vietnam-era liberals still flopping about in the mud long after everyone else has left the swamp for dry land. Too funny! Jeff Percifeld Oakland, Cal.

Republicans aren't as dim as profs think they are

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

In answer to Prof. Andrew Appel's statement that he wasn't surprised that liberals fund Democrats since they, in his words, are the intelligent ones: As the smartest person I ever knew, my father, whose IQ was 168, was a Republican, I also disagree with the premise.

Once again, a liberal mistating the facts for biased reasons. Maureen Waite Lake Mary, Fla.

View from the real world: We're not surprised at all

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

I find it amusing that Andrew Appel seems to think only smart people support Kerry.

A more appropriate response might be: "Do I find it surprising that people who live their entire lives in a fantasy environment support Kerry? No." Charles Mahoney

Americans won't put up with liberal educators

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

Intelligent people vote for Kerry? The same Kerry who can't decide what his position is on any single subject? The same Kerry who is completely bankrupt of ideas, ideals and ethics?

The same Kerry who declaimed an entire generation of soldiers as brutal rapists, butchers and murderers and yet now wishes to stand upon their mangled honor?

People are waking up and starting to wonder why there are so many liberals in education. Now people are realizing that they don't have to put up with it. Edward Royce

Story's treatment of data doesn't tell the half of it

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

I think simply saying that more than 90 percent of donations from Princeton employees went to liberal causes grossly underestimates how much Princeton money has gone to Kerry.

Doing the math, $41,200 was donated to either Kerry or Bush. Of that, only $250 went to Bush.

This means Kerry has actually received 99.393 percent.

Wow! No bias there!

Maybe Princeton would be interested in hiring me as a professor, I think you need a few more conservative voices and Bush supporters on campus! The University is an equal opportunity employer, isn't it? Bill Snow Chicago, Ill.

So, does this mean I'm one of those dummies?

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

Unlike one of your "smart" sources quoted in the article, I happen to be a conservative Republican and proud of it.

I'm a graduate of Tulane, MIT, and USC in various disciplines, have a tested IQ of around 150, and I believe anyone who is truly smart would have to vote the way I do because it's the intelligent — not the emotional — thing to do. Don Boensel

Faculty shouldn't feel pressure to change views

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

Is the implication that being liberal or just opposing Bush is the byproduct of a defective gene? Or could it be that only those with even half a brain, let alone a full Princeton faculty brain, can see the utter folly in the path down which this never-elected administration is leading us all.

To the "left leaning" faculty: Don't become intimidated. Thank you for your stand. Leonard Rusch Pasadena, Cal.

Students, what kind of education are you getting?

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

Wake up, Princeton students!

That 90 percent of your faculty donate to Democratic candidates ought to be a wake up call that you are being cheated in the marketplace of ideas. When an institute of higher learning is that left-leaning, you've been exposed to nothing more than one opinion resounding throughout four walls of self-reinforcing prattle. Penny Hughes Pittsburgh, Penn.

Maybe we're not smart, but our guy will win

Regarding 'Professors fund liberal candidates' (Sept. 13):

Well, I guess those Princeton employees are just smart people, and those of us out here who are silly enough to support President Bush aren't smart.

When the voting is all done, and George W. Bush is still our president, then Prof. Appel can go to bed at night knowing that he's way smarter than the rest of the country. Rick Rickenbach