On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

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How does Scott Pelley think a madman acts when interviewed by an American television correspondent? Would he have to slobber on his suit and babble about conversations with invisible friends before Pelley would consider him crazy?

If not, then why would Pelley, a CBS veteran, presume to pronounce on the sanity of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after spending a short time with him sparring over the issues of the day for a report on 60 Minutes?

“He’s described in the West as a madman, crazy,” Pelley told Harry Smith of The Early Show. “That’s not the case. I found him to be, as many politicians are, very engaging, very friendly. He’s clearly not mad. He’s sane. In fact he’s very wily, I would tell you. . . . Crazy like a fox, perhaps.”

This is celebrity journalism elevated to a new level of arrogance — or a new nadir of naivete. Since when can’t a madman be engaging?

For that matter, what does “madman” even mean in the context of a national leader?

Was Hitler crazy? Was Stalin? Historians who’ve spent years immersed in the lives of those dictators would probably be reluctant to issue a judgment as confident as Pelley’s snap reading of Ahmadinejad.

In any case, Pelley is missing the point. Those who call Ahmadinejad a madman don’t usually pretend to have any special insight into his mental state. To begin with, they’re referring to the fact that many of his public statements sound jarringly odd to Western ears. His speech Monday at Columbia is yet another stellar case in point.

Then, too, the Iranian president appears frighteningly ignorant and reckless — the latter in his support for terrorists operating abroad and in his menacing rhetoric regarding Israel.

Finally, those who speculate about Ahmadinejad’s contact with reality are alarmed by such curiosities as his rambling, 18-page letter to President Bush last year. And by his obsession with “different perspectives” on the Holocaust, confirmed again Monday in his Columbia address.

“He’s clearly not mad,” Pelley tells us, as if clinical insanity is what anyone is actually worried about.

If a zealot wants to wipe a sovereign nation off the face of the earth — to cite just one the “wily” president’s fascinating goals — it doesn’t especially matter whether he’s insane.

He’s still crazy.

QED

“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”
— President Ahmadinejad at Columbia University

Sure, Ahmadinejad lives in a fantasy world, but at least we can sleep soundly tonight knowing that Scott Pelley has certified that he’s sane.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

READER COMMENTS

He reminds me of a Fundamentalist Christian. (he really is mad)

Insanity is a matter of mental disease. Ahmadinejad is not insane, he is evil. If you want to see someone froth at the mouth, then mention religion to an atheist.

Like Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong Il, and a few other leaders of sovereign nations, it's hard for US citizens to form a clear picture of their "sanity" because of the way they have been "demonized" by our government. I know their speech is certainly more coherent than our own leader's, that doesn't mean they don't harbor some unpleasant or even dangerous ideas about the way the world should be. Like the "ideals" of our own leader--who is himself demonized in many other countries.

If you want to see someone froth at the mouth, then mention religion to an atheist.

Posted by Tom

Or homosexuality to a Fundamentalist Christian.

Ahmadinejad is crazy like a fox.He knows how to play the stupid liberal press.He knows how to play the stupid liberal Columbia University.He knows how to play the stupid liberal students.

Too bad Hitler didn't have a chance to speak to the press,University and students before he killed millions of Jews.

That is exactly what is on Ahadinejads' agenda.

How many more American soldiers have to die at the hands of Iranian backed insurgents before the people in this country understand that this sub-human is another Hitler in the making?

The most disgusting thing about the University is they invited the head of The Minutemen to speak and shouted him down and refused to allow him to speak,but hung on to every word of this madman from Iran as if Allah had come to speak himself.

A man who is protecting our borders and loves this country is not allowed to speak,but a man who wants to destroy Israel and the U.S. is treated with respect.

If I was the owner of an American Company and a Columbia graduate applied for a job, I would not hire anyone from Columbia University.They show respect to a madman and disrespect to a Patriot.

Columbia is a great example of what is wrong with this country today.

Terrorists =freedom fighters and Patriots =terrorists.

Makes you wonder what is coming down the pike when these morons graduate.Be afraid.

Religious fundamentalists are often seen as crazy....why would Ahmadenijad be any differerent?

Jay "the Green Sophist" says "religious fundamentalists are often seen as crazy". I'm sure the Green Sophist would include "fundamentalist Christians" in that category but would make no distinction between condemnation of homosexual acts and killing a homosexual because of those acts. None of the enlightened progressives can see this. Why? Because it all goes back to George Bush.

I wonder what Scott Pelley would tell us if he could examine old CBS anchor Dan Rather. Might be a good benchmark - we know Rather is crazy.

Don't worry slouch....there's enough hate and ignorance seen in some fundamentalist Christians to encompass them with just about all of the world's wingnuts...present company included of course.

Jay a/k/a "the Green Sophist" is your typical atheist "progressive". In other words, a KrazyKosKiddie.

such anger slouch...maybe you should think about seeing someone with some letters behind their name...

Our jails are full of crazy people who have killed other people and destroyed lives, but continue to deny their guilt. They may have been at one time very wily, engaging and friendly, The tragedy is that they weren't stopped before they committed the misdeed. Mahmoud needs to be stopped before he commits the crimes he is planning!!

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