Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift on Friday said something that might explain a lot to conservatives.
After Pat Buchanan commented on PBS’s McLaughlin Group that "the United States is moving towards Third World [education] standards because most of the students coming in now, the principle feeder nation in the country now is Mexico which is at the bottom of the OECD,” Clift replied, “When my ancestors came in they were probably at the low end of the feeder of this also” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
PAT BUCHANAN: Mort, it’s going to keep going down.
MORT ZUCKERMAN: It doesn’t have to keep going down.
BUCHANAN: Of course it’s going to go down.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: Science, technology, engineering, and math. Are you talking about STEM?
BUCHANAN: The truth is, look at the student body, alright? The United States is moving towards Third World standards…
ELEANOR CLIFT: Woo hoo, Pat.
BUCHANAN: …because most of the students coming in now, the principle feeder nation in the country now is Mexico which is at the bottom of the OECD. And these are the feeder nations that are coming into the United States.
MCLAUGHLIN: Alright, hold on Eleanor, hold on.
CLIFT: When my ancestors came in they were probably at the low end of the feeder of this also.
MCLAUGHLIN: From where?
CLIFT: We’re not going to turn this into a battle about immigration. There is a race going on around the world, a race for excellence that the U.S. is suddenly not part of, and we need to rethink it. The President has offered some initial steps. They should be taken seriously.
Maybe this explains some of Clift's really inane comments over the years. Here's a small sample from just last August:
Eleanor Clift: Call Them Undocumented, Illegal Aliens is 'Offensive'
