Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008 - (Page 6)

ON CAMPUS around and give speeches, so I took this job to expand my ability to give speeches. And I can assure you that my ﬁrst couple of weeks of public speaking were very painful. I was terrible. I was terriﬁed of public speaking. I’d avoided it all my life, right through college and high school, where it was required at the time. There was one class that conﬂicted with it and I found it: physics. I took four days of physics a week just to avoid a one-hour public speaking class. There were 100 people in that class—you only had to give a speech once a semester—but I would do anything to avoid it because I was so shy. And now you make a living as a pundit. Which just goes to show you that you never know what your abilities are if you allow things like intimidation or concern or fear to stand in your way. If I took that treasurer’s job, I knew I’d have to force myself to get into public speaking. I would have to learn, and I did— in a painful way. In your role as a pundit on CNN, you seem to share a fairly warm relationship with many of the people on the opposite side of the political fence. How does that go over with viewers? ten minutes with BAY BUCHANAN CNN commentator and well-known conservative pundit Bay Buchanan came to Lehigh in late October to tackle the controversial topic of immigration and discuss steps the United States needs to take to stem the tide of illegal immigrants crossing the borders. Buchanan, the former U.S. treasurer under President Ronald Reagan, served as campaign chair for her brother, Pat Buchanan, during all three of his unsuccessful bids to capture the Republican presidential nomination. She took time off from her CNN post last year to temporarily oversee the presidential campaign of Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Tancredo has since dropped out of the race, but Buchanan continues to speak out on the issue of immigration and its role in the current 6 lehigh alumni bulletin presidential race. While here at Lehigh, she took time out to speak with our own Linda Harbrecht. One of the ﬁrst positions in your career was to serve as U.S. treasurer at the age of only 32. Looking back, were you well prepared? It’s funny. People are astounded that I get along so well with people like [Democratic spokesperson] Donna [Brazile]—not people in the television business. We all get along well with one another, and some better than others. But I have a great deal of respect for people who disagree with me, as long as their arguments are based on principle and a different philosophy and they can articulate it and defend it. I have only respect for that. I have a lot less respect for people who can’t take a position—moderates who are constantly reading polls to see what the next popular thing is. I have no interest in that. That’s not leadership. If you were given unfettered power to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, how would you solve it? PHOTO BY THEO ANDERSON Oh, absolutely. I had worked in management and really understood it, so I was looking for a way to expand that. The treasury post was the number two person in the department to go Easy. As president, you can secure the border. You have all the authority—it’s already been given to you—ﬁrst of all, because it’s a national security issue and secondly, because of what legislatively has already passed. So you secure the border to the fullest extent. If necessary, you put military on the border—you do whatever it takes to secure the border. The second thing you do is talk to the employers of this country. It is a violation of the

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008

Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Ugly is in the Eye of the Beholder Fitch's Law of Motion A Blessing to the Community The Amidonian Acclamation China Trip Bridges Cultures, Generations From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News The Last Word

Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008

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