Let’s check in with our batch of fresh-faced presidential hopefuls to see what they have to say about Ahmadinejad’s Columbia visit:

During a Fox News interview, New York  Senator Hillary Clinton says she is, “Leaving that up to Columbia.” Thanks, Hil! “But I was outraged that he wanted to go to Ground Zero and did speak out very forcefully, and thankfully he will not go to Ground Zero.” Later in a follow-up to CNN, Hillary, apparently realizing that she didn’t actually express any sort of opinion about the issue at hand, gave it a second try. “Well, if I were a president of the University, I would not have invited him. He’s a supporter of terrorism. But I also respect the right in our country to make different decisions.”

We couldn’t find anything from Obama, Kucinich, Dodd, or (most surprisingly) Gravel–but find Fred Thompson, Michael Bloomberg and more after the jump!

Republican Arizona Senator John McCain took a more definitive stance: “A man who is directing the maiming and killing of Americans troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university.” McCain continued, “Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should be welcoming the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps back on campus to honor the men and women who put their lives on the line every day defending our freedom.”

Fred Thompson, who occupies the bottom third of the photograph to the right opposes Ahmadinejad’s visit to not only Columbia and Ground Zero, but the United States. “If I were president of the United States none of this would have been an issue. I wouldn’t have let him into the country in the first place,” Thompson told USA Today. If you were President! Aw, cute!

A finally, New York City mayor and #142 on Forbes list of the world’s billionaires Michael Bloomberg also expressed relief that Ahmadinejad would not be visiting Ground Zero: “He’s not going downtown. I think, hopefully, he understands why not, but I just think it would be totally inappropriate. But he’s not going to go. Columbia – look, it’s a university. They have the right to invite who they want. I personally am not going to get involved in criticizing them because I think that’s a slippery slope. Universities operate unto themselves. I’m not on the board of Columbia; they’ve got to deal with that. I’m not the president. I’m not a student at Columbia. Personally, I wouldn’t go to listen to him. I don’t care about what he says. He’s said enough that I find disgusting and despicable that I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of being in the audience.”

Tickets on Craigslist are only $100, MB. You could buy 55 million of them.

– JNW