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Only Obama Could Go to Arizona
There is no appearance President Obama can make which doesn’t become embroiled in controversy, or so it seems. Invited to give the commencement address this year at Arizona State, the esteemed institute of higher education apparently deemed his “body of work” insufficient to merit an honorary degree. Was this fair? Should we care? Should Obama care? This vital issue of pressing national importance is the subject of my column this week at Pajamas media.
Hey, if the President is feeling too bad about it, he can just remember that Stephen Colbert got his from a different college. Then again, Arizona has that whole Martin Luther King Day thing knocking around in their closet. Coincidence? You be the judge.
14 Responses to “Only Obama Could Go to Arizona”
Jazz, many of the comments to your Pajamas Media article is a bigger deal than your article itself (not criticizing what you wrote). We have President Obama being “The first RACIST president of the US” and “has cocktails and dinner with his hiphop buddies, but is too tired to meet with the heads of state of other countries”. Let us not forget the wonderful “Does Arizona State offer a degree in community organizing? Teleprompter reading? Bowing to Kings? If so, I am all in favor of him receiving an honorary degree as he has distinguished himself in these areas”.
Boobsphere, indeed…
I hear ya, T. All I can do is hide behind my disclaimer that I have no approval or editorial control over their comments section….
I believe ASU is reconsidering.
However, your statement that Obama is “not terribly distinguished either in terms of tenure or legislative accomplishment” really deserves a rethink. First, his Harvard law degree is far more prestigious than an ASU degree. He taught constitutional law (a first for American presidents), was the youngest and first black editor of the Harvard Law Review (ASU has nothing of this caliber). His supposedly weak legislative history is a GOP talking point. I posted a links to his (and H. Clinton's) legislative histories here:
http://greendreams.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/oba…
I'll bet any interviewer would go glazey in the eyes at Obama's command of specific details of each one of these bills. I've heard him, when asked about wonky details of federal programs, smoothly articulate more than the most ardent policy wonks could recite.
I can only imagine how younger voters react to GOP claims that someone pushing 50 is considered “too young and inexperienced,” as they in their 20s and 30s consider their own feelings of self worth and experience. (“Do I have to be a doddering old fool to be considered experienced enough?”)
Well look Jazz are you calling Arizona racist or not? This is the third article I've read that danced around the topic, talked about MLK Day and used innuendo instead of just saying what they thought. Please no “harumph I'm just raising the possibility” answers.
How many honoary degrees did Bush get and he can't even string together two sentences without the aid of a teleprompter… and sometimes he couldn't even read that.
Sorry… I couldn't resist the swipe. I'll post my more germaine comment in a second.
I'll bet it's more political correctness than racism. AZ is pretty conservative and ASU probably is being loyal to McCain by slighting Obama. But really, someone who already holds real advanced degrees from Harvard can safely shrug off the slight of not receiving an honorary one from ASU.
As far as why ASU isn't giving an honorary degree to Obama… I think the reason for ASU's reluctance has everything to do with the fact that Obama is a Dem and AZ is a Republican state (and presumably some sore feelings among some committe members about McCain's defeat).
Considering some of the other honorary degrees they've given in the past the “reason” that Obama is inexperienced or does not have a lifetime of accomplishments is rather hollow. But hey, ASU sets the rules and I'm not going to interfere or say that they should give Obama an honorary degree.
And it's Obama's decision to go or not. I think the whole issue is ridiculous and I think ASU is just bogged down in their own internal and personal politics.
As far as racism…. whatever. Not everything against Obama has racist overtones… sometimes it's just plain politics. I think it's easy for some people on the left to cry “racist” when there's no basis.
We should try to raise the level of political discourse to politics as usual and not get dragged down by calling out “racist' when their is no evidence.
There's enough evidence of the racism on the far right without having to create more.
ASU simply made a mistake in the way that they handled this.
The initial impression they left (which was probably true at the time) was that they were not going to give an honorary degree to a sitting president of the United States which is a silly thing to do on the face of it. Then they stated that they had not decided which would be the best degree to give him, as if it made a difference, and will be giving him something for his trouble.
It seems to me that just having a president of any kind, much less a sitting president, is a coup for ASU (just as it is for Notre Dame.) Most of the time these decisions are based on the political needs of the president, not the university, as the president has no use for an honorary degree. ASU should have been aware of this when the invitation was extended. If they want to insult him by not giving him a degree (they gave one to Erma Bombeck, for example) they should just turn him down all together and make a statement.
If Sarah Palin was in the same situation (as a young newly elected president of the United States) I would say the same thing even though I disagree with her politics. This is the President! What other accomplishments do you need to endow an honorary degree? It's not like it is a real degree, for goodness sake, it is just an honor that can't be used for anything else. (Although British school honors are just that, a real degree, I understand and Ralph Stanley goes around calling himself “Doctor Ralph Stanley” these days due to an honorary degree. If you don't know who Ralph Stanley is, you are culture deprived.)
It is more likely that this is incompetence than it is racism.
Rather than imagine all kinds of conspiracies and other political motives, why not the more basic one that any young Democratic president would be acting on, namely to engage in “outreach” by the Democratic Party into the Sun Belt? You know, making Red Nation change to a bluer hue.
“I can only imagine how younger voters react to GOP claims that someone pushing 50 is considered “too young and inexperienced,” as they in their 20s and 30s consider their own feelings of self worth and experience. ('Do I have to be a doddering old fool to be considered experienced enough?')”
A more realistic observation would be that the kids already “know” they know everything, in addition to being physically indestructible and all the rest of what they “know,” including that liberalism and the Dems are cool and the other side, not.
[sigh] “So many snowbirds — so little freezer space…”
I'm not silly enough to call a state “racist.” People are racist or they are not. Individuals. Not states. But people elect representatives and in the past, they elected people who had a very hard time dealing with the MLK holiday. It's just history. And it's applicable to the story to point out that this move comes from a school in a state with that history. What you make of it is up to you.
And it's applicable to the story to point out that this move comes from a school in a state with that history.
It's only applicable if you feel the decision not to give Obama an honorary degree had something to do with his race. Is that what you think has happened here?
DLS, I love the snowbirds quote. And my cats are happy- less freezer space means more for them.
I have to agree with DaGoat.
Then again, Arizona has that whole Martin Luther King Day thing knocking around in their closet. Coincidence? You be the judge.
Sounds very much like innuendo.
Personally, I doubt ASU's problem is racism. And while it's always possible that the problem is political, I'm inclined to put this off to sheer ineptitude. One hopes their teaching staff is a bit more coherent than the administration.