May 13, 2009, Wed., 8:30 PM: NEWS ITEM FROM PHOENIX/TEMPE, ARIZONA: President Obama Gives Stirring Graduation Address at ASU and Jokes about Honorary Degrees after most of the country in the first 3 time zones had already gone to bed.
President Obama gave his first commencement address as U.S. President at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ at an outdoor early evening event in sweltering Sun Devil Stadium before a rapt crowd of 71,000 graduates, faculty and guests. His speech was very well received by the assembled audience. He was introduced by ASU’s President Michael Crow.
In his relaxed remarks, the President called on the graduates to concentrate on public service, pursue new innovations and businesses, reject the old standards of success, become mentors and servers to those in need, embrace change and new challenges, and help alter the future of this country.
President Obama was both light-hearted and inspirational. He acknowledged that for both himself and the graduates, most of life’s work and accomplishments still lie ahead. The President thanked the school for naming a new scholarship program after him, noting that one of his goals is to increase accessibility to higher education for more young people.
The President gave specific examples on how graduates could pursue many greater goals to serve others and the country, and not just pursue the old materialism and personal ambitions that led to the current financial crisis. The speech was a a list of particular actions and activities Americans should consider today in response to the many domestic and global challenges facing the U.S. It was in a sense a thoughtful answer to President John F. Kennedy’s famous challenge to America in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
The speech was carried live by the local Phoenix NBC television affiliate, Channel 12. NBC’s local announcers and news reporters treated it as a major local event, which it was. The other local affiliates for ABC, CBS and FOX did not cover the event live but did have many press present to assemble reports on their regularly-scheduled 10 PM evening news programs. Local television ratings were unavailable for the Presidential address.
One local NBC anchor noted that had the 2008 Republican Nominee for President not been Arizona Senator John McCain, President Obama might have carried this increasingly purple state as he did neighboring California, New Mexico and Colorado. The members of the local television press were visibly enraptured and impressed by the President’s visit and speech, mirroring the response from the entire audience gathered for the graduation ceremonies.
Noticeably absent from the evening’s events were any of the Republican leaders in Arizona, which include its 2 U.S. Senators, its Governor (the former Secretary of State Jan Brewer who inherited the office when Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano became Secretary of Homeland Security earlier this year) and the majority members of the State Legislature. The President made a few positive comments about both the former and current Governors of the State in his graduation remarks.
Arizona is still wrestling with a massive budget deficit brought about by the recession combined with long-standing fiscal mismanagement and questionable tax policies. The state has already cut significant state funds to ASU and the 2 other public universities in Tucson and Flagstaff, necessitating tuition hikes at all 3 institutions. State legislators are not very popular on any Arizona college campus and that may explain their absence from the graduation ceremonies. The federal stimulus funds are only a partial and temporary solution for state lawmakers who must still address long-ignored fundamental tax and policy issues.
Even though the air temperature at the time of the President’s speech was a very dry 98 degrees, it was well over 110 degrees in the hot concrete and steel sun-drenched open-air stadium. There was no mention why ASU officials did not move the event to an indoor venue in the Valley such as the climate-controlled professional baseball park or football stadium, either of which could have also accommodated the assembled crowd, ceremonies, security, and parking needs.
Due to heavy security measures surrounding a Presidential visit, guests and students had to arrive and wait in the desert heat for several hours before the sun finally set and temperatures began to cool. They were entertained for several hours by various musical groups before the Presidential speech and commencement exercises finally began.
The President started speaking at ASU under the lights just around 8 PM (Pacific Time) or 11 PM in New York and Washington DC. Live local television broadcast coverage stopped about 10 minutes after the President’s remarks and following some preliminary analysis by the newscasters who were covering the speech and ceremonies.
After the Presidential remarks, the awarding of degrees and handshakes finally began for the over 8,000 ASU graduates assembled today. ASU has over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students at its downtown Tempe and Phoenix campuses.
The President is scheduled to return on Air Force One to Washington DC later this evening.
Prepared on 5/13/09 by Marc Pascal in Phoenix, AZ.