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Obama Strikes Personal Tone in Commencement Speech on Race, Manhood

May 192013
 

Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post(ATLANTA) — President Obama said Sunday that he is motivated by the knowledge that “but for the grace of God … I might have been in prison,” in a commencement address at historically black Morehouse College, where he spoke frankly about race and young men’s responsibilities to 500 male graduates.

In his second commencement address of this graduation season, the president called on the graduates to set examples for others and reach out to those who need help, telling them that as a black man he felt a unique connection to assist those in need because he could have faced similar circumstances.

“There but for the grace of God go I, I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison,” he said at the commencement ceremony at Morehouse College. “I might have been unemployed, I might not have been able to support a family, and that motivates me.”

The president said that many young black men “make bad choices,” but told the graduates, “We’ve got no time for excuses,” because the difficulties they’ve faced “pale in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured, and if they overcame them, you can too.”

“Growing up, I made quite a few myself.  Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down.  I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is that there is no longer any room for excuses,” he said.

The president spoke in extremely personal terms about growing up without a father present in his life, attributing his upbringing to his “heroic single mother,” and said that his legacy will be defined by his success as an active father and husband, a role he encouraged the graduates to adopt in their own lives.

“My whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me,” he said. “I want to break that cycle where a father’s not at home, where a father’s not helping to raise that son or daughter.  I’ve tried to be a better father, a better husband, a better man.

“I know that when I am on my deathbed someday, I will not be thinking about any particular legislation I passed; I will not be thinking about a policy I promoted; I will not be thinking about the speech I gave; I will not be thinking about the Nobel Prize I received,” he said. “I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughters.  I’ll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my wife.  I’ll be thinking about sitting around the dinner table and seeing them happy and healthy and knowing that they were loved. And I’ll be thinking about whether I did right by all of them.”

The president, who received an honorary degree from the school, honored one of the college’s famous graduates, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who “helped to forge the intellect, the discipline, the compassion, the soul force that would transform America.”

“He, in turn, taught others to be unafraid.  And over time he taught a nation to be unafraid and over the last 50 years, thanks to the moral force of Dr. King and a Moses generation that overcame their fear, and their cynicism, and their despair, barriers have come tumbling down and new doors of opportunity have swung open,” he said. “Laws, hearts, and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks just like you can somehow come to serve as president of these United States of America.”

Rain poured down on the crowd throughout the ceremony, forcing many in attendance to don plastic ponchos, and thunder rang out and lightning flickered in the sky as Obama wound down his speech.  The president stayed dry on stage but sympathized with the rain-soaked graduates and attendees, even noting that his wife, Michelle Obama, would not be pleased with the rainy day because of what it would do to her famous hair.

“You all are going to get wet, and I’d be out there with you if I could, but Secret Service gets nervous. So I’m going to have to stay here dry, but know that I’m there with you in spirit,” he said. “Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. She has taught me about hair.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Michelle Obama Makes Light of President’s Failures in Graduation Speech

May 192013
 

iStockphoto(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Delivering her only speech at a high school graduation this year, first lady Michelle Obama joked about the failures her husband, President Obama, has encountered in life as she told a graduating class of high school seniors in Nashville, Tenn. Saturday that in order to achieve success in life, they must first experience failure.

“When something doesn’t go your way, you’ve just got to adjust. You’ve got to dig deep and work like crazy, and that’s when you’ll find out what you’re really made of during those hard times, but you can only do that if you’re willing to put yourself in a position where you might fail, and that’s why so often failure, is the key to success for so many great people,” Obama said at the graduation ceremony for Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School.

“Oprah was demoted from her first job as a news anchor. Now she doesn’t even need a last name,” she said.  “And then there’s this guy Barack Obama. … I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but he lost his first race for Congress, and now he gets to call himself my husband.

“All jokes aside, the point is that that resilience and grit, that ability to pick yourself up when you fall, those are some of the most important skills you’ll need as you make your way through college and through life,” she said. “I want you to tell yourself that no matter what challenges you face that you will commit yourself to achieving your goals no matter where life takes you.”

As a student introduced Obama, he noted that his own mother found inspiration in the first lady and her well toned arms.

“Now my mom’s arms look better than mine,” the graduate said.

“I would love to see your mom’s arms. Where are they?” Obama asked as she started her speech and asked the graduate’s mother to stand.  ”Yes! I love that, and she’s showing them off too!”

 

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Obama to Start ‘Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tours’

May 052013
 

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama will kick off a series of Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tours with a trip Thursday to Austin, Texas, a White House spokesman announced Sunday.

“In his State of the Union, the president laid out his belief that the middle class is the engine of economic growth. To reignite that engine, there are three areas we need to invest in: 1) jobs, 2) skills 3) opportunity,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

“Even though some in Congress are determined to create more self-inflicted economic wounds, there are things Washington could be doing right now to help American businesses, schools and workers,” he said. “We need to build on the progress we’ve made over the last four years, and that means investing in things that are already creating good-paying, stable jobs that can support a middle class family.”

In Austin, the president plans to visit Manor New Tech High School, meet with technology entrepreneurs, visit a tech company, and meet with middle class workers, according to the White House.

“He will visit these places to learn what has helped them become successful and use these models of growth to encourage Congress to act,” Earnest said.

“Things are getting better, but our economic recovery is not as strong as it could be and far too many middle class families are still struggling. The question is, will Congress will join with the president to make sure the middle class is strong and secure,” Earnest said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Obama Gives Commencement Address at Ohio State University

May 052013
 

iStockphoto(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — In his first commencement address of this year’s graduation season, President Obama encouraged more than 10,000  graduates gathered at Ohio State University to pay heed to their duty as citizens and become active participants in their country in the years ahead.

“This democracy is ours. As citizens, we understand that it is not about what America may do for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government and to the class of 2013 you have to be involved in that process.”

Obama said as he delivered the commencement address before more than 57,000 people at the football stadium at Ohio State University.

The president drew on recent tragedies, from the Boston marathon bombing to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as he relayed the way actively engaged citizens have rallied together in the country’s time of need.

“Just look at the past year. When a hurricane struck our mightiest city, and a factory exploded in a small-town in Texas. We saw citizenship. When bombs went off in Boston, and when a malevolent spree of gunfire visited a movie theater, a temple, an Ohio high school, a first-grade classroom in Connecticut. We saw citizenship. In the aftermath of darkest tragedy, we have seen the American spirit at its brightest,” he said.

“And that’s what citizenship is. It’s at the heart of our founding – that as Americans, we are blessed with God-given talents and inalienable rights, but with those rights come responsibilities – to ourselves and to one another, and to future generations,” he said.

But as he offered his advice to the graduates, he acknowledged that this duty must also be renewed by lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

“In Washington – well, this is a joyous occasion, so let me put this charitably: I think it’s fair to say our democracy isn’t working as well as we know it can. It could do better,” he said.

The president told the students that before you can reach success, you must endure failure, pointing to basketball legend Michael Jordan and himself as examples.

“We remember Michael Jordan’s six championships, we don’t remember nearly 15,000 missed shots,” he said. “As for me, I lost my first race for Congress, and look at me now – I’m an honorary graduate of The Ohio State University!”

The president was presented with an honorary doctorate along with photographer Annie Liebovitz, Yale Professor Thomas Pollard and Reinhard Rummel, whose career focuses on studying the earth’s gravity field.

Obama traveled to Ohio numerous times during the presidential election last year and referenced one of his stops at Sloopy’s, which he mispronounced as he imparted some advice on the new graduates.

“One time, I stopped at Sloppy’s to grab some lunch. Many of you – it’s Sloopy’s, I know…I’m coming off a foreign trip,” he joked. “Many of you were still eating breakfast at 11:30 on a Tuesday. So to the class of 2013 I’ll offer my first piece of advice early: enjoy it while you still can. Soon, you will not get to wake up and have breakfast at 11:30 on a Tuesday. And once you have kids, it gets even earlier.”

As he closed out his address, he challenged the Class of 2013 “to do better.”

“Look at all America has accomplished. Look at how big we’ve been. I dare you class of 2013 to do better. I dare you to dream bigger,” he said. “From what I have seen of your generation, I have no doubt you will. I wish you courage, and compassion, and all the strength you need for that tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Obama Mixes Serious Tone with Humor at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Apr 282013
 

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) –Amid the glitz and glamour, humor and levity normally surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Obama injected a somber tone to the annual soiree as he invoked the memories of those affected by the Boston Marathon bombing and West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion earlier this month and praised not only the work of the first responders in each of those tragedies but also the journalists dedicated to covering them.

“These have been some very hard days for too many of our citizens. Even as we gather here tonight our thoughts are not far from the people of Boston and the people of West, Texas. There are families who are in the Midwest who are coping with some terrible floods, so we’ve had some difficult days but even when the days seem darkest, we have seen humanity shine at its brightest,” the president said at the Washington Hilton Hotel Saturday.

“We’ve seen first responders and national guardsmen who dashed into danger, law enforcement officers who lived their oath to serve and to protect, and every day Americans who are opening their homes and their hearts to perfect strangers.

“We also saw journalists at their best, especially those who took the time to wade upstream through the torrent of digital rumors, to chase down leads and verify facts and painstakingly put the pieces together to inform and to educate and to tell stories that demanded to be told,” the president said.

The president doled out particular praise for newspapers like the Boston Globe, who provided detailed information to the public as its city coped with a major terrorist attack.

“If anyone wonders for example if newspapers are a thing of the past, all you need to do is to pick up or log on to papers like the Boston Globe,” the president said to applause. “When their communities and wider world needed them most, they were there, making sense of events that might at first blush seem beyond our comprehension and that’s what great journalism is, and that’s what great journalists do.”

But while the president, who was accompanied by First Lady Michelle Obama, presented a serious tone for a portion of his speech, he also took some time to poke fun at himself, even highlighting some of the criticisms and perceptions some hold of him.

“Look I get it, these days I look in the mirror and I have to admit I’m not the strapping young Muslim socialist that I used to be,” Obama said to laughter.

“I’m also hard at work on plans for the Obama library and some have suggested we put it in my birthplace but I’d rather keep it in the United States,” Obama joked.

Pointing out his flap when he called California Attorney General Kamala Harris the “best looking attorney general,” the president joked, “As you might imagine I got in trouble when I got back home. Who knew Eric Holder was so sensitive?”

The president also addressed his recent “charm offensive” with members of Congress as he tries to reach across the aisle to Republicans.

“My charm offensive has helped me learn some interesting things about what’s going on in congress. It turns out absolutely nothing,” he said.

And he took aim at a potential Republican 2016 hopeful, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, who’s short time in the Senate resembled that of President Obama when he first entered elected office.

 “One senator who has reached across the aisle recently is Marco Rubio but I don’t know about 2016, I mean the guy has not even finished a single term in the senate and he thinks he’s ready to be president,” the president said sarcastically. “Kids these days.”

The evening’s festivities offered journalists and politicians the opportunity to hobnob with celebrities who descend upon Washington, D.C. for the annual dinner, which is hosted by the White House Correspondents Association and features a presentation of scholarships to journalism students and awards to esteemed colleagues in the industry.

Late night talk show host Conan O’Brien entertained the guests, but even he wasn’t free of the president’s comedic aim.

When the president discussed the WHCA’s decision to select O’Brien as the evening’s entertainment, he said they were “faced with that aged old dilemma, do you offer it to him now or wait 5 years and then give it to Jimmy Fallon?”

 

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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