PrintMay 10, 2013
Obama's Demeaning Commencement Address
As a presidential speech writer for the first Bush White House, I am always very interested in what presidents say in their formal speeches. They know, of course, that their remarks will be widely covered by the press, studied by analysts, and influential in contemporary political debates. For that reason, presidents rarely speak off-the-cuff, and their every word is carefully chosen for exactly the message the White House wants to convey to the public. Their graduation speeches, like all presidential addresses, go through many drafts and are reviewed by high-level administration officials to ensure that they accurately reflect the administration's policies and priorities.
That's why President Barack Obama's speech at Ohio State University's 2013 Commencement should trouble all Americans. The speech was permeated with his distorted sense of America; he baldly stated -- as though it were the essence of this country -- that we need to "reject a country in which only...(Read Full Article)
