Obama courts female voters by bumping woman from commencement speech platform
The Daily Caller ^
Posted on March 4, 2012 7:49:17 PM EST by Sub-Driver
Obama courts female voters by bumping woman from commencement speech platform 5:44 PM 03/04/2012 ADVERTISEMENT
New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson was all set to be the commencement speaker this year at Barnard College in New York. Then the White House called and humbly suggested a replacement: President Barack Obama.
The college quickly accepted the offer, bumped Abramson entirely and announced that Obama will receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction at the commencement ceremony. The award is the school’s highest honor.
The three most recent commencement speakers at the all-female Barnard have all been women: Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, actress Meryl Streep and Hillary Clinton.
Considering the recent controversy surrounding an administration proposal to require religious employers to cover contraception services in their health care plans, the announcement that the president was courting female voters isn’t surprising,
Unless, of course, you talk to Columbia University students.
“I can’t even [believe] this fuckery,” one Columbia alum wrote in an online comment on the story in the Spectator. “Why does the president consistently turn down speaking at Columbia?”
Columbia University, the president’s alma mater, is the parent university of Barnard College. Female students can also attend Columbia University, some students pointed out.
“As a graduating senior [at Columbia] who will have to listen to some random dude at commencement, all I can say is WTF,” another wrote at the Village Voice.
Columbia students had spent over a year working to bring the president to their school’s commencement, even organizing a letter-writing campaign called The POTUS Project.
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