May 16, 2016

President Obama's commencement address to Rutgers University Sunday was masterfully crafted not just as a graduation speech, but also a preview of how you can expect him to campaign in the months to come.

The entire speech is posted above, and you can read the full transcript here.

Here's a teaser:

Look, as President, my first responsibility is always the security and prosperity of the United States. And as citizens, we all rightly put our country first. But if the past two decades have taught us anything, it’s that the biggest challenges we face cannot be solved in isolation. (Applause.) When overseas states start falling apart, they become breeding grounds for terrorists and ideologies of nihilism and despair that ultimately can reach our shores. When developing countries don’t have functioning health systems, epidemics like Zika or Ebola can spread and threaten Americans, too. And a wall won't stop that.

There were four separate references to building walls in that one section of his speech. And then he moved on to hitting ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theories and more.

It's well worth the time to watch the whole thing.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon