President Obama's Notre Dame Speech

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Pres. Obama to Deliver Commencement Address May 17

On May 17, President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement addresss and receive an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Notre Dame du Lac University. This is driving the anti-choice crowd bananas. Notre Dame has previously awarded honorary doctorates to Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, who both supported a woman's right to choose, so this is not a first for the university. They also awarded an honorary degree to George H. W. Bush, who was pro-choice when he ran for president and only changed his position to anti-choice in order to be accepted as Ronald Reagan's running mate.

This is the first time that the anti-choice activists have gone berserk over Notre Dame extending an invitation to a pro-choice U.S. President. Suddenly it's a big deal. More than 70 U.S. Catholic bishops have now condemned the invitation. It gives them something new to talk about for a change.

Goppie lunatic Alan Keyes and domestic terrorist and former leader of Operation Rescue, Randall Terry, are leading the anti-abortion crowd in protests, waving posters with photos of aborted fetuses and having planes dragging gigantic banners with dead fetus photos in the sky above Notre Dame daily. Both Terry and Keyes have been arrested. Keyes just got out after spending the past weekend in county jail for pushing a baby carriage with a doll covered in fake blood and screaming anti-Obama slogans on the Notre Dame campus last Friday. He will be holding a press conference at 2 p.m. today to demand that Fr. Jenkins' C.S.C. superiors do something about him immediately.

Terry was arrested more than a week before Keyes. You might remember Terry from the Terri Schiavo protests in Florida a few years back. He claimed to be the spokesperson for Schiavo's parents. He also was the guy who had a dead fetus delivered to Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic Convention. Terry has been convicted of domestic terrorism against women's health clinics and ordered by the court to pay restitution. He filed bankruptcy to avoid paying the damages ordered by the court. He then asked his "followers" to please pay for a new $432,000 house for him because he was now broke. Chuck Schumer tried to get an amendment to the bankruptcy overhaul bill a couple of years ago that would have prevented anyone from having court ordered restitution for damages done to women's health clinics discharged in bankruptcy but the Goppies in the Senate shot it down. They approve of terrorism against women's health clinics.

It's important to remember that Barack Obama won the Catholic vote easily in November. It's also important to note that the majority of Americans (including the majority of Catholics) do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned. We should also remember that the vast majority of Notre Dame students and faculty approve of this invitation. In a recent poll, American Catholics approved of the invitation by a margin of two to one. Unfortunately the minority who oppose the invitation are a bunch of screaming radicals who are extremely over the top in their protests. Hopefully they will all be arrested Sunday before Obama speaks.

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Former Notre Dame President Approves of Obama Invitation

The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, who served as the University of Notre Dame's president for 35 years, says in an interview that he believes the school was right in inviting President Barack Obama to speak at this weekend's commencement.

The 91-year-old Hesburgh said in an interview Thursday with WNDU-TV that universities are supposed to be places where people of differing opinions can talk.

"It's like a common place where people who disagree can get together, instead of throwing bricks at one another, they can discuss the problem and they can see different solutions to difficult problems and those solutions are going to come out of people from universities. They aren't going to come from people running around with signs," he said.

The school's decision to award an honorary degree to Obama has sparked criticism, including from at least 70 bishops, because of the president's support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

Notre Dame had Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan as commencement speakers while Hesburgh was president of the school from 1952 to 1987. George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush also spoke at Notre Dame commencements. "None of them have agreed with us on all issues, but I think just coming here and seeing another point of view and mingling with people who look upon something like abortion as an abhorrent thing — that will have an effect on them," Hesburgh said. "We're not a place that hides out in the corner and says we believe this and that's that and we're not going to talk to anybody that doesn't agree with us. We say, 'Hey, we know we disagree on things. Let's get together and talk.'"

Notre Dame has awarded an honorary doctorate to every sitting president and every former president who was invited to give the commencement address. Obama will be the sixth sitting president so honored. I believe Gerald Ford was invited after he had left office. Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter were both pro-choice when Notre Dame awarded them honorary doctorates. George H. W. Bush had been pro-choice but he was pro-life when Notre Dame honored him.

Dwight Eisenhower was probably pro-life when he received his honorary doctorate at Notre Dame but I'm not sure. He may have been pro-choice. His parents were both Jehovah's Witnesses. Eisenhower himself was baptized in the Presbyterian church 12 days after his inauguration in 1953. The Presbyterian church is officially pro-choice.

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Oops! He Did It Again.

Goppie lunatic Alan Keyes and 17 others were arrested earlier today for trespassing at Notre Dame. I hope they keep him in jail until Monday. This time I suspect he will probably opt to pay the $250 and get out so he can protest Sunday. I'm sure the protesters won't be allowed on campus Sunday either. It's possible, even likely, that two or three dozen graduating seniors will boycott the ceremony in favor of an alternate ceremony. That's a very small percentage of Notre Dame's 2009 senior class.

According to published reports, 79 Catholic bishops have now publicly criticized Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. That works out to about 20% of the total number of Catholic bishops in the U.S. They probably all voted for John McCain. ("More than 50 bishops" have protested the Obama invitation according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.)

You need to check out the photo I am attaching to this post. It's Goppie lunatic Alan Keyes pushing a Spongebob Squarepants stroller filled with aborted Cabbage Patch dolls covered in fake blood onto the Notre Dame campus.

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Jenkins Will Not Be Removed

I don't know why all of these people think they can get Fr. Jenkins fired as president of Notre Dame. It's not going to happen. Notre Dame is governed by a board of trustees. They support Jenkins in his decision to invite President Obama. Jenkins is in the fourth year of a five-year term. I would be willing to bet that the board offers him a second term when his current term expires.

Notre Dame's Bishop John D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South diocese has condemned the invitation and he will boycott the ceremony. That's ALL he can do. He can't do anything to Fr. Jenkins. Neither can Francis Cardinal George. They can condemn it all they want but they can't touch Fr. Jenkins.

The Congregation of the Holy Cross reports directly to the Pope in Rome, so all those protesters are aiming their demands at the wrong people. Fr. Jenkins' immediate superior is the Provincial Superior of the Indiana Province of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Fr. David Tyson, and he has already released a statement saying that he will not interfere with Fr. Jenkins' decisions as president of Notre Dame. Fr. Jenkins is responsible to Notre Dame's board of trustees for his actions as president of the university and the board of trustees backs his decision to invite President Obama and award him an honorary doctorate of laws degree.

Where were all these protesters when Edward Cardinal Egan of New York invited Sen. Barack Obama, presidential candidate, to be the featured speaker at the Al Smith dinner in October 2008? Obama's position on abortion was well known to Cardinal Egan.

P.S. -- The 2009 graduating class honored Fr. Jenkins with their highest award yesterday.

P.P.S. -- The valedictorian of Notre Dame's 2009 graduating class voted for Barack Obama and she is thrilled that he will be giving the commencement address and receiving an honorary degree.

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First Lady Michelle Obama will be giving the commencement address at UC Merced sometime in the next hour. It will be carried live on CNN.

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Latest Pew Research Poll (April 30, 2009):

Do you think it was right or wrong for Notre Dame to invite Obama to give their graduation speech and receive an honorary degree?

Total U.S.: Right 48%, wrong 25%.
Catholics: Right 50%, wrong 28%.


Obama's Job Performance:
Total U.S.: Approve 63%, disapprove 26%.
Catholics: Approve 67%, disapprove 21%.
White evang. Prot.: Approve 33%, disapprove 52%.

It's just the Protestant fundies who are opposed to Obama, not the Catholics.

What about abortion and gay marriage, two issues that several potential Goppie candidates for public office (e.g., Rudy Giuliani) have said they will make important issues in their campaigns?



Good luck with that Rudy. You, too, Newt.

I think the Goppies' bandwagon is stuck in reverse.