I got a golden ticket!

On Wednesday night, a dear friend of mine graduated with her Master’s in Social Work.  She is a sweetheart of a woman who busted her ass to earn her degree.  Because of the President’s visit, getting to the graduation was difficult at best.  However, my wonderful wife managed to get us two tickets to the commencement so we could see Oralia graduate.

It was a double bonus because, well, I got to hear one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard.  What amazed me is that for such a Republican heavy state, I only saw three teabaggers who dared leave their mom’s basements and brave the heat.

Someone really should have told the guy on the right that the 40% cuts in education were the brainchild of the Arizona Republican Party, and not the President.

It was hot….. “Africa hot!” as Matthew Broderick once said in Biloxi Blues.  They ran out of bottled water early, but, on the plus side, it took us only ~10 minutes to get through security and big gulp cups of iced tap water were only $5!  (sarcasm intended)

A pleasant surprise was an appearance by Alice Cooper who came out to play with his son Dash’s (yes, really) band Runaway Phoenix.

But, when the President took the stage, the place went nuts!

His speech, if you haven’t seen it, is a definite must see.  Of course, the response from the right was “Obama said making money is bad!”, which isn’t at all true.  He said greed, selfishness, materialism all suffer from a “poverty of ambition”.

It was incredible.  I tip my hat to ASU, too, for putting together such a huge event and for it running so smoothly (water issue excepted).

Amazing.