Snipers, Service, and Supple Hands

Posted on May 28, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jon Golbe

According to a new poll of college students’ political opinions, Obama isn’t just more popular than Clinton and McCain, he’s even beating the perennial student favorite, “Don’t Care.” The poll, from the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, reports 82 percent of surveyed students care “a lot” about the current election, while only 22 percent reported caring that much about the election in a 2004 survey.

One example of the decreased apathy is evident in recent Wesleyan grad Seth Samuels’ reaction to Obama’s commencement speech this weekend: “The large number of people who left the speech thinking of ways in which they might be able to serve their country and their ideals is rather large, even outside of the graduating class itself, judging from my own reaction and those of others with whom I’ve discussed it.”

“As for the graduation,” writes Lola Pellegrino ‘08 (who you may remember as the “You know that feeling when you’re so excited you have to pee?” girl) in her blog Cobras: The Silent Killer , “it was fucking great…”

“There were snipers everywhere. Obama gave a killer speech and then actually stayed for the calling of the names. When I walked up to get my diploma, I was SHOCKED to see him, so instead of my planned ‘Tell your wife she kicks ass,” I just sputtered and maybe grinned and looked like I was going to puke and then shook his hand, and it was no joke the most unbelievably supple hand I have ever shaken. Luckily Holly wasn’t too shocked, and she said, ‘I love you, sir,’ to him, and he said thank you, which I feel balances out my ridiculous waste of a golden moment. Right afterwards, I won $25 in scratch tickets and got a fortune cookie that said, ‘You are heading towards a life in a career of service to others, which was exactly the speech Obama had just given.”

Regarding the snipers, we were at Wesleyan over the weekend, and we overheard a rumor that the Secret Service told Obama he couldn’t shake the hands of the graduating seniors as they received their diplomas. But Obama demurred, saying he was the commencement speaker, and that’s what commencement speakers do.

So does this mean a Secret Service sniper had his crosshairs trained on every single graduating senior as they shook hands with Obama? In this blog’s opinion, that’s pretty badass.

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One Response to “Snipers, Service, and Supple Hands”

  1. WSJ Turns Red, Throws Fit : theprereq.com on May 29th, 2008 10:29 am

    […] a cancerous brain tumor and couldn’t speak at Wesleyan University’s Commencement. While students raved about his performance, the Wall Street Journal–otherwise known as The Man, embodied here by […]

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