you know you've been waiting for this post

OBAMA!!!
(and graduation)
Yes I was there, I saw the man himself. Law students got really awesome seats almost in the front behind Phd. students. And after all the hype the standing in the sun waiting to go through security really wasn't that bad. And Obama wasn't that bad. I enjoyed his speech. I felt properly propelled to go out there and fulfill my greater mission and keep learning and not be focused on superficial things. I also was very impressed with Obama for shaking the hands of EACH and every doctoral candidate and even giving hugs to people who wanted hugs--he even signed some girls sash (by the by, I heard a rumor that apparently ASU used to read law students names and have them walk across the stage as well but one year a bunch of awesome law students decided to get a keg and be drunk as they walked across the stage..so they decided to stop reading their names..basically I could have shaken the president's hand if law students weren't losers and I didn't go to the country's biggest party school.... ) There will be more pics later of the law school commencement that is tomorrow...yesterday was mostly about Obama..and Alice Cooper who was a "surprise musical guest"-- who knew you had rock bands at graduation-sure different from BYU :)

First, here's the speech
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/13/obama-asu-speech-full-tex_n_203287.html

and some pictures

the stadium from the field
The stage and podium before they put the presidential seal on it
air force one flying in
me in my cool velvet hat
me and Paul and Seth--apparently Seth and I don't know how to keep our hoods on...
with Sparky, the ASU mascot
and all my Obama pics came out pretty fuzzy but at least you can see how close I was (this was taken with a zoom but still...)
A better view from the screen
Since he is Commander in Chief Obama commissioned all the military officers as part of the ceremony which I thought was pretty cool