Obama Not Accomplished Enough To Get Honorary Degree From ASU

Arizona State University is working to overcome the PR error of asking the president to deliver the commencement address while not offering him an honorary degree because, said the university, “His body of work is yet to come.”  It is customary for a dignitary to receive an honorary degree upon speaking to a graduating class.

The school has been mocked in various online forums since the student-run State Press newspaper first reported that ASU decided against awarding an honorary degree to the president at May 13 graduation ceremonies. A series of statements by university officials followed as the story refused to die.

After diminishing the president’s accomplishments, the next PR foray was for the school’s president, Michael Crow (pictured), to claim that there’s a policy not to give honorary degrees to sitting politicians.  Upon further consideration, Crow now says ASU will name its “most important” scholarship after the president.

Recent recipients of honorary degrees at ASU include J. Craig Venter, an internationally known scientist credited for developing high-volume genome sequencing, and Wu Qidi, vice minister of education of the People’s Republic of China. The university said it had no plans to award any honorary degrees this year.

Now, if we had a conservative president who was refused an honorary degree at a university, you would have every right-wing talk show host in America railing against our “liberal education system.”  They’d be calling for the heads of every university official involved. They’d demand explanations as to how such an honor could be given to a communist vice minister, but not to the president of the greatest country on God’s green earth.  I’m just sayin’.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.