politics
who??
Commencement speakers not as impressive as they used to be
The commencement speaker for the 2008 graduation ceremony has been announced, and the winner is….. EJ Dionne Jr! Many people, including myself, might be asking, who? In addition to being a political newspaper writer, Dionne has quite an impressive resume.
He’s also a commentator for National Public Radio, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and an author, most recently of Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right.
Despite this laundry list of accomplishments, Dionne is following the trend of less and less prominent commencement speakers.
2001 - Barbara Bush
2002 - John McCain
2003 - Michael Bloomberg
2004 - Colin Powell
2005 - Arnold Palmer
2006 - Mark Warner
2007 - David Brooks
2008 - E.J. Dionne
We have gone from well-known politicians to people who write about politics. I am not trying to discredit Dionne’s work in any way, but he’s no McCain or Powell. Hopefully he can deliver a closing line as memorable as “party on, Demon Deacons, party on,“ and Wake can get back on track with impressive, famous speakers.
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