No Fist Pump, Obama?

The University of Michigan’s “Big House” played host to our illustrious President this past Saturday. He was the keynote speaker at the U of M’s spring commencement ceremony. I was there also as my nephew graduated and received his undergraduate degree.

I took the picture of Obama speaking here, very much zoomed in as I was up high in the cheap seats. But I had a pair of binoculars too, so I could see things more up close. Regardless of where you were sitting and regardless of whether you’re an Obama fan or not, you have to respect his ability to hold sway over a crowd of 80,000 plus.

Whenever I’ve attended commencements in the past, it’s a struggle for any speaker to hold the attention of their audience for 10 minutes, let alone 30 minutes like Obama did with his address. Usually beach balls sail here and there over the crowd, graduates chat distractedly and the older folks grow inpatient. I didn’t see that this time.

But the President still disappointed me.

This is the University of Michigan’s Big House, one of the most revered places in all of college football. Nearly every prior speaker paid their customary respects with a hearty, “Go Blue!” to close their remarks. The elected student speaker eloquently compared the challenges of change the President seeks in his first term with the challenges of change sought by U of M’s new football coach Rich Rodriguez as he strives for a winning season.

Our governor Jennifer Granholm warmed up the crowd by thanking the President for a number of favors he’s accomplished for the state of Michigan, but reserved her final thank you “for coming here instead of that school to the south” to an appreciative roar of approval from those listening.

Then Obama started his own speech by saying, “It is great to be here in the Big House and so may I say, “Go Blue!” I thought I’d go for the cheap applause line to start things off.”

What??!! “Go Blue” is not just some cheap applause line. It’s mantra, it’s sacred symbolism, it’s a tenet of life here in Ann Arbor. I’ve heard “Go blue” from strangers pretty much everywhere in the country I wear my Michigan shirt. C’mon Mr. President, “Go Blue” deserves more respect than that.

And that wasn’t my only disappointment. At the very end, after all the speaking, honors and salutations, the U of M band put the final icing on the ceremonial cake with a rousing rendition of “Hail to the Victors.”

It was something stirring to see the sea of fists thrusting skyward in unison at the word “hail”, even among the silk-robed intellectual elite gathered on the stage. But from what I could see through my binoculars, one person up on the stage was conspicuously not joining in the ritual—Obama.

Now wait a minute. Didn’t Obama get into trouble by bowing when he was in Japan? He obviously thought it was a case of “when a guest in Rome . . . “ So why not do what they do in the Big House when you’re a guest in the Big House? Where was his chief of protocol on that one?

Maybe the President’s lack of partisan spirit had something to do with his theme for his commencement address, which had to do with civility, respect and acceptance. OK, I guess. I can see a day when Democrats and Republicans might get along, maybe even a day when there is peace in the Middle East.

But a day when we will welcome to the Big House with civility, open arms and warm hearts those people representing that “school from the south” that Governor Granholm talked about? Trust me, it’ll never happen.