President Barack Obama returns to Arizona State University today to rally graduates sobered by bleak job prospects and tout the value of higher education and public service.
Obama will deliver the commencement address during what has evolved into a Sun Devil Stadium extravaganza that will pit his trademark soaring oratory against the Valley's soaring temperatures. Many of the 71,000 people expected for the speech will wait for hours in searing triple-digit heat to hear a speech that will last about 20 minutes.
The president is expected to "discuss the amazing opportunity that graduates have, the challenging world that they enter into," said Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary. As he has done before, he is likely to talk about the importance of "the choices that you make leaving college, about being involved in your community and serving a purpose higher than yourself."
Later this month, Obama will deliver commencement addresses at the University of Notre Dame and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Obama, who visited the Tempe campus in October 2007 as a presidential candidate and views Arizona as a key swing state for his 2012 re-election, comes to ASU as his administration readies a major education-reform push. The White House has hinted that, unlike Obama's Feb. 18 announcement in Mesa of his administration's housing-mortgage rescue plan, today's address will focus less on policy and more on traditional, forward-looking inspirational rhetoric.
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