A school in Arizona wouldn't award Obama an honorary degree???? REALLY? Arizona?????

[underpants]

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) voted against the creation of the holiday to honor King, and later defended Arizona Republican Governor Evan Mecham's rescinding of the state holiday in honor of King created by his Democratic predecessor. After his opposition grew increasingly untenable, McCain reversed his position, and encouraged his home state of Arizona to recognize the holiday despite opposition from Mecham.<12>

In 1990, Arizonans were given an opportunity to vote to observe an MLK holiday. McCain successfully appealed to former President Ronald Reagan to support the holiday.<13> Prior to that date, New Hampshire and Arizona had not observed the day. Throughout the 1990s, this was heavily criticized. Following the failure of the 1990 proposition to recognize the holiday in Arizona, the National Football League moved Super Bowl XXVII from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.<14>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day

At the time, only 27 states and Washington, D.C., honored the holiday. Most famously, all three Arizona House Republicans including current Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, voted against the bill in '83. The state did not vote in favor of recognizing the holiday until 1992, not only rejecting pleas from Reagan and then Arizona governor Evan Mecham but also losing the NFL's support when the league moved Super Bowl XXVII from Sun Devil Stadium, in Tempe, to California in protest.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1872501,00.html

In 1990, NFL owners voted to award the 1993 Super Bowl to Tempe, under one condition -- that the state's voters make MLK Day a state holiday. Arizona, Montana and New Hampshire were the only states not to have done so at the time.
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2008/01/super_bowl_host_arizona_making.html

1996 Super Bowl-Sun Devil Stadium Tempe Arizona
http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/superbowl.htm

[Hissyspit]

1. The Daily Show did a piece on this recently. Everyone they talked to looked like a complete idiot.

Two of the students thought Benjamin Franklin was a president. One student said we should only give honorary degrees to heads of state and people like that.

Of course, you never know how The Daily Show folks are manipulating the interviews, but they sure had plenty to work with apparently.

[Cha]

3. I saw that last night..it almost

seemed like a set up..they were too ignorant to be true.

And, that one guy who got pushed in the pool after he said something about Prez Obama being a "commie" and "how did he ever get elected?" :freak::silly:

[underpants]

8. 4:44

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8404693

Direct link
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=227327&title=arizona-state-snubs-obama

[azmouse]

2. I can't say that AZ doesn't have problems but

the things you mentioned happened 10 and 20 years ago.

I've lived here since 1994 and people aren't any different here than those that I knew when I lived in PA or CA.

[rufus dog]

6. My take is the "core" is the root cause in AZ

I actually left AZ and ASU in 85. Growing up in Phx was a bit different, not that I knew it at the time. It was basically segregated, with political control by a group of native rednecks. As the city and state grows you get a bigger diversion of people and ideas, but that core group still has enough power to get assholes like Arpaio elected. The corruption is city and state gov't is much worse in AZ. Your state has come a long way but still is a tad backwards.

What is the best way to see Glendale? In your rearview mirror.

[azmouse]

7. That is insulting...

but I'm sure you knew that and didn't care.

[rufus dog]

12. You want culture in Glendale?

Go to the mini mart and pick up a yogurt.

Dude, lighten up, it is my birth state, grew up there, west side, just some old jokes.

[azmouse]

13. I live in Glendale.

:P

Just because it didn't work for you living here is no reason to put it down.

I'm from a small town in PA. It didn't work for me living there but I will not insult the people that like living there and call it home. I also lived in CA... nothing could drag me back there. I didn't like it but I also will not insult that state because many people call that home also and love living there. I gain nothing by putting down someone else's home.

I thank God every day that I live in a country that has such diverse areas. Everyone can find some place they call home.

[Cha]

4. There were a lot of threads

on this back when it happened and the upshot was they admitted they "blew it" and decided they were going to give a scholarship in his name.

Their reasoning for not giving Prez O an Honorary Degree was one of the stupidest reasons I've ever heard.

[provis99]

5. no offense to Arizonans, but

Arizona State has been notorious nationally for being a party university, where the students are uninterested in education and more interested in four (or five, or six) years of drunken orgies. Arizona does have some decent universities, but Arizona State ain't one of them. 'Course, I went to Ole Miss, which probably vies for top place with ASU as a party school, so if you're an intellectual ASU alumni, I feel your pain.

[underpants]

9. ASU? a Party school??? (link to Daily show last night 4:44)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=227327&title=arizona-state-snubs-obama

[Cha]

15. I always thought of it as a party school and was

so surprised they weren't acknowledging that last night.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/nightlife/articles/2008/07/29/20080729partyschool.html

http://www.epinions.com/review/educ-Colleges_and_Universities-All-Arizona_State_University/content_52942311044

[and-justice-for-all]

10. Its stupid and I really do not care...

Obama is still smarter then their graduates.

[Justitia]

11. They gave one to Pearl Bailey, fer cryin out loud. 'Course, she was a repub. -eom

[onenote]

14. and even more recently they gave one to Doug Wilder.

Oh wait, he's a Democrat.

ASU bungled their handling of this matter big time. But let's not get carried away. If it was based on race and/or politics, how do you explain Doug Wilder getting an honorary degree from ASU in 2004.

The school decided, rather informally, and somewhat inconsistently at first, to stop giving honorary degrees to sitting politicians. If ASU had given honorary degrees to chimpy or cheney or pappy or any other repub prez/vp or to newt or any other repub leader in recent years, then I think howls would be in order.

However, they are guilty of bad public relations not racism or political bias. In fact, I daresay that naming a scholarship fund for Obama is a more meaningful and lasting form of tribute than an honorary degree.

The president doesn't seem bent out of shape about this. With all the real things to be upset about, why are folks dredging this back up again? Bored?

[Justitia]

16. That makes no fucking sense. If they decided to stop giving honorary degrees to politicians, how

did Wilder get one?

Yeah, right, they are really pure in their "motives".
They are petty assholes, they look like petty assholes, and they certainly don't deserve the time of day from Obama.

He is being incredibly gracious and considerate of the students who are certainly not to blame for the idiots responsible for this nonsensical "decision".

edit to add: The university themselves says your reason is not the reason why. They said it's because he has not achieved enough yet.
So there goes the "sitting politicians" theory.

[onenote]

17. "Sitting" politicians

Wilder was out of office in 2004. The last time they gave an honorary degree to a sitting politician was in 2002 to a retiring congressman whose replacement already had been elected when he received the degree. (Reportedly, he was picked to get it the previous spring by the previous president but for some reason or another --possibly his health -- didn't receive it until after the new university president took office. In any event, he was out of office one month after getting the degree and was dead a few months after that.

As for the university's explanation -- they offered several and as I said, they bungled it badly. That is particularly the case with respect to their reference to his experience, something that they admitted. I suspect it has more to do with age, than experience. Since the current president took office at ASU, there have been 9 honorary degrees awarded. The youngest person to get one was 57 or 58, the oldest 83. The average was close to 70.

Again, they bungled how they handled it, but assuming it had something to do with race or political party is difficult to square with the past record of awarding degrees to the likes of Wilder or a leading Native American.

Feel free to get poutraged. BUt at least get your facts straight.

[Justitia]

18. What are you - president of their booster club? Who cares about their "reasons", they're dicks.

But I give you a valiant "A" for effort in helping them cover their collective ass.

[onenote]

21. No I'm someone who cares about facts and accuracy. Makes me different from you I guess.

I also have reading comprehension skills you seem to lack. I said they bungled it. But attacking ASU's decision as racist or motivated by politics is wrong, and stupid.

I wouldn't expect you to admit that you had your facts wrong. You don't seem like the type.

[Justitia]

23. Who said anything about racism? I said they were "petty assholes" - and they are.

Feel free to debate the "facts" about that.

But then again, YOU were 100% wrong on the facts for WHY they did it and YOU haven't corrected that, now have you?

[onenote]

24. you are right. I shouldn't have mentioned race. But you were wrong

in suggesting that it was because Obama is a Democrat (see your reference to Pearl Bailey).

Wilder is a Democrat. Pete Zah prominently supported Democratic candidates. PRevious honorees include Cesar Chavez.

They bungled it. But your ascribing them "petty" motives is unsubstantiaed. They stuck to a silly policy and explained it poorly when common sense suggested that creating an exception to the policy was the proper course.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. He's not really just any sitting politician...

He's the first black person elected President of the United States. Not giving him the degree was stupid no matter how you slice it.

[onenote]

22. and I said they bungled it.

My only point was that the poster who suggested it was racially or politically motivated would have a hard time explaining how to square that claim with the other honorary degrees that the school has handed out, such as the one to an African-American, Democratic governor or to Peterson Zah, the head of the Navajo Nation who publicly has supported Democratic candidates in the past, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. Indeed, the poster suggesting that the decision not to give Obama an honorary degree was politically motivated cited Pearl Bailey's receiving an award, but ignored the fact that ASU gave an honorary degree to Cesar Chavez.

Again, I think the school made a mistake in not giving Obama a degree. But I don't agree that the decision was motivated by race or politics and I think the facts back me up.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

20. They gave Erma Bombeck one. nt