President Obama told graduating women at Barnard College to “reach high and hope deeply,” and reminisced about his own time in Morningside Heights in a commencement speech at the school yesterday.
“I will begin by telling a hard truth: I’m a Columbia College graduate,” he told graduating students. “I know there can be a little bit of a sibling rivalry here.”
Obama offered some fatherly advice at the all-women school: “Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.”
Obama, who is counting on a big edge from female voters in November, said he was a product of rearing by strong women: his mother and grandmother, and said women would now “shape not only their own destiny, but the destiny of this nation and of this world.”
Obama noted that when he graduated in 1983, “music was all about Michael [Jackson] and the moonwalk.” An enthusiast shouted out for him to do the dance, but Obama demurred.
“No moonwalking today,” he said.
He mentioned his working at “a few unfulfilling jobs here in New York,” as well as going “from motley apartment to motley apartment.”
Obama got an effusive endorsement from Barnard president Debora Spar, who told him: “You have ended the war in Iraq, turned the tide in Afghanistan, and made certain that regardless of sexual orientation, those serving our country have the freedom to ask and to tell.”
“I’m sure that he is here to ensure that he gets the women’s vote — he needs it. There’s politics in everything, even this visit,” said Tessa Chandler, 38, who teaches at Barnard.