“The world is more interconnected than ever before and it’s becoming more connected every day”, Obama added.
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Throughout the year, Obama has turned again and again in speeches to the obligations that come with citizenship and the need for a more reasoned and respectful political debate at a moment when the country’s politics have never seemed more vulgar and poisonous. House Speaker Paul Ryan last month dismissed the role of “experts” in policy debates; former President George W. Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have publicly mocked those who earn post-graduate degrees; Jeb Bush past year complained about Democrats using too many “big-syllable words”.
Don’t vote for Trump despite his obliviousness, support him because of it. Now that he’s the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, his personal and financial past are coming under closer scrutiny. But on all the issues, Republican insiders think Trump will get a pass from voters.
President Obama takes yet another dig at presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
US President Barack Obama on Sunday criticized the populist campaign of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, decrying “anti-intellectualism” and noting that “ignorance is not a virtue”.
“I know it’s getting cold and you guys have to graduate”, he said. (Laughter.) That’s not challenging political correctness. And maybe you’ll learn something and realize you don’t know everything. (Applause.) And yet, we’ve become confused about this. The easy joke is that it’s maybe one of the only times we’ll see “intelligence” and “Trump” in the same sentence, but it’s a scary thought, considering Trump is a reality-TV loudmouth whose most remarkable talent is conjuring up bluster.
Obama has mostly steered clear as Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders compete for the nomination. He’s urged journalists to scrutinize Trump’s vague policy prescriptions and not to emphasize what he calls “the spectacle and the circus”. Mr Obama referred to disparaging comments about Muslims and immigrants, and opposition to free trade deals.
In his speech, Obama told graduates that when they hear people wax nostalgic about the good old days in America, they should take it with a grain of salt..
“You can track from the 2009 addresses a progression toward an Obama who believes that the economy is prospering and these young people are entering a much better world – implicitly, of course, thanks to his policies”, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who researches presidential speechmaking at the University of Pennsylvania, told Scott. He says walls and drawbridges can’t solve America’s problems. “I’m confident that you can make the right choices away from fear and division and toward cooperation and innovation and hope”, Obama said.
Obama noted that no wall could stop outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola and Zika, or help the United States remain competitive in a time of globalization.
The president told the roughly 12,000 graduating students at the university’s stadium in Piscataway, N.J., that the planet’s pace of change is accelerating, not subsiding, and that recent history proved the toughest challenges can not be solved in isolation. “Building walls won’t change things”, Obama said, an apparent jab at Trump calls for a wall along the US-Mexico border.
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“You’re not only better educated but you’re more exposed to the world, to other cultures. you’ve got the tools to lead us”.
