Too "lighthearted"?

Who cares.

"Lighthearted" is okay. Conan O'Brien's commencement speech at Harvard a few years ago was brilliant.

But "as if she wrote it on the cab ride over" is not good.

David Baldacci at UVA Law last year was no great shakes, either.

Lat - Totenberg is the first ACTUAL, real-life diva you have covered in quite a while. Lay it on us.

"Cogent" is so overused.

She's very elegant looking!

I'm sure she had little on Dean Larry Kramer

I can top that. My LS graduation commencement speaker was Dick Gregory, who spent an hour and a half rambling about the makers of tampons killing women through toxic shock syndrome!

My family and several classmates then dined at Trader Vic’s, but none of us had any appetite.

As a 2007 GULC grad who was expecting Totenberg to be terrible, I thought she was pretty good. My only complaint was with the overall theme of the commencement, of which she was a party, which was an endless celebration of the Hamdan case.

12:06, why would you expect Totenberg to be "terrible"?

11:52, do you know if conan's harvard speech can be viewed online even though it was a few years ago.

I believe Conan was Class Day speaker at Harvard, and Class Day is often a lighthearted event. Commencement speakers are typically more serious...like when Secretary of State George Marshall unveiled the Marshall Plan. Could you imagine sitting through that one?

12:12, I can't find it on YouTube (although there is a Stuyvesant High School speech he did on YouTube).

Here is the text of Conan's Harvard speech:

http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm

And 12:13 is right, he was Class Day speaker, not the Commencement speaker.

conan's harvard speech was high-larrrious!

http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm

bill gates spoke this year. although not a natural orater (despite his brilliance), his speech was actually pretty good. he did a great job of chiding himself and harvard for his 30-year leave of absence, finally getting his degree (honorary), and not getting any ladies back when he was a student.

12:12 -

Because I just didn't think a legal journalist would give that entertaining a speech. Plus, if your school snags a SCOTUS justice (like Chief Justice Roberts at the 2006 GULC commencement), regardless of how bad the speech is, you can still say, "Justice X was our commencement speaker" and that's a pretty cool thing to hang onto.

With that said, I enjoyed Totenberg's mix of light-heartedness and serious advice.

Heh. I don't even remember who spoke at our UVA Law grad -- and it wasn't been *that* long ago. Most of this year's grads will do the same within 5 years, I'll bet.

Heh. I don't even remember who spoke at our UVA Law grad -- and it wasn't *that* long ago. Most of this year's grads will do the same within 5 years, I'll bet.

After having Chief Justice Roberts last year, who was very entertaining, it isn't hard to understand why this may have been a disappointment. Guess GULC used up all their favors last year.

At least it wasn't a sobbing Congresswoman. See UCLA '05.

Best graduation speech ever? Muhammad Ali's entire speech was "Me. We." He could have only improved it by taking out either of the two words.

Lat,

May we please have a list of who the main speaker was for each of this year's loaw school graduations ?

Yep GULC took a huge step back from Chief Justice Roberts speech. Glad I graduated when I did. Sadly he made some joke about how parents and family helped us get our degree so we now owe them free legal advice. My father-in-law was there and calls all the time. Thanks Chief!

ABA president Karen Mathis spoke at our graduation a couple of years ago, and though I didn't expect much because she's the president of a useless and well-past-its-prime organization, she defied even my low expectations in presenting one of the lamest excuses for a speech I have ever heard. I mean she tried to be modern and hip and failed (flubbing a reference to the Black Eyed Peas). She tried to be inclusive and failed (I got enough socialist/useless-cause material in the ABA student mailings, thanks). And to top it off, she was thoroughly uncharismatic.

"Lighthearted" is no match for "insulting."

The LLM student speaker at Columbia a couple years ago (a Brit) said he came to study in the US because he heard American girls were easy "--and they are," and that the other thing he and all his fellow LLMs wanted to learn was how Americans could elect such stupid leaders.

What great words of wisdom. American women are sluts and American leaders are idiots. Thank you for paying full tuition for these lessons. Come again.

Even though he's an old pro at graduation speeches, Bill Cosby delivered a great commencement address at UNC's undergrad ceremony in 2003. After finishing, he just walked off the stage and across the football field to raucous applause. If only the microphone hadn't been attached to the podium; he could've just dropped it on the dais.

I didn't watch the webcast, so maybe her speech was truly awful, but my guess is that this is just more uptight law students making a fuss over nothing up until the last day that they possibly can -- at least with respect to law school. Based on the comment in the blue box, I would have thought that this person was referring to a speech at one of the Virginia Tech memorial services or some "solemn" occasion other than a law school graduation. Maybe the GULC grads should just be glad that they are graduating from law school instead of living in a homeless shelter next to the school and get over themselves regarding an overly lighthearted graduation speaker.

Bill Cosby was a complete dick at Princeton Class Day a few years ago. He didn't prepare a speech, and ad libbed the whole thing, making "jokes" such as:

"You kids think you're so smart. Yet that earlier speaker was complaining about doing laundry. How dumb do you have to be to still insist on having your parents do laundry?"

"You all think you're so great because you go to Princeton. Well let me tell you, when you graduate, you're probably going to have a boss who went to Fairleigh Dickinson and he won't give a crap where you went to school. In fact he'll probably treat you worse than everybody else just because you think you're so great."

"Why did you go to Princeton anyway? You're just going to end up working for some guy who went to Fairleigh Dickinson. I'll tell you why you went here. So your parents could tell their friends, 'Oooh. My kid goes to Princeton!.' That's the only reason why."

Just to add, I don't even agree with the characterization of the speech as "light-hearted." It was about half light-hearted and half serious. A lot of the serious part was taken up with Hamdan praising and subtle Bush/conservative justice bashing. I thought most law students would appreciate the latter, and judging by their cheers and hisses, they did.

GWU in 04 was pretty bad. The president of the university, Stephen Trachtenberg (who is an assclown on a good day), gave the opening statement. He talked about all the improvements that were going on at the university, how test scores were up, etc. Without batting an eye, he added (and this is pretty close to verbatim) "In fact, if any of you were to apply today, you wouldn't get it." Also, he wore cowboy boots under his black gown (which were plainly visible, as he was on a raised stage).

I forget who the speaker was - some justice from the international court of justice, or some similar international body. Basically, it was a 20-30 minute anti-war-US-is-evil speech / harang. Went over well with my brother, a Marine, who was in the audience.

HLS had Greta Van Susteren in 2001. It was an insult.

I'm sorry, maybe I am retarded, but where exactly in the webcast does Totenberg speak? I didn't see her speaking at all.

No, this isn't a fuss over nothing. I was prepared for (and would have been fine with) a liberal bent on whatever she was going to talk about, but what we got was a money-obsessed, overly sexual, too-cute rip-off of a formulaic, cliched commencement piece.

Nina got a honorary law degree yet she didn't even graduate from college. Does that mean she can sit for the CA Bar?
Her speech was pretty bad, no real point. She had two gender specific songs/dittys but hardly even changed the words, even I can repeat stuff twice.

RB Ginsburg was there, wearing a little leprechaun hat. At least she could have uttered a "hello" in her NY accent and Nina would have been unnecessary or better yet forgotten.

1:25 -

Couldn't disagree more. I much preferred what you described to some ideological speech that would've alienated a large segment of the class. And to satisfy people like you, she even included the ideology with the Hamdan stuff.

nina was awesome. she was funny, interesting, and serious all at once. i was disappointed when they first picked her but to be honest, once she spoke i really enjoyed her speech.

but - it was slightly strange that Ruth BG was in attendance (her hubbie is a prof @ gulc) and didn't say a word... they should have let ruth speak!

1:29 -

Actually, I'm not a liberal so the Hamdan stuff did not appeal to me all that much. My point was just that I expected at least something of an inspirational speech; whether it came from the right or the left I didn't care. Speakers can usually isolate their comments from their personal beliefs enough so that they don't alienate.

Her talk was just so devoid of anything of substance that it was extremely disappointing, especially following the class of '06 having the CJ.

Nina Totenberg makes her living reading Supreme Court transcripts on National Public Radio. What made anyone think her speech would be interesting?

She's no chief justice, that is for sure. Huge step down from John Roberts last year.

HLS had Ben Stein at my graduation. I didn't even bother attending (but heard it was terrible). Besides, Sascha Baron Cohen (as Ali G) was giving the Harvard class day speech at the same time. (Which he wrapped up, no joke, by saying "Black, brown, white, wha'ever. We all came from da same place: da punani." My grandfather loved it.)

She's besties with Ruthie, who was also there.

The irony is, she gave a speech/rap that was borderline sexist.

Refreshingly borderline sexist. It actually took account of the reality that men and women have different concerns and perspectives.

Jon Stewart at W&M a few years back - absolutely classic.

http://www.wm.edu/news/?id=3650

Not everyone can be pleased, for what it is worth I liked her speech alot. LAT - you need to update this post to reflect the comments here that there were many favorable views of her speech.

1:11 - got a link to the Cosby "speech"?

Whoever is still carrying a grudge 1 month later needs to get over it refocus that energy on BarBri. It was glib mush, easily digestible and meant to elicit chuckles and not serious reflection. Indeed, it was such pap that I had forgotten all about it till I saw this post. Compared with the other commencement speaker anecdotes (related above) it was not so bad – especially the bit about womens’ erogenous zones. But who could have followed up the CJ anyway? Personally, I was hoping for a seething Jim Webb spewing vitriol on the dais – would have scared the hell out of everyone.

Jon Stewart's speech was an instant classic. W&M sure can pick them. How about some Sandy Day? Class of '06...hollllllaaaaaa.

Loosen up, Sandy baby!

That speech was fine, but you may recall that the mace was almost destroyed by high winds knocking its stand down. That was, sadly, the highlight of it for me.

Not only was it borderline sexist, but it was straight up sexual and at a jesuit university!

Dear June 14, 2007 12:30 PM:

Apparently it depends on how drunk they were at the time.

1:16, apparently they cut her speech out of the video webcast, lol. It would have happened at time mark 50:00 right after they conferred her the bogus degree. Listen to the audio cast if you want to hear the speech.

I graduated from GULC in 2007 and attended last year's main ceremony. John Roberts gave a safe, predictable, but enjoyable speech. The 2006 graduates had a pleasant

The entire 2007 GULC graduation was a disaster and I was embarrassed for the school. Nothing appeared to be organized this year. The graduates milled about in a cramped quad behind some building for thirty minutes before someone with a megaphone told us to form two lines. At the section ceremony an administrator told us in a soft voice to “somehow get into alphabetical order” once we were already seated. That didn’t happen.

At the main ceremony I was surprised Katyal managed to find a hat that fit. It would have been enough to honor the Hamdan case once. But it was delightful to see RBG slowly creep out wearing a lil’ top hat. I half expected her to perform a magic show in that get-up, which would have been fun.

Instead we were forced to listen to Nina Totenberg’s speech. It started out surprisingly well with a few sentimental stories about Father Drinan. Appropriate. But before long she descended into a discomforting string of gender-specific rhymes. For the ladies: “I’ll be the best dressed / get Botox and a bigger breast / I’ll have it all!” And for the gentlemen: “I’ll make lots of money / and spend it on my honey / I’ll have it all!”

Ok, ok. Maybe it wasn’t *that* derogatory. But it was stupid and didn’t rhyme in the correct places.

Somewhere between celebrating Hamdan (again) and emphasizing how we shouldn’t chase the money, Totenberg told us some quaint stories about her first husband passing away and her second husband saving her life on their honeymoon. They would have contributed to a touching episode of her A&E Biography, but were out of place in my law school commencement speech.

Not even the chocolate fountains at the (significantly cheaper than last year’s) receptions could save the day. The day ended by waiting twenty minutes to dump my sweaty gown into a barrel and checking my name off a list.

Yay Georgetown!

6:24: Ditto. Three years of law school and the best thing they can give me is a woman whose greatest accomplishments have been (1) getting run over by a boat, (2) husband dying, (3) discussing Justice Thomas' pubic hair. Borderline sexist? It was completely sexist.

I thought it had been established that Anita Hill was a woman scorned who mde the thing up about Thomas' pubic hair?

All of you whinging Georgetown Law Hoyas - get the fuck over it - go do another MPT. No wonder the Georgetown mascot is a flower.

My school had Alberto Gonzo when he was WH counsel. Came across as a real ego maniac. I wasn't impressed. First impressions are often spot on.

it was a great commencement speech. I dont understand why one would feel entitled to have somebody more prestigious.

the Georgetown mascot is a bulldog, and we are "Hoyas" which, no matter how little you known about latin, is not a flower. go do another BA.

Totenberg's address was horribly trite (hey, can you throw in a few more gender stereotypes? really, 'cause I don't think you can), but at least it wasn't nearly as bad as the absolute rant I heard at GWU in 2004 when I got my J.D. (1:12 nailed it--way to go, Judge Buergenthal!). She was actually the best in a long line of terrible graduation speakers I've heard over the years, which I guess is fitting for an LL.M. Yay!

I had nominated Ashcroft, which would have made GULC look cool now that he's a civil rights hero. How's that for irony?

GULC 06 here. I wasn't there and I haven't viewed the speech, though I have no doubt that it didn't have the same impact as the CJ's last year. That said, I'm more than a little bit embarassed by all the griping -- the sense of entitlement is astonishing. You didn't go to GULC for a good grad speaker and better chocolate fountains, you went because it's one of the best law schools in the nation -- period. Write the dean, call somebody, tell them they should do better next year, if you must -- but get over it!

And 6:24: Hate to say it, but last year's ceremony was equally chaotic and disorganized. As was my undergrad ceremony. As was my high school...

10:13: I beg to differ. A "Hoya" is very much a flower -- sometimes called the Porcelain Flower. It's derived from the last name (Hoy) of a British Botanist. Google it.

The "Hoya" in the Gtown sense is an entirely made up term by some students in the early 20th century, ostensibly meaning "What" or "Such." Again, Google it.

Not sure where the bulldog fits in -- other than getting Gtown mentioned in an Outkast song.

1:41: I think paying $40k / year justifies a sense of entitlement. Particularly in the event in which all that money culminates.

Nina Totenberg sucked so bad I almost had to resort to self-mutilation to amuse myself. Even her anecdotes about Father Drinan seemed to be more about how she grew up in a family that rubbed elbows with the Washington elite (I mean, why is she talking about her sister's career path when she's supposed to be eulogizing Father Drinan? Who cares?) Her poem was not only sexist and assumed that everyone just wanted to make a shit ton of money (which might be true, but this is a graduation speech, so shouldn't she be talking about how law is a calling and not just a profession?) Worst of all, the speech wasn't just substantively bad, it was so poorly structured that I couldn't figure out what her point was. She was even worse than the speaker at my graduation (Giuliani, who spoke the words "justice, democracy and capitalism" all in the same breath).

And Howard got Oprah this year!!

Entirely agree w/ 6:24.

Add to the above sitting in thick dark robes in the sun and heat. Nina & Ginsburg were under a nice tent, while we (and worse, the audience of friends & fam) sweltered.
Of course you don't go to Gtown for speakers, but the graduation is optional. I almost thought of not going, and somewhat regret forcing relatives to sit through this.

No one has mentioned the "prayer" which was a silly Hippy-love poem.

She should have taken out her liberal posturing on Hamdan, her irrelevant anecdotes and left the jokes & generic pap. Then the speech would have been about 4 minutes and mildly entertaining.

Cmdr Swift was present at the graduation - he argued Hamdan. He got a standing ovation from the student body without saying a word. Totenberg only got applause because we felt like being polite after what was a lame speech with bad jokes, worse advice, and a forced feeling of "we're all in this together."

She was chosen for two main reasons.
One, GULC is starting a legal journalism program for court reporters (no pun intended).
Two, she was one of the people that didn't yet have an honorary degree who Georgetown University's Board approved of.

We all would have preferred Pelosi, but GU granted her an honorary degree in October. All the other great legal minds (other than Alito) have received honorary degrees from GU... so, we got Nina.

BYU Law School's speaker for its 2004 graduation takes the cake -- Sen. Harry Reid. He spoke for 75 minutes on suicide. Yes, suicide...

His (so called) speech was so depressing, it almost turned the Provo Tabernacle into a mini Jonestown.

A truly AWFUL public speaker.

Harry Reid spoke at George Washington Law's graduation in 2005. Similarly awful/depressing. He opened by talking about how he attended GW for law school shortly after getting married (or maybe he got married as a 1L). Hurting for money, he went to the dean to request a one year leave of absence to work so that he could pay for tuition and the costs of starting a family. The dean turned him down. He either dropped out of school or transferred (I believe he simply dropped out) and never set foot on GW's campus again. The day of his graduation speech marked the first time he had been on campus in some 40 years, and even then it took great pains to overcome the animus he long harbored. It was like he still had a bone to pick and took it out on the graduating class by depressing us with personal anecdotes and talking about his failed efforts to work across the aisle during the Bush presidency. Trachtenberg ate it up (or at least acted like it). Ugh.