ASU Central

Cheap hatchet job that could have been done with any student body, even that at Penn State.

Where were the interviews with the National Merit Scholars (we have more than any other public)? The students in the Barrett Honors College (one of the best honors college in the country and easily the equal of Schreyer at PSU)? The recent round of successful Fulbright and Boren/NSEP applicants (we have more - if I remember correctly - that any other public)? I could go on.

Instead we have picture of partying students that could be taken in any frat house anywhere in the country, and interviews with vacuous students (that occur everywhere, even PSU).

Obama's not getting an honorary degree, get over it. Then again, he's also not speaking at PSU anytime soon.

Funny, I heard him speak at PSU in person last year.
Good speaker.

ASU screwed up. Then they dug themselves in deeper.
You're not helping the cause.

PS: faculty, current students and ex-students of ASU include some of my dearest friends; including several ex-PSU students;
and I could and would cheerfully point the Daily Show to any of thousands of vacuous students to interview at PSU... but

Attacking other universities does not ameliorate the stupidity of the ASU's president's office and their PR people.

We all do stupid in our own special ways.

The segment mentions former Canadian PM Kim Campbell, who did get an honorary degree from ASU despite being Prime Minister for only four months. A Google search turned up this bio of her, which states that not only was her party defeated in the October 1993 elections, but she lost her own seat. That's a very big deal in a parliamentary system, since being an MP is a prerequisite for becoming Prime Minister--you generally want your party leaders to represent safe constituencies. The closest equivalent in recent US history would be then-Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA) losing his seat in the 1994 Congressional election, but Foley was only Speaker of the House, not President. I don't see the argument for giving an honorary degree to Campbell and not Obama, unless you believe (foolishly, IMO) that party affiliation (Campbell was a Progressive Conservative, Obama is a Democrat) makes a difference.

Steinn is definitely right. ASU screwed up, and when they opened their mouth about it they inserted the foot even deeper.

While it's generally true about party leaders representing safe constituencies in parliamentary systems an interesting aside is that in most cases there isn't any explicit law that forbids members of the upper house - who are often not directly elected - to be the PM. This isn't common or encouraged. But members of the House of Lords have been British PMs in the (distant) past. The current Indian PM is also from the upper house (first to do so if I recall correctly). And ~400 million voters just appear to have approved of th.