“The women of this generation will help lead the way,” Obama told the Class of 2012 at the female counterpart to Columbia, his alma mater. “I realize that’s a cheap applause line, but it’s true.”
He touted the powerful women in his family and his administration and encouraged the grads to make it big.
“Fight for a seat at the table,” he told the young women.
“Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.”
Set against a presidential campaign where women’s issues have become surprisingly prominent, Obama was greeted by squeals, cheers, standing ovations and a chant of “O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!”
It was a far more excited crowd of graduates than his Republican rival Mitt Romney faced when he spoke about faith and family at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday. Some students had protested that a Mormon was invited to speak to them.
Both candidates got some of their biggest responses from the very different crowds with mentions of gay marriage.
The Barnard women seemed to cheer Obama’s reference to making progress on gay rights even more loudly than women’s rights, while Romney’s strongest applause line before the evangelical students at Liberty was saying marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Obama spoke only glancingly of his stint in New York as a college student.
“It was here that I tried to find my place in the world,” he said, mentioning a string of “unfulfilling jobs” and “motley apartments” before he moved on to Chicago.
Obama spoke of several women in his administration, including Hilda Solis, who was told she could aspire only to being secretary.
“She did become a secretary — the secretary of Labor,” Obama said.
He urged the young women to pay less attention to “our pop culture obsession with beauty and fashion” — then backtracked to say his wife would disagree.
“Now, Michelle will say you can care about it a little. You can be stylish and powerful too. That’s Michelle’s advice,” Obama said.
Obama disappointed the Barnard crowd only once. Saying that 1983, the first year Columbia began admitting women, was also the year he graduated, he noted “the music was all about Michael (Jackson) and the moonwalk.”
From the crowd came the immediate cry: “Do it!”
Despite encouraging cheers and claps, Obama wouldn’t oblige. "No moonwalking today," the President said.
After the speech, Obama headed to ABC studios in midtown to tape a segment of "The View" that will air Tuesday. He also had two campaign fund-raisers scheduled for Monday night in the city.
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