It provokes thought, this one. While so many schools confer honorary
degrees on high-profile speakers these days that we hardly think of
what it means, the Notre Dame controversy brings that question back
into focus. Especially when a state school takes another tack on sheer intellectual reasoning.

Even as the University of Notre Dame has angered
Catholics and pro-life advocates nationwide with its plan to bestow an
honorary doctorate of laws on President Barack Obama on May 17, Arizona
State University has declined to do the same when the President speaks
at its commencement ceremony the prior Wednesday.
 
ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler told The Associated Press: “It’s our
practice to recognize an individual for his body of work, somebody
who’s been in their position for a long time.  His body of work is yet
to come.  That’s why we’re not recognizing him with a degree at the
beginning of his presidency.”

Simple and straightforward.

After all, what body of work is Notre Dame recognizing?

In his first 11 weeks in office, President Obama has
allowed taxpayer funding for abortions and embryonic stem cell
research, nominated pro-abortion Catholic Kathleen Sebelius as
Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced anti-Catholic
activist Anthony Picarello as an advisor on faith-based partnerships,
and threatened conscience protections for Catholic healthcare workers.

OK. Not that body of work. Maybe…..winning the election,
ascending to the office of the presidency, and promising that his
policies will always try to ‘take care of the least of these.’