people want programming on their time. >> we're going to have to leave it there. i am sorry, we are out of time. michael calabrese and david donovan a book on the spectrum advisory committee for the commerce department. thank you for being on "the communicators." you can find this quilt of spectrum on our website. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] . .

>> tomorrow on "washington ez isal," clarissa martin the guest. guests talk about the future of the republican party and the future -- and the merger of the united and continental airlines. >> the president got on and the phone and said to me, "judge, i would like to announce you as my selection to be the next associate justice of the supreme

court." and i said to him, i caught my breath and started to cry, and said, "thank you, mr. president ." learn more about the supreme court through the eyes of those who served there. there are pages of photos and interviews with all the justices, active and retired. "the supreme court" is available now in hard cover. >> retiring supreme court justice john paul stevens and solicitor general and elena qaeda and appeared together in chicago on monday. elena kagan appeared together in chicago on monday.

>> what do you say when introducing this man? everything interesting has been said. quite frankly, everything not interesting has been said too. so i will be brief. john paul stevens was born and raised in hyde park. he attended the university of chicago. he attended the 1932 world series, which the cubs lost. in fact, no one in this room was alive when the cubs on one of their last world series. john paul stevens attended college in chicago, law school in chicago, practiced in chicago, and served for five years on the the seventh circuit. even after he was dragged off to washington in 1935, -- in 1975,

he remained in service to chicago. this year, he read -- this year, he became the first justice to turn and 90 while in service. the other was oliver wendell holmes. [applause] his predecessor's aura louis brandeis and william o. douglas -- were louis brandeis and william o. douglas. you may have read about him in the past couple of weeks. i give you justice stevens. [applause]

>> thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. fellow judges, friends, members of the bar, and friends again, i am going to play my normal role tonight and talk to you very briefly what you are waiting to hear the principal speaker. i want to say, on her behalf, as

she very kindly offered to let me go last. i said no, i will basically do what i have done for many, many years, which is open with comments that are not very profound. it occurs to me out of the blue that it was the 100th anniversary of the illinois bar association 25 or 30 years ago, and the president of the association referred to it as a ical occasion. this is such an occasion too. [laughter] i am going to make a couple of profound comment.

the first is about 8 minute court that i attended -- about a moot court that i attended and at the rotterdam -- notre dame. there were four women participants, and they gave the best moot court argument i had ever heard. and i have been too many over the years. there with me was justice kennedy. we have been friends for many years. during the argument, the advocates repeatedly addressed her as madam justice, and she was not responding to the very warmly. toward the end of the third of

argument, when someone addressed her as madam justice, and she said, "why do you call me madam justice? justice is a perfectly good title. you do not have to use a sexist term to describe a judge on the court." the advocates responded in an appropriate way. after, when we were discussing who should win, i talk to her about feeling strongly about this. she confirmed that she did. she felt this was a sexist term. i went back to the court. in the following conference, i told my colleagues about this instance. justice souter said we have to get rid of this quote mr.

justice -- this "mr. justice" business. after that, we took off the term and just started using the term "justice." that was a couple of years before justice o'connor joined the court. i think a lot of people thought she was responsible for the change. i thought i would straighten out thh record. [laughter] [applause] thought my second major historical -- my second major historical event that i want to describe it refers to the chicago cubs. [laughter] i was, in fact, a witness of the home run by babe ruth.

last year i was responding to questions in one of the sessions where you get questions from the audience, and somebody asked me if i was really there. i said, yes i was, and i remember sitting behind third base and watching dave ruth -- baby ruth -- babe ruth pointing to center field and following up with the famous shot. after the discussion, when everybody had left, a young man came up to me, he may have been a bankruptcy judge and not as young a man as he seemed -- [laughter] he said he did not want to be

responsible for embarrassing me in front of the crowd, but that his grandfather had been in the bleachers, and the ball had landed by him and they had saved it and had a souvenir. the implication was that i was dead wrong for having said that the ball went over it the center field scoreboard. my lesson from that was that maybe seniors memories are not as good as they should be. maybe they do not remember things as well as they should. earlier this year, i was interviewed about this event. i told him just what i told you, that you have to be careful about trusting the memory of senior citizens. he wrote that in the article and indicated that maybe what i had to say was not entirely reliable. [laughter]

after i read the article, a thought came to me. they but ruth hit two home runs that day -- babe ruth hit two home runs that day. so, i gave my locklear to the assignment of finding out what happened -- might law clerk the assignment of finding out what happened to the home run that he called. she said there were many newspaper articles that made it perfectly clear that it went right out over center field. so i made a mistake in assuming that i had not correctly remembered. other than congratulating it jim and dan for their well earned trophies, and waiting with great

interest to see what our solicitor general has to say, by thank you very much for your attendance and for your warm welcome. [applause] >> may i have a moment. your honor, we knew you were a cubs fan. now that you are retiring, you will have more time to go to cubs games. this is for you. [applause] [applause]

>> elena kagan is a less of a chicago figure than the justice stevens and was not at the 1932 chicago world series. but she too served on the seventh circuit. she began her academic career at the university of chicago, joining its faculty in 1991. i got to know her on strolls between the law school and the quadrangle club, where the faculty exchange ideas around a round table. she specialized in a labor law

and administrative law. the administrative side must have one out, for in 1995 she joined the administration as one of president clinton's policy wonks. she was sucked even further into administration when she became dean of the harvard law school, which was a disaster for chicago, because she knew just which members of the faculty to recruit, and which delors would best attempt to them eased. harvard is -- which lures would best tempt them east. fortunately, before she managed to hire the entire faculty, and she returned to washington. i think that being the solicitor general is the second best lawyer's job in the world, right

after being a deputy solicitor general. [laughter] what is the difference, you may wonder? the deputy general spent 100% of his or her time doing interesting legal work, while the solicitor general is expected to give speeches. not as many as a dean at has to deliver, but quite a few. so, here she is doing to the speech thing. this audience has been treated to several of her predecessors. she is certainly going to add to the interest of this speech. i give you elena kagan, the solicitor general of the united states. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you everybody.

thank you for your hospitality here. thank you all for your hospitality here. when i was first asked it to come and speak at this event i thought, how terrific. i love chicago. i love the seventh circuit. it would be my honor to do so. i thought i would speak about my job as solicitor general and tell you a little bit about what it is like to have the second best job in the united states. in light of recent events, i thought that would not be the right thing to talk about. the only appropriate subject tonight is justice stevens and his extraordinary career. [applause] all you need to know about justice stevens is what he told

you about my exchange with him earlier today when i was coming out here and i looked at the program, and i saw on the program, "remarks by justice stevens," and, "addressed by elena kagan." i thought the order did not make any sense at all. i tried to communicate that to him, but he would have none of it. he insisted that he was just a humble, retiring supreme court justice, and that the solicitor general should give the speech. we are going to try to turn the tables a little bit and make sure that the focus remains on justice stevens here tonight, and i think this is going to

embarrass you greatly. i hope it embarrasses you greatly, but that is what we are going to do. if you have read the newspapers at the last month or so, justice stevens has been in the newspapers quite a lot, as you may have noticed. you will notice that not only did it justice stevens announce his resignation, but as judge easterbrook said, justice stevens turned 90 in april. he himself has warned that this is so common that he was born in april 1920. i personally do not believe it. it is not just that he looks so darn good. i said to somebody last year that he was starring in his own private benjamin but since moving -- benjamin buttons

movie. he continues to do more work than just about any other justice. this is true. he drafts of his own opinions. he reviews thousands of surreptitious by himself. i hope it will not annoy people on the court to say that i never understood what law clerks do exactly. now i know. he gives them assignments about home runs. [laughter] it is not just justice stevens mind continuing to have all of the quality of a steel trap, but

anyone who watches the case at the supreme court, and it could be about the first amendment or about some other law, anybody who watches a case knows that his mind cuts through a glass. the real reason for my skepticism about his age has nothing to do with that, but something else entirely. it is an age when a person could be forgiven for thinking that he knows what he knows, and that what he knows is enough. it is an age when people could be forgiven for thinking that. justice stevens, instead, approaches every single day of his life and every case on the supreme court dockets with both in the hope and the expectation that he will learn something

from them. justice stevens said a few years ago, he said, "learning on the job is essential to the process of judging." today, no less than he did 35 years ago when he began his supreme court service, justice stevens is curious, engaged. his mind is open and questioning. his essential stance, notwithstanding his awesome talent and intellect, his essential stance is one of genuine modesty and humility. anyone who has had the privilege of arguing in the court of justice stevens, as i have had in the past year, will know what i am talking about. there is both modesty and extraordinary intellect. i thought i would give you a bit of a sense tonight of what an

advocate he is for the solicitor general, what justice stevens looks like through the solicitor general's eyes. he is surely the only justice on the supreme court to ask your permission to ask a question. halfway through an argument, sometimes more than halfway, sometimes when the red light is just going on. coming from justice stevens, "may i ask you a question?" or, "could you help me on this?" or, "i have been wondering about just a basic thing." justice stevens once said to me,

"how can you say that?" i thought, wow, if you have gotten justice stevens to say that, you must have done something pretty terrible. mostly, he is -- it is extraordinary courtesy emanates from him. i want to tell you that if you ever argue -- well i guess you can not anymore, argue in front of justice stevens, be aware that he has an extraordinary argument internally. his instructions almost invariably cut to the heart of the legal case and leave absolutely no room for evasion and no room for escape.

i am going to quote one of the most experienced supreme court advocate of our times, who has argued before justice tevens more than 50 times. carter phillips says, "i think what this english as -- what distinguishes justice stevens are his hypothetical. they really forced the advocate to understand the limits of his or her theory of the case. my favorite was in the n.c.a.a. versus darcanian. when he asked whether united airlines would be a state actor , if o'hare airport was the government entered -- government entity manager, if the united

employee could not be fired from the terminal he operated from, the lawyers did their for more than 30 seconds saying nothing -- stood there for more than 30 seconds saying nothing until justice scalia leaned forward and told him,'the answer you are looking for is no'." you can always count on justice scalia for some good lines like that. carter phillips continues, " justice stevens always ask the hardest hypothetical, and he did it so gently that the effect was particularly devastating.

often, these gentle, unassuming questions point the way for resolution." i mentioned before that justice stevens' questions very frequently come late in an argument. bides his time before actively engaging council. this is, i think, because justice stevens is simply the best listener on the court. said another way, he is the person who most understands the value of listening. he listens to learn himself, and he listens to understand what is on the minds of his colleagues, so that when he does step in, he does so with a real sense, a real understanding, of what matters in the case, of what may move his colleagues, what approaches might bridge

differences and attract a majority. that aspect of his questioning might be viewed as strategic in nature. indeed, ever since justice stevens announced his resignation, we have heard a good deal about how he has served as a strategic leader for one part of the court. this, i think, misunderstand justice stevens' essential nature and quality. if he is influential, and we know that he is extraordinarily so, and if he has built coalitions and forged alliances, and we know that he has, even in circumstances where none would have expected it, it is, i think, because his colleagues recognize him as a person a sterling integrity and

independence, constant and clear in his convictions, and ever faithful to his core principles. it is because his colleagues rightly see him as a truth- seeker. it is because his colleagues know that every day he has done at the job, for 35 years, he has sought to learn in it and learned from it. so, i will close in good supreme court style with a question and an answer. question: may i ask, could i have help with just a simple point, how fortunate was in this country to have justice stevens' service in these last

35 years. answer: justice stevens, this country was fortunate beyond all measure. and thank you, justice stevens. [applause] >> you can watch this program again on our website, c- span.org. join us next week for "america and the courts," saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. eastern, on c-span. >> according to the associated press, the reelection bid of bob bennett has come to an end. he was ousted at a state gop

convention. he is the first sitting u.s. senator to be voted out of office this year. tonight, we will have a convention speeches from senator bennett and the winner. again, bob bennett was ousted from his reelection bid at the gop convention in utah. >> tomorrow, our first guest discusses immigration policy. the chairman of hq.com looks at the future of the republican party and the influence of the tea party. our third guest discusses the merger of united and continental airlines. remarks now from the seventh circuit chief judge easterbrook. this is about 15 minutes.

[applause] >> thank you. the most significant factor about the last year is the 15 courts of this circuit are handling their business promptly and in good order. in the world where failings of government make headlines, it is good to emphasize the successes. first, and most importantly, the court of appeals, the district courts, the bankruptcy courts, and the courts of the circuit are current with their work. that is not to say that some cases do not take too long or that there is no room for improvement, but we can be proud of our everyday performance. this is possible, in part, because caseloads have remained reasonably steady. bying the 1970's, cases rose about 30% per year.

during the 1980's, the rate was about 5%. during the 1990's, the rate was about 2%. during the last decade, there has been a decline both in appeals and and pilings from the district court. your appeal were filed last year -- fewer appeals were filed last year than in 2000. the bankruptcy business and remains below long-term numbers, all the filings have a rebound after the crash -- although the filings have rebounded after the crash. cases in the district court are disposed of on average in seven months. and the national average is 8.5. about 9% of cases in the civil

district take more than three years to resolve. the national average is 15%. this productivity has not come at the expense of recent opinions. last year there were 608 assigned, published opinions. the ninth circuit, which is more than three times our size, issued 609 published opinions. can draw your own conclusions. the seventh hears oral arguments in a higher percentage than any court other than the state -- the d.c. circuit. we publish a higher percentage of our opinions of any circuit other than the d.c. circuit. this is made possible in part by the fact that for many years but the circuit and the district courts have operated at or close to full strength. david hamilton and joined the seventh circuit last year. terry adams continues to hear a

substantial case load. as many of you know, district judges in the circuit now are sitting on the court of appeals. many are serving side-by-side as colleagues. they get to know each other and know our shared business better. that produces gains for litigants' too. in the first half of 2009, all of the district judges appointed within the last five years sat for two days each. beginning last september and continuing through this spring, most of the judges appointed between six and 10 years ago will sit with the court of appeals. if you noticed this progression, i think the greatest benefit of this exchange comes in the early part of a judge's tenure. my plan is to invite all newly appointed judges to sit with us within a year of their appointments. i also plan to extend

invitations to those who were appointed earlier. if my successors continued this practice, each circuit judge expect to receive an invitation within every five or 10 years. praise is always welcome, of course, but what i really crave is criticism. that will be considered with care. we need to learn from experience. so far, i have emphasized good news. this coming year will pose a challenge, however, to the judiciary's effort to deliver speedy and high-quality decisions. at the moment, approximately 25% of the seats on the district bench are vacant. nominations have been slow, and conformations even slower. we are 16 months into the current administration, and only one of nominee to a district court within the circuit has

been confirmed. 10 positions are vacant at the moment, and two more judges will leave the bench this summer. the court has benefited from bipartisan cooperation for several decades. that cooperation needs to be restored. before i turn to the judicial milestones of last year, i want to mention three developments at the seventh circuit that may affect many of you. when i joined the court, we expected to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, one or two cases out of the sixth heard on a normal day of oral argument. sometimes there was a problem with appellate jurisdiction. full briefing and argument in a doomed case waste everybody's time and the client money. over the years, the court of appeals has taken several steps to reduce the scope of this problem. the first was adopted almost 30

years ago. it requires every brief to contain full jurisdiction all details of but subject matter and appellate jurisdiction. the next was ruled a three-c, which calls for counsel to file a statement shortly after the appeal began. we can look at these statements and catch obvious problems. some of you may have received documents saying there appears to be a problem, can it be fixed? we have had good responses to these notices. two years ago, the court began to look at all breeds shortly after they were filed. john walsh reviews every single brief filed by the court of appeals. it is amazing how many problems remain. for example, rates routinely treat limited liability companies as if they were corporations.

they omit vital details, details vital to the timeliness of appeals. john paul flags these -- john wall flags these problems, and by the time they get to the judge, they receive personal attention. this has brought almost 20 the number of appeals brought to argument that still have -- almost to zero the number of appeals brought to argument that still have problems. we are increasing our process for catching the jurisdictional issues. the court of appeals is hearing oral arguments these days as soon as the briefing is completed. many of you will receive notices setting a case for argument before the briefing is

concluded, in the expectation that it will be needed. this last year, we have canceled nine days of oral arguments for lackds of cases to argue on those days -- for lack of cases to argue on those days. naturally, this puts some pressure on the briefing side. you will find the court less willing to grant extensions of time. staff attorneys to handle those requests are cutting back to a total of 60 days for extensions, except for circumstances beyond the council puts the control, such as delay in preparing a transcript. these days, when you get an order saying that no more extensions will be granted except in extraordinary circumstances, you need to take it seriously. no one should assume that he or she can ignore the deadline and file after it the time has passed. the court is much less willing to accept and timely filings than it used to be.

what i'd just described involving matters that come to the chief judge personally is an informal practice that is not reflected in our rules or operational procedures. the court is beginning a process for amending the rules to reflect these changed practices and adopt some new ones. the most significant will be the electronic filing of briefs and motions. everybody who practices in bankruptcy court files many in district court file electronically. that practice is coming soon to a circuit near you. it may not be the end of paper, but there will be less. when the federal rules of appellate procedure were completely rewritten a little more than a decade ago, the court of appeals decided to sit tight and see what happened. we have made only a few new rules and necessary changes to

conform to changes in the national rules. we have been watching and learning. i hope you have too. now our experience can be incorporated into the local rules. during the next few months, we will publish the proposed amendments for comment. i invite all of you to participate in the process. if you have suggestions, please give them to me now. the more good ideas go into the initial proposals, the better the overall result will be. i closed today by mentioning some judicial milestones. i am going to call out some names. please rise if you hear your name. but please hold all applause until the end. if you try to applaud one by one, we will be here for quite some time. on the court of appeals, david hamilton was confirmed last fall. terence evans received senior status in january and continues

to take a full caseload. the president has not nominated his successor. in illinois, two judges took senior status and continue to hear cases. judge scott resigned on august 1st. no nominations are pending, so in a few months, three of the four seats in central illinois will be vacant. in another district, judges corp. and manning took senior status and continue to hear cases. judge anderson will retire at the end of july. there were two vacancies this time last year. we are now looking at six vacancies in northern illinois. three nominations are pending. two of the three have been reported out of the the the judiciary committee and a weight votes.

two other judges have taken senior status and continue to hear cases. in the southern district, a woman was appointed chief bankruptcy judge. her predecessor was serving as a recall judge. we have new administrative personnel. we have the clerk of the bankruptcy court. in northern indiana, the judge simon replaced judge miller as chief district judge. judge grant has succeeded judge hayes as chief bankruptcy judge. one nomination to the district court is pending on the senate floor for the seat of the late judge alan sharp'. in the southern district of indiana, there was a move to

senior status of that left two vacancies. two nominations are pending. a bankruptcy judge has succeeded another judge as chief bankruptcy judge. in eastern wisconsin, there was a succession of chief judge. the magistrate is taking senior status at the end of june and will continue to hear cases. there are no vacancies in eastern wisconsin. in western wisconsin, one person took office as a district judge, and another judge simultaneously took senior status and continues to hear a full caseload. judge connolly immediately became active as chief judge because there is no other judge in the district. the acting title will vanish in one year. the statue requires a one year of service to be a chief judge. as far as i can tell, there is

no difference whatsoever between and acting chief judge and any other judge, but there is. the nomination has been reported to the senate floor for a vote. though i have mentioned several times people who have taken senior status this last year, there are an awful lot more senior judges on the circuit. we expect our active judges to work hard, and did they do. but we have no right to expect the same level of service from our senior judges. six continue to provide continued help. 27 are hard at work, without which these vacancies would be much harder than they are. bankruptcy judges are helping this work go along. will all of our senior white recall judges' stand up and -- senior recall judges stand up

and receive at the recognition they deserve. [applause] thank you. i will see you next year in hawaii. >> the president got on the phone and said to me, "judge, i would like to announce you as my selection to be the next associate justice of the united states supreme court." and i said to him, i caught my breath and started to cry. i said, "thank you, mr. president." learn more about the nation's highest court from the eyes of those who served there. there are pages of history, photoo, and interviews with all of the justices, active and retired. "the supreme court" is available

now in hard cover. [applause] >> first ladd michelle obama talked about raising her daughters and paid tribute to her mother during a mother's day celebration at the white house on friday. her remarks are just over 10 minutes. >> mrs. carter, you have been a wonderful support and a source of knowledge for me during my time here. you have been so generous. we tried to have lunch together whenever you come into the city, and i just have to say that the time we spend together means a great deal. i cannot tell you how much i appreciate your support. as many of you know, mrs. carter is an advocate for mental health worker. she has just written a book, and we are going to be doing more

work together on post-traumatic stress disorder. she has not stopped moving yet. you cannot get her down. yes? [inaudible] thank you. thank you. mrs. carter is also joined by her granddaughter, sarah. we thought we were going to have her great granddaughter, josephine. we were going to have four generations of carter women, but she got a little fussy and mom had to take her home. maybe next time. i am also pleased that tricia nixon cox is here and, president nixon's daughter. please stand [applause] susan and eisenhower, president

eisenhower -- susan and anne eisenhower, president eisenhower's granddaughters are here as well. russ is all for being here. we have the girls and i -- and thank you all for being here. the girls favorite picture is your wedding picture. we stand and think about the wedding. they are not thinking of marriage, by the way. do not write that on your blog. they just right -- they just like the pictures. there is a photo of president eisenhower meeting with civil rights leaders in 1958 that is in the oval office. there is much history in this room today, and i am is so pleased to welcome this new generation of women back to the white house.

it is an honor to have you all. if you look around the room, that is the theme here today. we have many generations here this afternoon. we have teenagers and retirees. we have family members and friends. we have cabinet secretaries and students and everything else in between. many of you came with the woman who means a great deal to your life. yes, oh, really. mothers, daughters, granddaughters, mentors, sisters, best friends. it is a wonderful combination of women who are important to us. the people here today showcase just how crucial women are in guiding our families, and in our neighborhoods, and in our country as well. they are the shoulder that we lean on as individuals, but

collectively, these are the shoulders that form the foundation of our community. they are our friends, teachers, mentors, bosses. they find time to drive community projects and car pools. they lead our businesses and our birthday parties. they -- our lives and our communities are blessed by everything big and small that mothers and mega -- mothers and mother figures give us every single day. that is really what mother's day is all about, showing our gratitude for all that they do. is about attempting to give back just some of the love and the care that these women have given us. that is a big ticket to fill in just a single day. when you think about it and try to do the math, do 15 or 20 sleepless nights during high school equal a bouquet of flowers, maybe some chocolates

or a branch? i do not know. [laughter] the mothers with teenagers really laughed at that one. i do not quite know that yet. the answer is, there is no way to quantify just how important these mothers, these women are in our lives. there is no way that i could ever fully measure all that my own money has done for me. -- my own mommy has done it for me. [applause] this woman, who tries to take absolutely no credit for who i am for some reason, she is my rock. she has pulled me up when i have stumbled. she has pulled me back when i have run on, talked a little too much, snapped me up. she really does push me to be

the best woman that i can be. truly. as a professional and as a mother and as a friend, and she has always, always, always been there for me. as our family has grown, she has managed to expand her love for all of us. raising our girls in the white house with my mom -- is not going to do this. it is a beautiful experience. the opportunity to have three generations living in the white house is beautiful. i am pretty sure the president is happy about it too. [laughter] in this world there is so much going on. we know that we are blessed, the obama. even though we live in the white house, our day-to-day interaction is not that different from families living in atlanta or tucson, because

everyone is busy. ours is just televised. everyone is doing the best job that they can to raise their kids. everyone is looking for support. in his mother's day proclamation in 1979, president carter wrote, "in this time when family is subjected to many new pressures, the job of nurturing future generations is often most difficult and more important than ever. " that proclamation is as true today as it was 31 years ago. one person cannot do it alone. for anyone who thinks we can or should, we should just get over it. we all need the support of someone in our lives. it is as it singularly important -- as a singularly important as my mother has been,

there are other women who have been equally important. it perspectives of teachers and co-workers has really helped to change me. it does not have to always be a mother or grandmother. we each have those people who have given us a sense of ourselves by giving us a piece of themselves. that is one of the reasons why we started the white house leadership and mentoring initiative here. even with our busy schedules, and the women who work here are busy, we believe in the important in giving young people a piece of ourselves, and we have some of the people we are mentoring here today. i would like you to stand. [applause] you all look so pretty.

they do not usually get this dressed up when they come here. i barely recognize you. you can sit down. these promising young women have been with us for the past few months, and we have had our share of fun with stuff we have done. we have gone to events together. a few of them have gotten to ride in a motorcade with me. that is kind of cool, right? we have gotten to eat the deserts from the last state dinner before anybody else. we have done some community service together. i was very impressed by your focus. we met with supreme court justices. was that not amazing? justices ginsburg and sotomayor spent a long time with us and it was pretty powerful. but this program is not just about doing fun stuff together. it is also about ensuring that these women really see their possibilities, right?

it is about helping them to realize that they can be the leaders of tomorrow, and that that is what we expect, and showing them that they can create their own opportunities. that is what we talk about, right? we want them to imagine the possibility that they could one day be a cabinet secretary, or an officer in the military who mentors a young girl once a week. we want them to imagine being business leaders who balance their kids and their professional lives, and there are so many of these stories right here in this room. they may have different characters and soundtracks, but whether you grew up on bing crosby, aretha franklin or beyond saying -- or beyonce, each story here is important. we have each received advice

from friends who help us clear hurdles that we thought were too high. we remember the way our mother looked at us when we made her proud or when we made her not so proud. you all know the look. [laughter] today is really a day to enjoy one another. i encourage you all to share some of those stories. i always say to the girls i mentor, talk, ask questions, polk, broad, open your mouth -- poke, prod, open your mouth. thank you all for taking the time to come. thank you, mommy. i love you. let's have some peace. [applause] [applause]