day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> coming up later today, commencement addresses from around the country. our focus is on business leaders. you will hear from the heads of google, xerox, ford, and eli lilly. in the meantime, on the c- span2, a look at documents seized during the raid on at osama bin laden's compound in abbottabad, pakistan. the new america foundation is hosting the discussion. you can see it at noon eastern

on c-span2. the medal of freedom a ceremony honoring include a bob dylan did you can see that the 3: 25 eastern. it is widely expected that mitt romney will win tonight postelection in the lone star state -- tonight's election in the lone star state. he starts today with 1084 delegates. he needs 1144. texas victory would provide 152 delegates. >> writing the transaction process. writing seems to reading. if you have written a really wonderful novel, one of the part of the process is that you want readers to be enlarged and enriched by it. you have to pull everything in

your disposal. >> author and pulitzer prize- winning columnist anna quindlen talks about writing and life and her guide to social policy, live on sunday on "in depth." she will be ready for your calls, tweets, and e-mails at noon eastern on "in depth" on c- span2. >> now to the u.s. air force academy of for the national character and leadership symposium held in february. one of the speakers was ellen ochoa. she talks about her transition from astronaut to fly crew management shortly before the space shuttle columbia tragedy. this event is just over an hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, my name is cadets' second class amanda

mclean. it is my privilege to welcome you to this session of the 19th annual national character and leadership symposium. it is my pleasure to introduce today's speaker. today's speaker was selected by nasa in 1990 and became an astronaut in july 1991. she became the first hispanic woman to go into space with an eye-day mission aboard the shuttle discovery in 1993. a veteran of four space flights, she has logged nearly 1000 hours in space to it along with her as a career, she is an accomplished pioneer of spacecraft technology. she survived -- she supervised engineers scientists in the double man of computational systems for air-space missions. currently she is serving as the deputy director of johnson space center.

ladies and gentlemen, it is and honor to present you dr. ellen ochoa. [applause] >> thank you very much. well, thank you. it is my pleasure to be with you this morning and be speaking to you. i have been real fortunate in my career. i was selected as an astronaut at a time when the space shuttle was flying quite regularly, during the 1990's, and had the opportunity to be on four. space shuttle missions. two of them are atmospheric research flights, and we were studying the problem of the ozone hole and ozone creation and depletion in our atmosphere. the second two were part of the assembly of the international space station. my last flight was exactly 10 years ago, in april 2002. it was part of the assembly of the space station. we took a piece of the structure, which was 350 feet

long, and that was the structure that the huge solar rays hang off of. after i talk, i will show you a video from that flight as well as some of the current views of the international space station and some of things that are calling on the day -- that are going on today. i wanted to talk about the leadership things i've done since transitioning out of the astronaut corps. i knew that going into that last flight that it would probably be my last space flight, or at least the last for several years. it was my fourth flight. we had a lot of people in the astronaut office you had not had the chance to fly into space at all, and one of our goals was to make sure we get those folks flight experience. i was offered, and accepted, the position of deputy director of flight crew operations at johnson space center. the flight crew operations directorate is the organization

at their bank that manages both the astronaut corps and the aircraft arms division. at that time, we had about 41 aircraft in the division. about 30 of them were t-38 aircraft that astronauts fly as part of the training. we at four shuttle-training aircraft that shuttle commanders and pilots used to learn how to plan the shuttle -- land the shuttle. a couple of 747s that had been modified to carry the shuttle on to anp. and the high altar to aircraft. -- altitude aircraft. in addition to developing policies for our organization, managing people on the budget, we had technical operational in terms of representing the flight crew at the various program and

agency level meetings, where they need a flight crew representative. some of those meetings, we were flying the shuttle in the middle of the international space station. they would make decisions about fixing software or doing inspections or just the day-to- day decisions for the shuttle, we always had fled for representatives of there -- to there -- flight crew representatives there. we had a mission management team meetings with the shuttle management as well as representatives from various areas, like flight crew or mission operations, would gather and make decisions during the flights, depending on how things were going, reviewing objectives of the flight, if there were failures happening,

understanding whether we could go in and do the next big milestone, whether it was run with the station are things like that. the space shuttle program about once a quarter at council meetings where the management of the whole shuttle program as well as people like me representing flight crew or mission control, a safety and engineering organizations, would meet and talk over issues. the manager is stood up at this meeting and said that the basic aim was that the nasa administrator was focused on getting to a particular launch by february 2004, a little over a year away.

that launched was going to bring us a module and at that point we were going to be at a situation called for complete. -- core complete. it was a point at which you could have three crew members on board and support them, have enough power and laboratory meetings they could work in. we were going to six or seven crew members total. this was sort of a phase that was ending before you build up to the six-person crew. let me give you a little bit of background on a wide they were so interested in this particular flight that was going to happen about 14 months away read about a year or two earlier, it turned out that the space station was determined to be about $4 billion over its projected budget, and the administration declared that they were going to

limit it to this court complete -- core complete configuration. the deputy director of the office of management and budget presented a plan at a congressional hearing that would help bring the costs under control. basically, it cut out some of flights that were going to be part of that core complete, cancel some of the elements already in development, including habitation module that was being built and a crew rescue vehicle that the u.s. was providing. and then there was a task force that was formed at omb's requests that recommended a reduced flight rate, about four shuttle flights per year, which would require longer station crews on orbit. we already had crews living on torbit at that time. in general, we are trying to rotate crews out every three months, and the task force recommended increasing that to about six months.

at time, in 2001, at they felt we could get to this core complete by february 2004. they recommended a performance date. they were going to see how nasa did over the next couple of years and in 2003, an assessment would be made based on program performance and asset's credibility. if it was satisfactory, they would look at what resources were needed to get to the full assembly complete and see if they could provide those or not. if they did not feel progress was satisfactory, they were going to end at the assembly of the station and the core complete. the deputy director of omb, as i mentioned, right in the middle of this, became the new nasa administrator. you can imagine that as he was so involved in the cost control

in situation and had proposed some of the steps we were going to be taking, he was very focused, knowing that in fall 2003 they were going to make this decision, and really trying to get to this launched in february 2004. from nasa headquarters, there was a screen saver to all the space flight center is, essentially a countdown to february 2004. this made a lot of people at johnson space center very nervous. many of the people working on the shuttle program had been working on the shuttle program in 1986 when the challenger accident occurred. although there were technical reasons that were the root cause of that accident, there were a lot of organizational causes that contributed to the. back to this council meeting.

the first one i attended in a management role. we did spend the majority of this meeting talking about the schedule. there was a person who stood up that was in charge of the manifest, when the flights were scheduled to be launched, and he was personally briefing the nasa administrator on a monthly basis, talking about how we lost 90 days of schedule in the last six months of 2002. we were still down 60 days. we are working a technical issue with some of our main engines at the time, and delaying a little but even then. talking about how many days of march and had to the next assembly flight. and directing the main contractor processing the shuttle to work over the christmas holidays, only giving folks christmas eve, christmas, and new year's, off. the only other topic, really,

that was discussed much of all had more to do on the technical .peration side to i the person in charge of the orbiter was concerned that the way we were operating the shuttle was quite different than the the way the equipment was actually a originally certified. you may remember that when the shuttle was developed, they were trying to fly many times a year. they thought at that time they could turn around shuttles' much quicker. they were talking about flying shuttles every couple of weeks. they designed it for a certain number of missions. we were not anywhere near the number of missions that a lot of this equipment was certified for, but they assumed they would get to that number of missions in a handful of years. here we are 20 years later, nowhere near that number of missions, but with the overall calendar lifetime on this equipment much longer than we

expected. we also talked about the way we process information. it was different than anticipated. we had oxygen lines and we had trouble with. they were put aside to be moved an inch. in processing, people were stepping on them. we were postulatingthat was probably the cause of why we were having leaks. everyone decided to further validate the way we were operating. that was an example of looking at the technical-operational issue. most of the meeting was really focused on the schedule. that is the stage. for the next month, january, we were scheduled to launch only one of three flights on the

books for the unforeseeable future that was not to the international space station. it was a science of flight. as we look at the manifest, it did not initially really affect the assembly of the international space station. it did not prevent other flights from watching beyond it. i was in florida for that launch. part of the launch control center. during the countdown, the management associated with the shuttle program went there. i was happy to be there because it was our first chance to

command a mission. i also was there about three years earlier on another mission. i was real happy to see him getting to command a mission. fortunately, the launch went off smoothly. we did not have any issues. during the mission, we generally have a mission management team meetings every day. my boss, the director of flight crew operations, essentially said to me i will go to mission management meetings and you go to other things that are required. i heard about something that happened during launch that is not in on a regular meetings or they talk about it with the mission management team. i was in a mission control surrounding. one of my new duties was to be the flight crew representative,

not as one of the flight controllers, but is essentially as a manager at there. of course, it was in the back of people's mines at having a manager there in case issues happened. obviously, that was february 1, 2002. that was the day we launched columbia. -- that was the day that we lost columbia. that was the probably the worst professional event you can imagine. after a very long day, a very long next few months, we were very busy in flight crew august. -- ops, immediately dealing with the loss of life and the impact to families.

we had a team to investigate what happened as well as an independent team that was set up called "the columbia investigation board." we had as a representative that was an existential member of the -- ex-oficio member of the board as well. i think you probably know that they determine the root cause was a piece of foam that came off the external tanks that became debris and ended up hitting the air shuttle in the cargo area. it is said to put a fairly wide hole in that, allowing the gases to melt from the inside

when they put out the report, they also said there were contributing organizational flaws. i quote from that report now. "the organizational causes of this accident include the original compromises that were required to gain approval for the shuttle program, subsequent years of resource constraints, fluctuating priorities, schedule pressures, and lack of an agreed national vision. cultural and organizational practices detrimental to safety were allowed to develop, including relying on past success, organizational barriers, which prevented communication of critical safety information, lack of integrated management, and evolution of an informal chain of command that operated outside of the organizational role."

over the next two-2.5 years, we prepared for what we call "the return to flight." that involves a lot of technical engineering work, but a lot of organizational work, too. we went to a lot of training with an emphasis in making sure people realize they should not only speak up if they thought there was an issue not being looked at. we have a team that meets real time during mission to make decisions. i have learned as an after night and many of you learn about crew resource management where you work together as small teams.

taking that to the level of position management and even beyond. of course, we had regulatory control board meetings. what we needed to fix, what we needed to change, what we needed to add. this is pretty emotional and pretty contentious. many of the time i was the person representing the crew opinion. questions could be interpreted by other people in the room as the flight crew placing blame. there was so much personal investment that people had that almost all the people in the room thought i am not to blame for what happened. -- felt some amount of blame for what happened. there were obviously different opinions about what needs to be

done. there were a lot of people who felt we would not get to the level of resolution needed to turn around the shuttle for reentry and thought that we should not even be trying. there were people who thought we absolutely ought to be doing this inspection and doing whatever is possible to make sure we could do this inspection and understand whether the shuttle was safe for reentry. one of the things we work on as an organization was a nasa's core values. i am not even sure if we were reworking or developing. up to this point, i do not recall having heard someone talk to me about nasa's core values, but i certainly paid a lot of attention to it during this era. they came up with four core values for nasa -- safety, excellence, integrity. i want to read you a couple of excerpts from that, which you

can find on nasa's website. "nasa is privileged to take on missions of extraordinary risk, complexity, and national priority. nasa employees recognize their responsibilities and are accountable for the important work entrusted to them. strategic planning provide the long-term agencies, our shared core values reflect light the ethics of our values. nasa's, to the attention to safety is the cornerstone for how we build mission success. we protect the safety and health of the public, our team members, and those assets the nation entrusts the agency." the other one i wanted to read was under integrity. "nasa is committed to maintaining and are of trust.

-- an environment based on trust and ethical behavior. our leaders and able this environment by encouraging and rewarding a vigorous communication on all issues. among all employees without fear of reprisal. ethical conduct as individuals and an organization for mission success." about one year after columbia, in the midst of all of this, we got a new nasa administrator. in one of the speeches he gave, it was called "nasa engineering integrity." mike was a very good speaker. i would often go and find his talks on line and read them myself. there was a paragraph i thought was very relevant to what we're going through at that time. "integrity is speaking up in a meeting when you do not believe the facts matched the conclusions been reached or that certain facts are being ignored. integrity is refusing to fall

in love with your own analysis, admitting you are wrong when someone submits a new data that should alter your earlier view. a charity is keeping a promise or commitment, or when circumstances change, explaining why an agreement cannot be kept. integrity is walking into the boss's office, closing the door, and speaking with frankness, openness, and honesty. close to 2.5 years after the accident, we had discovery on the launch pad. i returned to the launch mission. we were in the middle of the countdown and we had a sensor

problem. the engine quickly cut off and we abbreviated the launch just what we appreciate everything in nasa. this is an issue that has nothing to do with anything we had worked on return to flight. let me again quote an article from that time. "there is a failed pre lots check during the countdown managers described discovery's first launch attempt. some of the troubleshooting and included conducting electromagnetic interference testing on wiring in the aft engine compartment. engineers suspected it was a wiring-grounding issue and could lead to that glitch.

shuttle workers -- this was a couple of weeks later -- shuttle workers are wrapping up an electronic box that received much attention over the last couple of weeks. that was a few weeks later. we did at launch with no problems with the sensors. or four engine cut off sensors in the external tank. there is liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. they are intended to make sure the engines either do not shut down to early, resulting in an

abort, or run too long, because that could drain a tank dry with potentially catastrophic results -- an engine fire or explosion that could destroy the vehicle and crew. you would unlikely need this back up system because you generally load more fuel than you need. but we do need to use it. it is clearly critical, not only to mission success, but to the crew's safety. the backup system had been put to the test twice, once in 1985 when a main engine shut down during a launch. they tested the fuel consumption of the remaining two engines. it resulted in an engine cutoff. then just a couple of years before, there was a hydrogen

leak in one of the main engine nozzles that caused more oxygen to be consumed than accepted. the sensors had triggered a shutdown. even though unlikely, we have used the center's a couple of time. as we were doing this, especially in the first two weeks, we had a history throughout the shuttle program of ecotourism sensor problems. -- of ecosensor problems. there are also other sensors in the tank that are not used to shut down the engine, but are used to understand, especially when you are filling the tank, where you are and other types of things. we have that failures of those sensors as well.

the sensors need to be working. there were a lot of people who thought that was overkill. but there were a number of people who came and talked about why it was designed that way and even though we were dealing with a failure that was not likely to happen in the first place, the consequences of running dry on the filicide could be catastrophic and that added redundancy to the system. we did come up with a sort of a corollary to that where if you have a sensor not working on a countdown, if it shows the same signature that all the others are still working, the team

could proceed with launched because it would require two more to fail by order to impose a catastrophic threat in addition to being in a situation where you needed to use those sensors. it obviously depends on what causes the failure to the sensor. if there is something particular to that one sensor, it is unlikely the other two will fail. perhaps that loss was not manufactured correctly. there is the possibility of two more failing was a lot more likely. because we did not know what was wrong, we could not tell if it was a common cost situation or not. one of the other things that

happened was on this first return flight mission, something that disturb us all greatly -- we had a large piece of foam come off the tank. this was after 2.5 years of working to make sure we would not have any debris coming off of that tank. it was the only large piece of manually applied phone still left on that tank. i remember a lot of discussions about whether we needed to do something differently, but we did not totally change that system. that could have been a very serious situation if it hit the shuttle, which it did not. but because of that, the next launch was delayed another year as we remarked that particular part of the tank. even after looking at it far too. five years, we had to go back

and do that. now we have come down to this second flight. we called it the second return. we are counting down to launch and we have been an ecosensor failure. a few days later, we tried again. the corollary role said if you try again, the same center does it again but everything else is good, you go to launch. we had a different failure on the launch. there were many people are doing even with 1 failure and even though we did not know what that failure was that we still had enough margin that we could go launched because we had other sensors. we decided not to do that.

we instituted a different type of inspection for these sensors. a're looking at them with different type of non destructive evaluation to understand. people thought they had an idea of something that might be happening with the sensors. we looking at many other possibilities of a. electronic spots that the signals go through. some people felt the issue was actually an electronic box. people came into meetings saying it was not the box. other people arguing about what it was. we looked at the cabling between the sensors. all the way from the sensors, through the tank, into the orbiter or the box was. there did not seem to be any commonality in what cables were being used. they were trying to look everywhere along that line.

but we were not able to find it. eventually, as i mentioned, we did go to a different line of sensors that had been inspected. we were able to put some different sensors in and watch that mission. two-three months later, we're counting down to the next mission. we are now in 2006. let me just tell you, this launched an already been delayed three times, once for a malefaction in a fuel cell, or once after a lightning strike on the pad -- once you have that, you have to go through a bunch of testing because a lightning strike could potentially cause some kind of electrical damage somewhere in the shuttle and you have to do a lot of testing to make sure that has not happened. and then once due to weather from a tropical storm the day we were doing the launch countdown. the day we were doing the launch

countdown, the agency was under pressure to launch or wait until october. let me put this in context. after columbia, we came out with a new vision for space exploration. we were going to shut down the shuttle program in 2010 and wanted to be done with the assembly of the international space station by then. then we would start up a exploration program with a heavy lift off, and a new space craft. we needed to shut down the shuttle program in order to use that money for development of the exploration program. what was on everybody's mind is we have to get a certain number of shuttle flights going by 2010 in order to have the international space station finished and then we can operate it and retired the space shuttle program. that is the environment we were

all working in. so we are counting down. we were in florida as part of the mission management team. he and i were talking back-and- forth by phone. one of the ecosensors failed that morning. there were tests we could do during the countdown. you do not have to stop the launch countdown. we were talking back-and-forth by phone. he was asking me a lot of questions because i had been the one who had sat through most of the technical and operational briefings where we had discussed this issue. he was looking for my opinion because he thought i was probably more up on the details than he was in terms of

everything that we talked about. let me just say that, again, we had talked to the situation many times. if on a first launch we have this one sensor that is acting up, should we go ahead and launch? as a community and through the many months we had discussed this, we had never agreed to do that. some combination was engineering and safety and other people had not been able to sign up for that. we had never changed that rule. we still have the role that on the second attempt if it was the same sensor that was acting up. again, we talked about, well, should we launched today even with one sensor not operating? i was listening very hard and as the engineering people came up, obviously, if there is something in the testing that you new information, that, for

example, could give you some information about whether there is a common-cause failure or not. any new information might allow you to think differently about that role, that is what i was looking for. i was also looking to what other people said. i happened to be sitting next to the flight controller. his job is to monitor the main engines during flight. in certain situations, he would be the one to make a call up to the crew during emergency shutdown of an engine if he saw something happening he was concerned about. you can imagine that he was really in the hot seat for any sort of engine issues. when the flight director pulled his team, the flight controller said he was no-go. the flight director reported

down to florida that he was go, and he was speaking for his full team. he has the authority to say go even if is one of his team members say no go, because everybody is essentially has to decide what they think that risk is and determine whether they are go or no-go for that. i found quite interesting that the flight controller himself said at the modesto. that was not reported to the mission management team, but i knew it. as we talked about it, it came down to the point where the mission team was to say go or no-go, i was talking to my boss and said my vote is no-go. we talked many times about changing the flight roles.

during the launch countdown is not the time to change that unless there is new information and i had not heard anything. we all have to be willing to take risks because there is never a time we launch the shuttle where there is never a risk to that group. you have to be willing to take a risk, however, what i saw -- we have no idea why these sensors were not working. therefore, we did not know if there was a common-cause failure. we did not know if there was potentially something offline with the system that did not show up in a way that was unanticipated. i was pretty confident that engineering was going to say no-go. we have had this conversation many times before.

we went around the room and some of the crew and my boss said no-go. because i was the one who had sort of influence that decision, the nasa administrator called me up on the phone i could tell he thought the risk equation of was we could go that day, however, he was definitely willing to listen to me. i told him how i felt. in the end, less than an hour before launch, we postponed the launch and did not watch that day. let me tell you the rest of the story.

for the next day, we did another launch countdown. all of the sensors were operating. there was still obviously the team trying to understand what was going on with these centers. -- with these ecosensors. the postulated a new theory and came up with a new inspection. for the next four shuttle flights, you did not see any issue with the sensors. many people thought this second inspection was doing the trick, that we were finding the best sensors and, therefore, not having any issues with this problem. five flights down the line, we are now in december 2007. we had a launch countdown. during the countdown, two ecosensors failed. another one failed while they pulled the fuel out of the tank. we tried to launch two days later and another sensor fail.

the shuttle program manager said we would not prepare for another launched until we found out why these sensors were failing. that was really the first time the comment had been made. we ended up doing a highly estimated test that ended up focusing on a connector that passes electrical signals from the sensors to the external tank to the shuttle. they postulated that something inside the connector caused the metal pins to stop touching the metal inside the socket. it's kind of makes sense that you would see it when you would load the tank with fuel because

that would change the -- essentially how much room you have in the connector between the pins. it turns out that one side was postulated. there were some other people outside the shuttle program who heard about it and said, hey, about a dozen years ago the titan centaur rocke4t similar problem. we ended up picking it by permanently soldering these connecting pins in the socket of these connectors. it was a difficult soldering path that was required, but they did that and we're not having the problems. we actually got some of the same technicians that supported the other program -- titan program -- and ended up doing a sort of a round the clock design and fixed the problem.

in about two months later is when we actually went back to launch. we never saw another sensor problem again. 13 flights. i have often fought back to that day which everybody thinking i was. to stop the shuttle launch. then i thought a lot about what that means, in particular in the context of today. i do not feel that anybody was particularly right or wrong on that day. i do think as a team we should have tried harder to determine the root cause earlier, but we did not get to that point earlier. were we instilling a culture where people could speak up?

i felt not only that i could speak up, but that i had to speak up. did we have a culture where people could listen? that was obviously critical. and a culture of asking questions. that is just one of the examples of some of the difficult decisions in the managers in the space program have to face. when you think about it, it was almost on a weekly basis where we had to make decisions about changes we would or would not make to the shuttle based on concerns people had or problems that they had seen. if i vote we do not need to make this decision, it was changed two years down the line. is there going to be something

really bad that happens on the shuttle? it is during the countdown when all we have the pressure of do we really want to launch that day that we have to personally set aside culture. feel like i am not going to act any differently on this day. what i would like to do now -- there is one other thing i wanted to talk about, which discusses -- the leadership challenge lately has been the changes we are going to the space program. shutting down the shuttle program. we did have a number of years to prepare for that. it is still a difficult thing to do. part of our transition plan is the consolation-exploration program. in terms of keeping critical skill and transitioning to

another program that people will be able to work on, we felt we had the makings of a pretty good plan. it was about a year -- with about a year left in the program, the new administration cancel the constellation- exploration program. that made our leadership challenge is much more difficult. two of the three programs we were running were essentially shut down at the same time. rather than talking about that, i will talk about one of the leadership books that i have read it recently that i try to keep a couple of things in mind from. we had a group of employees who decided to put together their own leadership program because they thought we did not have one that really address early- career employees.

part of that is a year-long program, but part of that was a book club. -- they came to me and asked to lead a discussion on the book of "highly effective people." i heard about the book but had never actually read it. it was a good thing for me to do, to read that book. i think about a lot of the actions and situations i have been in, particularly where i thought i could be more effective, and i came up with some things for me. i think anyone who reads the book will find ones that speak to them in situations they find themselves in. "be pro-active." "why are they doing this to me?"

you choose how to respond to that. what you want to do is understand what you can do to take action. i have really tried to think about that. i understand how we to motivate our folks to continue to work on the human space flight program. the second one that spoke to me in the situation i find myself in as one that says "speak first to understand that to be understood." in a lot of situations i found myself in in leadership positions, i felt my role was to advocate for the organization i represented.

if i was in there as the flight crew manager, i was advocating for a position that we had worked out and my main job was to advocate for that. or if i was at a meeting representing the space center, we are advocating for the space center. it is hard to be effective if i am advocating the same position over and over again because everybody else in that meeting is advocating their position. how will we find a solution if people do not sit back and think to themselves, why does the other person in the meeting field the way they do? why are they recommending that? in the end, they have the same goal that i do, yet they come to a different conclusion about what needs to be done, where resources and need to be spent, what we should do fixing or changing?

my first thought in that meeting is to understand -- that is my person over there. -- why that person over there thinks the way they do. see app that influences or can help us come to a solution that often incorporates what i have come to believe is what i felt in that situation. what i would like to do now is show a video. it is my fourth space shuttle flight. it was part of the assembly of the international space shuttle program. it also at the end has more current video of the international space station today. if we could go ahead and show that. this is april 2002. our commander is up front right there.

mike bloomfield. colonel in the air force. it was the space shuttle atlantis. there are already three astronauts and cosmonauts at the space station. i am the flight engineer, so i am sort of in the middle in the back row. that was one of my jobs on that mission. taking off with 70 million pounds of thrust, which is pretty exciting on a florida afternoon. as you know, those solid rocket boosters only operate for the first two minutes of launch.

then we go the rest of the way on the shuttle main engines. once we get into orbit, we start preparing for the rendezvous with the international space station. you kind of need to be hanging on when you do that. they do in part a force on the shuttle. then there was a team of three -- the commander, the pilot, and me -- working to the rendezvous procedures as we bring in navigation information and data. this is a picture of us taken from the crew on the international space station. that big piece in the middle was the thrust section we were bringing up. that big silver ball is where we are heading for. that is where we will dock. is the station coming into view.

it looks like what it is meeting us, but we are really meeting it. the bottom part is the shuttle, the top part is the station. that is the initial contact between the two. the air force pilot very happy with his flying. about two hours later, we open the hatches. the two commanders go onto the space station. they were up there for four months, so they were happy to see other people. we started transferring supplies. that is something you do on all the missions. it makes it a little more efficient. the next day we started our major task, which was to lift this piece of trust structure out of the payload bay using the robot arm, reaching into

the shuttle and moving it into position to attach it to the international space station. i was working along with dan burch. you can see we do not have windows. we were working on the space station arm at this time. we are using camera views, which are not always the best. this is a great line showing the middle east view of the earth outside the trust. this is a little further. you're looking at the truss being moved into position. over the next week, we did for space walks with four crew members on board. they would alternate in pairs of two, going out.

each day, one was on the arm and the other was in essentially free-floating with a tether. my job was to move around the person on the end of the station arm as they were doing the work they needed to do to look up this truss. we had to make many connections to hook up power and data, using power tools on board to make a lot of those structural connections. you can see there is a person of the end of the arm holding a piece of equipment.

he is kind of looking out onto the earth and space as i move them around on the arm from one side to the other. he said it was the most fun ever on a space walk. this is inside the shuttle. we invited the members over freight texas barbecue -- for a texas barbecue. us to the station for a meal. steve smith showing how surface tension is an important force in space in the absence of gravity. after about a week, our work was done. would make sure we have the right bellybuttons -- we made

sure we have the right bellybuttons and closed the hatch. this is a part of the flight that was pretty dynamic. navy pilot was that the control for the flight dock. we separated back away. we wait for sunrise and then do a full fly round of the station taking pictures to help document the outside of the station which has been used to understand the configuration for future engineering and training exercises. here is what we look like as we were leaving. c.r. payload bay -- you can see our payload bay is pretty empty.

you can see the station arm hanging off their. the rectangle in the center is the truss. after we do a full day of checking out the systems on the space shuttle to make sure they are ready for an entry, we close the doors. ail.can see the shuttle t then we prepare for entry. we get into art entreat seats -- our seats. this is the party commander waits for. you can see the heads up display shows about 24,000 feet, 290 knots. this is about 13,000 feet. you can see the runway.

we do a pretty massive pull up at 2,000 feet to make a runaway because we're dropping like a rock. we are not flying that much. at 300 feet, the pilot drops the gear, very important part of the mission. we're going about 200 knots when we land. there is the drag chute to help prevent wear and tear on the tires. we have a three-mile long runway for the rollout. now like to transition into the space station today -- now i would like to transition to the space station today.

it's been continuously inhabited for over 11 years. it is larger than a football field. to entereen about people who have lived there or visited there -- about 200 people. that is nicole giving us a little bit of a tour. this is the module that ties the u.s. and russian sides together. this is their main service module where they do a lot of their activities. then to some of the experiments. this is a biological experiment about worm larva. this is parof an educational

program that can be replicated in kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms and they can understand how butterflies or spiders operate differently in space than on earth. same with plan growth -- plant growth. these are little nano racks that could help experiments by high school students. a lot of all we do is focus on biomedical experiments and how the in human body is affected by spaceflight. we need special exercise to prevent bone loss. our new systems change in space and we're trying to understand more about. the components that hold food and meditate -- food and medicine change.

alter cold temperatures -- ultra-cold temperatures. -space soldering. experiment on the outside of the station, the powerful magnetic spectrometer. it is trying to detect dark matter and measure cosmic rays. it measured more than 12 billion cosmic rays since last may. this is the first humanoid robots in space. this handshake happened a couple of weeks ago. looking at that to assist astronauts in the future. this is our window on the world.

this is a spectacular view of australias.traliaurora this is the east coast of the united states at night. spectacular view. you'll see some dark areas which are the great lakes. chicago is the big bright spots. it is spectacular to up with things like robotic activity and to view the earth. i want to mention that you can go online anytime and find out when you can view this where you live. it is very bright star in the sky as long as you have a clear night. i look for the best night in

colorado springs. there is one next thursday, march 1 outside at 6:43 p.m. it will come up in the west- northwest direction about 20 degrees above the horizon and get up to about 75 degrees above the horizon. it should be a five-minute pass. look out and think about the human space flight program and maybe for some of you that will be in your program, as well. thank you very much and i would be happy to take some of your questions now. [applause] >> thank you so much for your message. the wisdom you share today will be invaluable. on behalf of our participants, we would like to present you

with a small token of our appreciation. [applause] if you like to speak to dr. ochoa, she will be available at stage right. all who make this possible. there are buses running every 20 minutes from the front of arnold hall and back to fairchild hall. thank you. >> coming up, commencement addresses from around the country. our focus today is business leaders.

speeches atthese noon eastern ellis show them again tonight at 10:00. and even the looks that documents that were seized during the rate of'osama new- paragraphs compound -- osama bin laden's compound. the medal of freedom ceremony will be live at 3:25. a primary contest in texas. it is expected it mitt romney will win the primary in the lone star state. watched c-span for reaction. if mitt romney does prevail, he will go over the top in terms of number of delegates. in texas' victory will provide

152 delegates. >> spend the weekend with book tv on c-span2. american presidents and black on japan nor's. then the founding of beechcraft -- and black entrepreneurs. on sunday, experienced early planes liains life and two participants from the kansas civil-rights movements. they sat down for service at a drugstore. c-span is local content vehicle exports the literary life of cities across america. this weekend, from wichita, kansas, on c-span2 and c-span3. >> philip now at the upcoming

presidential election from today's "washington journal." host: michael steele was the chairman of the republican national committee, 2009 through 2011. thanks for coming to talk with us. talking about campaign 2012 and republicans. let's first talk about some of the recent happenings for senate seats. senate hopefuls sparred in texas is a headline. we're seeing a big challenging race there. we also read a story this morning about congressman upton facing a run from the tea party. however the tea party changing the race this year? guest: they have had an impact going back to 2009 in utah. host: do they still? guest: absolutely. if you look at dick lugar's campaign, the impact and influence of tea party-backed bests. -- tea party activists. i don't so much say it's a tea party phenomenon as the grass roots within the party

asserting itself and making the claim that we want to have control over it who will best represent those things that we value and think are important such as the economy. for candidates who have grown out of touch, who are not as committed to the base as they should be, they pay the price. i think that's a very important part of rejuvenation of the party, re-focusing its energies at the grass-roots level where the communication is most important. we're seeing establishment types, those typically supported by the establishment, having a hard time holding on to those seats they had at 10 years, 30 years. host: does that worry you? guest: not at all. i welcome it. it is a refresh in part of the process. you get the message that you better stay engaged with your voters. with your base. you cannot come to washington and not get back home, spend

time at home. you have people that buy homes here and live here and really go back to their districts. then when they get to a critical election, they say, me too. no, you are not. people resent that. especially in the economy. they want to know they have folks who will be fighting for them in washington and not doing the same old thing. if i'm not bothered by that. i think it's pretty good. host: recent poll shows president obama and mitt romney in a dead heatn the economy. what does romney have to do to win over american stressed -- america's trust, especially if in light of the focus on his time at bain capital? guest: i think this turning point comes to night in texas with the primary. i think that will be enough to solidify the 1144 number that he needs for the delegates for nomination. election on the first ballot. so i think that will get behind

him. now he can begin to tailor his arguments and his message, as he has begun to do, more specifically and more explicitly on the president's handling of the economy, the role than he has played in creating jobs in the past, whether that is at bain capital or as governor of his state, and how he sets the tone for the future and vision of the country. that is going to be a very important message. he will now begin to have that conversation with independent voters, particularly white women, who will be the swing vote in many places around the country. he must have a way to connect with them and say all the scary stuff you are hearing from obama about bain capital and how capitalism is bad, let me tell you a different story, let me tell you how it can actually help you get back into the job market if you lost your job or grow your business. host: how does he appeal to that demographic, a possible swing vote, someone -- the woman vote, maybe someone with more moderate views? guest: sure.

host: and the tea party that's having an important influence in what's going on? guest: it is not an easy dance, because there can be extremes on either end of that spectrum that people want you to play to. i think is out, though, is speaking specifically on the economy, the voters who may be moderate or have some other political persuasion, they still have a fundamental view of what the economy should be doing. to the extent that he can talk about that -- and the obama folks don't want to talk about that. the president is saying a lot of beautiful things around the country and not talking about the real jobs picture in this country, 23 million people still underemployed or have stopped looking. he is not talking about his health care plan. his signature piece of legislation has had a big impact on the economy and will have a big impact in 2013 when the taxes that go to pay for

this program, to plant. -- come into play. he is not talking about this. that's an opening for romney to have that conversation, and context for the voters, and i think he will be successful. host: michael steele served as lieutenant governor of maryland. 2003 to 2007. if you would like to speak with him, here are the numbers to call -- democrats -- 202-737-0001. republicans -- 202-737-0002. independents -- 202-628-0205. let's hear from loretta, joining us from cleveland, ohio, on our democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, libby and mr. steele. host: i will pass on your question to the chairman. caller: my question for him is

regarding the republican plan to pay for eight years with bush. he republicans spent $11.5 trillion with two wars, with the military advantage, with tarp. and they blew clinton's surplus and gave me $0.50 trillion tax -- $3.5 trillion tax cut in 2003 for jobs. by 2008 we had millions of 99- percenters. -- 99-ers. the republicans still have a lot to explain. guest: i agree with your premise and that's why you saw the emergence of tea party activism within the gop. those republicans were frustrated with big government republicanism, frustrated with spending money we did not have, and creating debt, which is a burden for future generations,

and spending on medicare advantage, as well as not having the resources to pay for that at that time it. i give you all that. but that does not change where we are right now. it's part of the history of it. it's part of the scenario, but it does not change the fact that in the last four years our economy that has grown $5 -- our debt has grown over $5 trillion in a for your years versus $3 trillion that it grew under bush under eight years. the wars were not paid for, but $5 trillion has been spent and has not been accounted for. we will have the same discussion coming up this fall about raising the debt ceiling, spending more money that we don't have. and so, that it is what the nub of this debate in this election will be about. not so much what george bush did. we get what george bush did. that's why we have the turnout in 2006 and 2008 where the gop was frustrated and votes of --

and voted some people out of office. we saw that turned around in 2009 and 2010 with a new crop of fiscal accounts into as elected officials who have drawn bright lines in the sand in washington. now the debate going forward will be how do we pay for the additional spending and that we have? what is the obama agenda going to be like in 2015 should he be reelected? -- in 2013? you have a democratic senate who has yet to pass a budget in three years for the country to even able to have a debate about the nation's fiscal health. about our caller talks ov turning over a new leaf.

host: there's a big story in the new york times today looking but youdent obama's make of what he's doing? >> i don't think that is that different to what george bush would have done. i find it ironic. you're the president was apoplectic about waterboarding list.s a catalykill i'm going to put your name on a piece of paper. i don't know how they go back to justify this. it has been romanticized, the president's decision and how admirable it was for the president to put himself in the list and talk about these things. shouldwhat presidents

do. if george of the bush and come up with a list of people -- remember the reaction to the playing cards that the president had of all the terrorists. they had a deck of playing cards. it was not a "kill list," just playing cards and people went, oh my gosh. it's a very difficult situation, a troubling time for the war on terror but more specifically in syria. the president has a very important decision to make. i'm glad he is making decisions and be cautious and delivered in his process. -- and deliberate in this process. i'm glad that he's listening to certain people. senator mccain, i would agree with his view that we don't want to get in a position where we are leading from behind. so that you would have the slaughter of innocents. you look at bosnia, rwanda, all these other places where the world community has sat back and let people die because of the brutal behavior of dictators. so the president has a full

plate in that regard. but this romanticizing of the decision -- but somehow thinking the "kill list" is something noble, is misplaced. host: looking at the new york times, a mass burial in syria, pressure on syria increasing after killing citizens there. let's get back to the phones to hear from johnnie, a republican in baltimore, maryland. hi, johnny. caller: hi. good morning. guest: good morning. caller: we are in troubling times. my main concern is back when george bush was the president, after 9/11 happened, it was a weird thing that happened to me. i happened to be flying the day before. i mentioned to a friend of mine in key west that someone could take one of these airplanes over and do whatever they want.

here i was complaining about the captain of the flight that i was on leaving his door open, and after 9/11 happened to my friend called me and says i cannot believe you said that. i said it is common sense. that is where i think this government is failing. common sense. becausewe have simple solutions that could fix big problems, but it seems like the government does not listen to the average person. and my goodness, i have called my congressman and by senators to get them to listen, and it seems they do a copy and paste of letters carry the guest: i thi. guest: i think that makes a

good point. it goes back to the letters. guest: i think to make a good point and it goes back to our conversation about activism like our friend from baltimore who is frustrated. they look at things from a common-sense view. the government says if you do "a," maybe "d" happens. people want to follow the logical progression is the door to the cockpit is open, that could be a problem. so maybe we should address that. when you look of things like terrorism, our economy, people want leadership to come up with common sense solutions. it is not complicated in that sense. maybe the nitty gritty gets down in the weeds for most. the reality is looking at the top line, we can begin to address some of our nation's problems right now. economically, how do you cut down on that? -- cut down on debt? do not spend money that we do

not have. how do we continue on the road to provide everything to everyone? we cannot. when i've looked at the last 10 years and the two major events, 9/11 and the economic collapse. what did both of these presidents have in common? they never asked the american people to sacrifice. the war on terror, what our government tell us is go back to the malls, back on airplanes. "we got this. do not worry. the economic collapse? cash for clunkers, this -- there was not a sense of making a sacrifice. you have to sacrifice a liberty or two in order to secure this homeland. you will have to make financial sacrifices. we will make some financial sacrifices.

yes, we might have to raise taxes, where maybe we have to cut spending, but let's have the discretion instead of retreating to the camps that we retreat to against tax cuts, cutting spending. then sit there and see what happens. common sense. host: this from twitter -- what is ron paul's game. will he have any effect on ending the war, closing the fed, overthrowing the health- care law, legalizing marijuana? he has unofficially suspended his campaign but he still wants to be a presence. guest: you have seen in rect contests where the state parties have had state conventions and he is picking up the delegates. it is cord to be well- represented. -- he is going to be well represented in tampa. there is no doubt about that. ron paul has helped change the

course of the dialogue and focus on issues like national security. the core struggle within the gop on that issue -- certainly, he has educated and elevated the debate with respect to the fed. now you have mitt romney and others are talking about what to do with the fed. he has clearly had an impact and will continue to have one beyond this presidential cycle. that is ultimately a good strategy. it is long ball strategy. he has laid down these seeds. his son rand paul will argue those points in the senate going forward. i think ron paul has had an important impact. on the marijuana, i do not know how far he will get on that, but on financial and foreign affairs he has energized the debate, particularly if with young folks who gravitate more toward that libertarian sense of the world. i think that one of a long-term effect -- i think that will have

a long-term effect. host: how do you keep the voters engaged, and we see a story on "the hill." host: since you have experience, how do you divvy up the spots? how do you make this an electric experience? guest: you run into a couple of problems. the major networks plan to cover only an hour a night, at most. as was reported at some points. your time will be cut down. the cable networks will cover it. where i work, and thus nbc, i know they will be in it. that means you will have to get the maximum effect for your audience. you're going to have to strategically decide. if they are only covering one hour each of those nights, we have to get right folks in those spots.

that will be a new dance for both committees to deal with. you will see the jockeying. you will hear the pleas, you will hear the advocates, but i think they have to decide who will best reflect the message i want to send to the country? this is not about paying back pay debt or making sure that joe blow gives a speech because he is a good guy. i want people that reflect my message about how to heal the country and move it forward. that is where you will see the mitt romney team come down, and the people that get those spots will reflect that view. host: melanie, maryland. a self-described libertarian. melanie. caller: i will get back to that in just a second. michael steele, i voted for you.

i wish you had won. i really do. i want to find all your opinion on what the democrats are doing right now. if you oppose obama you are racist. you would be a good person to tell people why you are a republican and what kind of things you have had to deal with in your different runs with people calling you names. like oreo cookie and such. help people understand why the republican party does stand for african-americans. guest: i grew up in washington, d.c., so i did not grow up in a traditional republican household or structure. what moves me to the party was its history and its orientation toward the individual. the republican party has always had a strong libertarian strain

where the rights of the individual trump those of the government and individual empowerment is more important than this sense that we are all one and move together. the rhythm of this country is built around individual initiative and that is something i thought the party always reflected well. and always spoke to. with respect to my own community, appreciating the historic link between the republican party and african- americans was important. my first election was 1976 and i watched the battle between ronald reagan and gerald ford, and ronald reagan's message resonated because it spoke to the sense of who i was as an individual. it sounded a lot like my mom who talked about going out and making good things happen. i think that is the strength of the party's message if they stayed to it.

you do not have to cater to and due out reached to black folks. you need to talk to all people and have a sense of where we want to take the country, why leadership will make a difference, and how they will be better off. not because we're going to create some new government program back because they're going to create a new government program, and not because we are quick to creating new government program, but because we are going to free them up to pursue the american dream. in this election, i think mitt romney can make the argument, not run away from his successes and failures, because that is part of the american experience. we want people to share that. not say it is better to give you the fish than teach you how to fish or chicken than teach

you how to fish. -- to have you got and find your own way. for black people, i think that as a powerful argument. host: we had an offensive call earlier in the show, where someone used language that was not appropriate. how you deal with that? the caller said that, i'm not racist. guest: you do not defend stupid. you did the right thing with that caller. this is not part of the national debate nor anything we want to be part of the discussion. a lot of times people see the color of obama's skin and they go ok, what does that mean? his policy is what matters. what he is done on health care, the economy, the war and terror,

education -- the areas that touch your life. that is what matters. how you feel about that and how you respond should have very little to do with the color of his skin, where he was born, how lee combs his hair, or how tall he is -- how he combs his hair or how tall he is and everything with the health-care system he is pushing through congress. depending on where you are in the debate, that is where the rub of this is. it has nothing to do with his world view. his world view is not colored by his skin tone. it is colored by his philosophy, experience, ideas. that is what takes shape in policy. that is where we have the problem. host: tom is a republican in saint petersburg, florida. caller: i am also calling about ron paul.

you did not address some of the concerns ahead candidacy. -- you did address some of the concerns i had about his candidacy. i would like to reinforce some of the things. i want to guess how you think he has been marginalized by the republican national committee and media outlets, and i want to throw c-span in this case. ut i think aspan b somewhat marginalized his candidacy. the lady from cleveland called out and you pointed out that we have to look at where we are, and where we are is in serious debt crisis. he is the only person to truly address the problem. -- the debt crisis. guest: taking the last point first, ron paul has, as i said before, brought to national attention to issues on the economic front that have rung

true with a lot of voters. he is making the arguments that he made 30 years ago. the authenticity, the consistency of debt which resonates with voters, particularly young voters who see someone who was willing to expand the debate and discussion and they gravitate towards that. that will bode very well. how he has been marginalized -- because he might come off quirky and people want to make fun of the size of his suit -- again, like with barack obama, what does that have to do with the substance of what he is saying? the markets -- people treat him -- the networks tend to treat him on the fringe and then the edge, but he is more mainstream than people want to give him

credit for. host: scott, green party member. florida. hi, scott. caller: i see we are in the middle of the republican propaganda machine. does c-span do anything else? i mean, really. in is only republican call - shows only, or less secure slandering me as a liberal. that me tell you what i'm going to do. when the supreme court describes at that the mandate is unconstitutional. i'm going to come after c- span's mandate so that i do not have to pay for this propaganda. beon't have to pay to slandered by c-span. host: i am sorry you feel that way. we have michael steele on, and later we will have a balance on our show. there on we will talk to

clarence page -- later on we'll talk to clarence page. let's hear from joel, a democrat in the bronx. caller: good morning, my brother. i always love you and i have respect for you. you're one of the brightest brothers that i have ever seen. i told my brothers and not try to criticize this brother. he is a brother. but what i want to say to you, my brother. we should try to laugh and regardless of the party. i'm looking at the republican party. if you look at what they did, i'm not talking about way back when the new president became president. -- this is what concerns me the most. when the world was celebrating this brother's precedential new

-- presidential new president, it was a group of republicans was putting themselves together saying they want to make sure they prevent this man from progress. host: the caller is talking about republicans who have said they did not want the president's agenda to go forward. guest: i have always thought that is silly. to be quite honest. i get the partisanship. just back to the point before, the one lesson in that conversation is you cannot please everyone, but you certainly can tick them off. if you're doing that, you're doing a good thing. those that came in when the president was collected with a pre-determined pre-cent agenda -- preset agenda for his failure, i think that has been

misplaced and it has her purse with voters, particularly independent -- it has hurt us with voters, particularly independent voters who have hope for success as they would with any president. when you say the goal is to make sure he fails, that is something the country does not want to hear or see elected officials do. fight over the policies, but you have to have the policies there to fight over. do not set the terms and say no matter what you do i will be against it. well, that is not true when it comes to matters of war and terror. the obama administration has not closed guantanamo bay, they have used drones' more than the bush administration would have used it, so you can not pre- judged. -- you cannot prejudge how these

administrations will run their course. it gets back to the policy discussion. if you're prepared to have a policy discussion between conservatives and liberals, that is great. let's have that. when you personalize it, that is when you lose. host: but stock about the race - let's talk about the race for vice president in a moment. rob portman, making the case for him as a. -- as a potential vp pick. , and this weekend on "newsmakers cocklebur debbie wasserman schultz talked about the race ahead. [video clip] >> florida is the mother of all battleground states. we know how important florida is. we have a massive voter registration program we are deploying. when you the to the issues that matter to florida voters, the

economy, job creation, immigration reform, medicare and social security -- on all of those issues which drive motors --voters to the polls in florida president obama has been fighting to make sure we maintain medicare and social security, while mitt romney has embraced the paul ryan budget plan which would end medicare as we know it, and leaving seniors with a four they would where- with no floor th tehy could fall right through. that is not acceptable hit. hispanic voters are concerned about mitt romney being the most extreme president on immigration. we should have opportunities for everyone to be successful. that is why i believe barack obama will ultimately win florida. marco rubio, in the polling that i am seeing, does not make

a difference. in some cases, it hurts mitt romney or does very little. the nice guy, but does not belong on a national ticket. host: you can find that on c- span.org. talk about marco rubio and rob portman as a potential pick. who are you looking at, and how much can this effect the game? guest: marco rubio might not be a community organizer but he was the head of house leadership. he is well respected. i take a little bit of exception with throwing off his credentials. he has as much standing to the job as anyone, certainly coming out of state legislature as our former president did. the reality is all of these individuals will be important to the mix this fall. portman, rubio and others, they

will have some play here. for mitt romney, he will probably pick someone that is consistent with the overall thrust of his administration -- serious, dedicated, understanding the mechanics of government and how it works -- that tends to lend itself a lot to rob portman, who was the budget management and director and a member of legislature. marco rubio, been at the state level, brings that experience. he has a nice crop of folks. he will take his time. i do not believe him play in the hispanic card or this or that card. that is not mitt romney's style. he will be much more deliberate and serious. that's how i see it right now. host: norma, newport news,

virginia, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. great callers. caller: i would like to offer my comments in respect to the comment that was just made on priorities and what i'm certain about. -- pretty concerned about. what i am concerned about is i'm a veteran. i've served 20 years. i am concerned with active-duty and retired military. mitt romney has five sons that did not serve in the military. what are your comments? guest: i would not say that just because he did not serve for his sons did not serve, that his it is not important to him.

you can apply that to so many other things in life. i would not say that about him at all. what i would say it is first of all, thank you for your service, and i appreciate your frustration and concern about how veterans are treated, and i think the country has become much more sensitive to that point, not just in terms of the past wars, but the men and women coming back home from iraq, afghanistan, suffering all types of issues, whether it is mental, physical, or otherwise related to their health. that is one thing. also, just in terms of getting them back into the workforce, reinterpreting them into the -- we integrating them back into the reintegrating them back into

the community, back to a life they knew before war is critically important. i know the mitt romney team has laid out an aggressive effort on that. i've read reports about the commitments he wants to make to defense and military matters, but he does, very much as president obama does, have a serious view of how to take care of veterans when they come home from work, and how we are how we are andho smarter and better at deploy in our soldiers. that raises the question of syria. do we go down the road of talking about votes on the ground? he ground.n te if you did serious about dealing with some of the things there, that is another consideration. i've heard them be much more sensitive than people give them credit for. host: saint louis. donna. democratic line. caller: i agree that c-span is

balanced, but what i do not like is we do not get the same amount of time to respond as the guest does because he fills we are -- because it feels we are losing. the guest gets five minutes, and we get 30 seconds. last year, obama in john boehner had a deal to cut the debt but tea party republicans did not go along with it because they did not want to raise taxes penney on people earning $1 million a year. -- one penny. they are not representing the average person. they want to privatize social security and medicare. secondly, in 2006, george bush and republican congress passed the free trade deal for china, which not only sent millions of american jobs there, but millions in lost tax revenue. -- trillions. host: let's get a response. guest: the effect of the matter

is the obama administration and the john boehner deal broke down because you head tea party members say you do not have corresponding cuts him spending. all we seek is revenue deals and a tax increase. that's what the administration is pushing. republicans have been down this road before. ronald reagan and even george bush got into these deals where we will cut spending, as long as you do a tax increase. we saw the tax increase, but we did not see the cut in spending. leaders say we want to see the spending cut first. once we see that revenue stabilized they will decide what additional revenue to bring in. the other thing to keep in mind -- i understand why you want to block the republicans in saying they block the deal. the president himself turned his back on simpson-bowles, the commission he put in place that came back with recommendations both conservatives and liberals

in the house and senate supported. the president walked away from that. there is this washington game of status quo, and whether that comes from a fear of stepping into the unknown, like simpson- bowles, or blocking your base, as we saw with what john boehner had to go through, that is what we are trying to break and that is what the american people want broken. i think we will all see this fall these elections turn on that in some of these congressional district. in terms of the money -- money is part of politics. while you want to block republicans by saying they're getting money from these fat cats, wall street helped elect obama in 2008. average donations usually come from individuals. not corporations. it is only ones at the presidential level that you see that. it still bothers a lot of people. host: let's keep talking about

fund raising. here is a story from today in "politico." mitt romney is traveling to las vegas for a fund-raiser with donald trump. host: it has donald trump questioning the president's citizenship, and ends with the classic line "you are fired." talk about the political strategies. guest: a lot people were upset that the committee went into debt, which i did not want to do. i am a classic conservative. i do not want to spend money i do not have. they wanted to take out a loan, with the argument that they will make the money up. they have.

in presidential years you'll get the money to flow into the committee. we have seen that. the president has seen $40 million. the president has more wheels to pull off, small dollar. look, small dollar donations -- that is the mother's milk of politics. the new landscape is the smaller dollar and that is where obama is the most effective. he held off opening up his team to the big money. why? because he and 386,000 new small donors in the first part of this year. the reality of it is the dynamics have changed. they will have to focus more on individual, smaller donors. the ones that can write the big check, that is one in dawn, but -- one and done, but if i had 1000 people writing me checks over the course of a campaign, that is something you really want over the course of a

campaign because it is constant flow. it is coming in automatically. typically the way it is set up -- let me charge $100 every month. ok. are lightke, you do not see it, but you feel it. host: dennis, democrat. kentucky. good morning. caller: i enjoyed seeing you on msnbc, but i disagree with a lot of what you said. you talk about individual liberty, yet you tell me i cannot marry who i want. the next thing is the paul ryan budget. when i got sick i lost my insurance before i lost my job. i was homeless for two years. last year i spent 60-something days in the hospital. i cannot be employed.

i am unemployable. now, you say we have to pay for these wars and all of that by cutting back your benefits? those are the only things that give me dignity. those are the only things that give me a little bit of freedom that i do have. guest: right. first off, i am sorry to hear about your health situation and i can appreciate that given some of the things i have had to deal with in my life, in my family. i understand that, and i think this is a classic situation where we have worked in a paradigm that has been guns or butter, and we need to evolve into a new paradigm where we make the decision to have both. guns and butter. in other words, we can protect us against global offenses that, on our way, whether it is the war on terror, or dealing with

nation-to-nation, but we can also make those choices at home with health care and education. about sacrifice. that is the conversation these leaders need to have with the american people. what the caller just laid out. i am not able to be employed. what will you say to me, mitt romney, barack obama? yeah, you're saying you want to cut these programs, this is the impact, if you want to spend more on these programs, and this is the impact it has done this community of people. weis is the national debate th need to have. individuals like this are reflective of the frustration across the spectrum with people that do not want to have that conversation. host: michael steele, thank you for coming in, former chair of the republican national committee. >> mitt romney will further

solidify his position as the republican presidential nominee if he wins the primary today in texas. watch c-span for results. if he does win, he over the top for the required number of delegates. a win in texas would give him enough delegates. coming up, a number of business executives that given commencement addresses. we'll bring you today's white house medal of freedom ceremony this afternoon. among those being honored -- live coverage begins at 3:25 eastern here on c-span. >> there is a distinction

s anden greatnes and success. you can be successful without being great. you will never be great without being successful. if your goal is to have, have, have if that is all it is about, you were chasing success. just about the chase for success. greatness is he was greatest among you will be your servant. >> watch commencement speakers for the past three decades online at the c-span video library. >> now look at commencement speech years. we'll hear from google, xerox,

ford, and eli lilly heads. [applause] >> thank you. the woman who came in on the phone saying mom, i've got to go. i've got to go now. this is the new cal graduate always talking to her mother. now it's great to be back here on campus. it's an honor to have been invited and to hold a degree from berkeley and an honor to look out on this next generation of golden bears. now, when you return to a place of intense memories, you think it's a place that's changed so much, but in truth you are the one who has changed more. your memories will be vivid.

things will look a little different, but you will feel very much the same. when you return to berkeley, you will have changed and in turn you will have changed the world. before i begin, i want to remind you that tomorrow is mother's day, right? so for all the mothers out there and the graduates might be the start today, but just know that they would not shine as brightly if you were not here. and i say to all you graduates, if you first don't succeed, do it like your mom told you to do it. and that may be the most important advice i can give you today. so time is money, most of all time is dreams. and computers give you time for dreams. i have walked across the stage in 1982 for my ph.d., and that year the computer was "time" magazine's person of the year. that quote is from that article. computers were just entering the

mainstream. big blocky contraptions lugged into houses and plunked down on desks. most of america had no idea the power of those machines. but most americans started to find they suddenly had more time for dreams. even their wildest dreams, though, in no way that 30 years ago later, that children, grandchildren, would carry something exponentially more powerful with them everywhere they go on their laps, pockets, digital connections forged among millions of people around the world, tethered together at all times to form a worldwide community. computers obviously gave me time to dream, too. back then, back when i was like you, going to the greek theater and stanford games and wondering up and down telegraph, it felt like a new world was being imagined right here on campus in all the different labs and workshops and dorms. there was something in the air that made you think, something that made you dream, and today i

feel that again being here with you. just the other day i saw a video of a berkeley student who totally automated his dorm room, life, refrigerator, and everything powered from his mobile device. the romantic mode mirror was a particularly nice touch, i thought. showing berkeley creativity. but this is just one small example, but the energy here is similar to the energy i felt 30 years ago and 30 years before that i suspect, and before that going back generations. that's what's so special about berkeley. a place committed to personal liberty and free expression. a place where humanism and science can coexist. and they can feed off each other in service of a better day. as the chancellor said, 22 noble laureates, olympic gold medalist, supreme court chief justice, writers, artists, business pioneers, even the reigning nfl m.v.p. they all romed, this is

exciting, this all romed this beautiful campus and left their mark on society, the culture, and the world. and now you follow them. yes you, sitting right there, baking in the sun after two hours, possibly nursing a hangover, don't tell your parent, right? don't tell your parents. that's a lot of pressure, what can i do? what can i dream? that's your question to answer. i can't do it for you. here's what i know. i know one thing is for certain. no graduate in class gets to choose the world that they graduate into. just like you can't choose your parents or siblings. every class has its own unique challenges. every class enters a history up to this point is being written for it. this is no different. what is different is the chance each again racial -- generation has to make that history and right it larger or in my

business to program it better. and on that score your generation's opportunities are greater than any generations in modern history. you can actually write the code for all of us as a society. you're connected to each other in ways those who came before you can only dream of. and you are using those connections to strengthen the invisible ties that hold humanity together and to allow us to sort of deepen our understanding of the world around us. you are the emblems of the sense of possibility that will define our new age. in the past it's always older generations standing up on high trying to teach the next generation the ways of the world. trying to make sure that they follow in their footsteps. graduates, i'll admit, i think it's different today. you're quite simply teaching us. interesting. this generation, your generation, is the first fully connected generation the world has ever known. what's the first thing you do

when you get up? check your phone? your laptop? read some emails? comb through your social network? update your status? i'm awake. right? as opposed to i'm not awake. if you are awake, you are online. you are connected. some of you are probably texting to your friends right now, tweeting the speech, changing your status. smile, you're on camera. right? welcome to our new world. there's a joke about a college kid being mugged who says hold on, stop. let me update my status let mige friends know i'm getting mugged then you can have my phone. and i suspect that somebody from berkeley would actually do that. this is obviously a joke, but it's also telling. it's a depiction of how essential our technology has become to your generation's ability and your ability to connect with them. now, identity and connection concepts are as old as humanity

itself. we define so much of who we are now, they shape our times, they define the human condition. identity and connection, it's your task to make those time-worn contests, spin them around, reimagine them, make them fresh, new, and exciting. berkeley helps build the platform that you are based on. they built it for all of us. now, i know it's daunting. i know it's not great economy to be walking off the stage into. i know all of this. but i also know that you have advantages. you have a competitive edge. you have an innate mastery of technology. you have an ability to build and foster connections that no generation before you has ever possessed. people beknown a generation who grew up living life in front of streams always connected to something or someone. those people are wrong. they are absolutely wrong. the fact is we are all connected now is a blessing not a curse.

and we can solve many problems in the world as a result of this. it's not only the advantage that you have, it's a responsibility that you carry. i mean today there are 54 wars and conflicts raging around the world, but 1.5 billion people live on less than $1 a day. hundreds of millions of children go to bed hungry tonight. we need to fix that. nearly half the world's people don't live under democratic governments and rights we all enjoy are a rarity not a norm. i'm proud to be an american. when it comes to the internet we think everyone is online, but only one billion people have smart phones. only two billion have access to the web. for most of the world internet cafes are like digital oases and technological deserts. but in this century there is a chance for change on this horizon. the spread of global phones, of new forms of connectivity, offer us the prospect of connecting every community in our lifetime.

when that happens, connectivity can revolutionize every aspect of society, politically, socially, economically. to connect the world is to free the world, i say. so if we get this right so we can fix all the other problems at the same time, and again no pressure on our graduates today. it's true we have all the knowledge literally at our fingertips, but just because we know much more than we used to doesn't mean that our problems go away. the future doesn't just happen. it's not etched or written or coded anywhere. there's no algorithm or formula that says technology will do x or y to be sure it happens. technology doesn't work on its own, but it's a tool and you are the ones who harness that power. and that requires innovation and entrepreneurship. innovation is destructive. one thing i'll tell you if you know you are innovating when people are worried about you, graduates make people worry. give a little bit after shock, try something new.

entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of a new economy and a more prosperous society. the engine that keeps communities growing. 2/3 of the jobs createrd in small businesses, and you-all should try to create a small business or join one or be part of one. i would recommend you use all of google's productses to help step that up. in any -- products to help step that up. you-all have a chance to have an original contribution. don't just be a shepard following somebody else's vision. new models, new forms of thinking. that's what we need now. you don't need to be from an aid worker or teacher, although i obviously applaud those. you don't need to be an engineer, i support that, too. everyone here can make their mark by creath new standards of brilliance and innovation. and those standards can spread and scale in ways that are unimaginable. the collective intelligence of our society, our version of the boring -- borg, if you will, is different.

think of it as a new society with mostly american new orleans and values that crosses continents and countries and unites all of us. the distinctive, main feature of our new world is you can be unique while you are also being completely connected. that's what's so different. that to me more than anything else is the american dream. don't get me wrong, i believe fully in the power of technology and change the world for the bet earn i believe even more fully in the ability of your generation to use that power to great effect, to rule technology. but you can't let technology rule you. remember to take at least one hour, i know this is going to be very, very hard, and turn off your device. one hour. shut it down. learn where the off button is. in my case, the android phone, it's right here. take your eyes off the screen and look into the eyes of the

person that you love. have a conversation. a real conversation, not a texting -- actually talk to them. i know this is a new skill, ok. talk, speak, and look. with friends who make you think and the family who make you laugh, engage with the world around you. feel and taste the smell and hug of what's there. right in front of you and not what's a click wavement experience it as a human. then turn the machine right back on, of course. but life -- the point i'm trying to make shear life is not lived in a global monitor. life is not a series of status updates. it's about who you love, how you live, it's about how -- who you travel with through the world. your family, your collaborators, your friends. life is a social experience first. the best acts of experience are not the lonely ones, they are spent in the company of others. our landscape has changed, yes, but our humanity has always and

will remain what makes us who we are. and who you are is a proud and talented group of golden bears. at berkeley you come to know extraordinary people. look around, take a minute, think about this group, your closest friends, experiences that you had, a few years ago you started off on the road to adventure with these people knowing them as boys and girls wandering around campus. now are you owl extraordinary men and women -- now you-all are extraordinary men and women, in total control of your destiny, ready to make your own mark not on history but on the future. and that's what's so interesting. we may seem so difficult along the road and possible slog, i remember that. but today you have made it and the friendships that you have forged here when the times are good and bad and so forth, when you realize you just overslept your lecture, which i'm sure all you did at least once, those are the friendships that will matter

for life. the people you have met at berkeley will be some of the strongest friends and closest allies you'll ever meet in your lives. it's been that way certainly for me. when you leave here, don't leave them behind. stay close and stay strong. take them with you and go and change the world together. i ask of you, find a way to say yes to things. say yes to invitations to a new country. say yes to meet new friends, to learning a new language. picking up a new sport. yes it's how you get your first job and next job. yes is how you find your spouse and even your kids. even if it's a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means you will do something new, someone new, and make a difference in your life and likely others as well. yes lets you stand out in a crowd, to be an optimist, stay positive. to be the one everyone comes to for help, for advice, or just

for fun. yes is what keeps us all young. yes is a very tiny word that allows you to do very, very big things. say it often. don't be afraid to fail. and do not be afraid to succeed. for those of you who are thinking too big, be smart enough to the to listen. for those of you saying the odds are too small, be dumb enough to give it a shot. for those of you who ask how can do you that? look at them in the eye and say will i find a way. i, for one, am happy to have you join us as adults and the quicker we can have you lead the better. time to throw out all those aging baby boomers and replace those with the business equipped to lead in the new age. march us off to a better day. that "time" article i was telling you about was called a new day begins. that day has long since faded into dust.

we need a new day to dawn now today. the power and possibility, the intellectual energy, the human ultracity seated in the stadium, the sum of all the people, feaments, mothers, fathers, siblings, graduates, all the faculty, not just here but in stadiums around the country, your generation will break a new day. your vast knowledge, things which are inconceivable to me when i was here will see a new era, your bold ideas will shape a new reality, your agile minds will inspire a new dawn as i see it. you have this thing in your pocket with all this power. exponentially more than in 1982, you have time to dream. so i ask you, class of 2012, what are you going to dream for all of us to enjoy? thank you so much, you have my greatest congratulations and thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> representative kristi noem of south dakota. are you a member of the education committee and most recent college graduate in the u.s. house. tell us about that. >> over 20 years ago i had to quit my schooling because my dad was killed in an accident on our farm. so i took over the family business. and needed to be there. but just recently the last couple years i have been taking classes again and finally finished up and completed my political science degree at the university. >> you spoke at the commencement. tell us about that experience. >> it was such a neat experience because not only did i get my degree after many years of delay but they also allowed me to be the graduating senior speaker. i had the opportunity to talk to a lot of students about life, not necessarily going to always

be a lollipop and bubble gum, there are challenges in front of them. but also to know there is opportunities out there and take them when you see them. there are not very many people that look back on their lives and wish they hadn't done something. it's more often they have seen opportunities they miss the. >> how did you prepare for the streets? >> lot of the students are younger than me and i didn't want them to feel i didn't have something to offer to them. i first talked a lot about my story but also talked about the fact a lot had fans plans for thrive. mine certainly changed, when my dad passed away, mine changed. theirs may as well in the next days, weeks, months. but to embrace it, and know tend of the day follow their passion. >> congresswoman kristi noem in her first term representing south dakota in the u.s. house. thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you for having me. congratulations to all the graduates. it's a wonderful thing and great accomplishment to celebrate. >> congratulations to you. >> thank you.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> president francis, distinguished faculty, alumni, students, graduates, family and friends, and my two fellow doctors, thank you. i'm so proud to be with you today and so proud to be a part of your vibrant community if only for a day. you are unique in all of american higher education. there are more than 250 catholic colleges in our nation. there are more than 100 historically black colleges in our nation, but there is only one college that is both black and catholic, and that's the gold rush and the gold nuggets of xavier. what a special tradition. it's hard to be here without

reflecting a little bit on my graduation in 1980. it was a dream come true for me and for my family. i grew up in a single parent household in a public housing project on the lower east side of manhattan. my mother's highest income in any here, her highest income was $4,400. yet she managed to send me and my brother and sister to private catholic schools from kindergarten all the way through to high school. i didn't fully appreciate it then, but it was a gift of immeasurable value. that was followed by a scholarship to polley tech new york, now n.y.u. polley, and a master's degree in mechanical engineering at columbia university. my mother saw education as a way up and tout of the projects. she made what ever sacrifices were necessary to see to it that we had an opportunity to a good education and then she insisted that we take advantage of that

opportunity. all the graduates here today have that same opportunity. don't even -- don't take it for granted. don't take it for granted. all of you will have immense challenges. you immerse yourself in a world full of opportunities. i have given some thought about what my advice to you would be today, especially since i have you and you must listen to me and i boiled it down to five things. here they go. first, i would encourage all of you to follow the example of xavier and embrace change and learning willingly and with a sense of excitement and wonder. the university is approaching its centennial niff. think about that. -- anniversary. think about that. almost 100 years. it's survived and excelled and reinvintvented it self for nearly 100 years because it has evolved and it has changed. the only thing i can predict with any certainty is that change will be a constant in your lives as well.

back in 1980 when i sat in the seats are you sitting in today, there were no cell phones. imagine this. there were no cell phones, the internet, let alone the ipad, was not even the stuff of dreams, the fax machine was considered close to a miracle. chinese capitalism and the fall of the soviet union were unimaginable. genetics was in its infancy. the word terrorism, what we hear about all day, all the time, was not a part of our vocabulary. even as recently as a few years ago, the thought of a global economic downturn was beyond comprehension. i can't pretend to know how your world will change, but i do know that it will and at a pace that will continue to increase exponentially. you can't stop it. in many ways you guys are the cause of this change so i say, learn to love it, make it your ally, stay relevant by devoting

yourself to a life time learning. you are being given a wonderful academic foundation, an invitation of beginning a journey of learning e. pleas treasure at the. second, have fun. enjoy life. choose a career that gives you fulfillment and pleshshumplete surround yourself with people who make you laugh. don't fall into this trap of letting someone else define your success or your happiness. some of your parents here won't like what i'm about to say. when they left school, which is about the same time i left school, their immediate future was pretty well prescribed. the vast majority of c08 ledge graduates got a job, they settled down, bought a house, had a family, and all that was done by the time they were 30 years old. that has changed dramatically. now the decade after college is spent trying a few different jobs, getting a graduate degree, traveling, living, and then

settling down. i for one think this is a very good development. that's because people are more likely to be successful if they have a passion for what they do. finding it takes some time. make yourself a promise today. if down the road you find your career is not fun, revert to my earlier piece of advice, change. third, very importantly, be true to yourself and to your values. your family, xavier, your church, synagogue, mosque, your mountaintop has given you a set of core values, a more compass. hang on to it -- morrall compass. hang on ton it. a predecessor of mine said he tried to live his life as though any piece of it might end up on his obituary. and if that happened would be he proud? that's not a bad test. i have an even better one it hangs on the wall in my office it goes like this. don't do anything that won't make your mom proud.

don't do anything that won't make your mom proud. four, do good in the world. our planet is in trouble. we need your help. when your life's journey ends, i promise that you won't -- that you won't care very much about how much money you have made or the status that you have achieved if you haven't made the world a better place. money and status, i can tell you this for sure, i have both, don't bring happiness. they do not bring happiness. doing good is not an add-on. it's not what you do after the end of your life. it's not what you have done after you have done living. but it's central to leading a rewarding life. as my mother used to tell me, as you can hear my mother told me

lots and lots of things, she died a long time ago, my mother used to tell me, anyone who would listen, we all have an obligation to put back more than we take away. to save me all the time. max, you have to leave mind more than you take away. leave more than you take away. it's not a bad formula for true success. at the risk of getting a little preachy, i'd like to ask you to reflect for just a few minutes on how privileged you are compared to the world's population at large. think about this. 1 vsh 5 -- 1/5 of the world's people go to bed hungry every night and they wake up every morning without hope. 1/5 of the world's population. four billion people, that's 2/3 of the world population, lives on less than $2 a day. more than one billion people in the world can't read or write. more than 40% of the world goes without basic sanitation.

more than a billion people drink water that is unsafe. and that leads to the death of over two million people, two million children a year. a lot of this is happening right down the street. you don't have to go to rwanda or angola, you can look right down the street in louisiana and see this. right down the street in new york city and see this. our brothers and our sisters are in desperate need of a helping hand. who will help them if not us, who? if not now? when? as scripture tells us to those to whom much is given, much is expected. yet to live your life so at the end of your journey you will know that your time here was well spent. that you left behind more than you take away. fifth, do xavier proud. you have a rich tradition to uphold, saint katherine drexel

create add great police here in louisiana. the mission of this university has remained constant for the better part, i love it, to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing students to assume roles of leadership and service in the global society. let me repeat that so that you can think about it and let it sink in a little. xavier's mission is to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume roles of leadership and service in a global society. what a tradition to follow. what an opportunity that you have been given. what a responsibility you have. not just to contribute but to lead. not just to succeed but to serve. you are entering a world full of challenge. you will search for jobs and an economy that are still struggling to emerge from the harshest downturn since the great depression. you will enter a work force in which careers and entire

industries disappear or move around the world with breathtaking speed. you will raise a family in which words like terrorism and climate change are a part of our everyday vocabulary. you will live on a planet that is overcrowded and struggling to find ways to sustain itself. as our world grows flatter and smaller, you will live and work with people who neither look like you more share the same values as you do. at the same time you will have an extraordinary opportunity to live out the aspirations that xavier intends for you. you are well on your way to becoming part of what w.e.b. due boys called the talented 10. i heard this all my life. the men and women he believed would emerge as the leerts of black america. he coined the term the talented 10th a decade before xavier was founded. imagine if he were here today beholding the sight that i'm privileged to see from this

podium. he would be proud and pleased beyond all belief. the due boys would be proud, too, of the great strides black america has made in the past century. some of us have gained great political power and amassed great economic wealth. we have succeeded in every facet of american life. sports, arts, government, religion, academia, military, ewean have a black president. yet the work of the talented 10th is far from done. as we sit here there are more black men in prison than there are in college. more than 80% of black and hispanic children cannot read or do math at grade level. you can add to the list of disparities that lead to an unmistakable conclusion. as my friend and mentor, vernon jordan likes to say, you cannot concentrate on the best of what we have done. you must focus on the worst of what we need to do.

that is your charge to define your success at least in some measure by what we do for our brothers and our sisters. you cannot close the ranks behind you. cannot enter the ranks of the elite and close the ranks behind you. you are part of a chain of those men and women who have gone before us. those who broke the shackles of slavery, they fought for freedom and justice, they took to the streets and demanded voting rights and civil rights, giants like martin luther king and folks like your teachers, your parents, who now pass the baton off to you to take care of. it is at once a sobering and exhilarating responsibility. to alt graduates, allow yourself to -- to all the graduates, allow yourself to bask in what you have accomplished but not too long. and you will cherish what you have learned here and use it as a foundation for good. my congratulations to all of you.

you worked long and hard to arrive at this place and my congratulations also to all the parents in the room, to the grandparents, spouses, family members, faculty, custodian, administrative staff, street sweepers, anyone who helped you along the way. all of you should feel very, very proud. i wish you all the very best. may you live up to the mantle that you inherit and may all your dreams come true. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [applause]

[applause] >> how do you like my new party hat? rock chalk jayhawk indeed. chancellor little, distinguished faculty, honored guests, proud family members, and graduates of the class of 2012, thank you for giving me the great honor of being part of this very special moment in your lives. it is a privilege for me to be here today and also to stand alongside the other honorary

degree recipients. each recipient has dedicated themselves to lifelong service and contribution to society. i don't speak for them, but i am so honored to be among them. before we do anything else, i have one last assignment for our graduates, nobody makes it through college without a lot of support. certainly financially. but also there are people who encouraged you, who gave you emotional support, who believed in you, and will help you believe in yourself. class of 2012, please join me in ruined of applause to thank your family and especially your mothers on this special day, friends, faculty. [applause]

>> that was simply great. you-all passed. we all can clearly see why you are graduating today. traditionally commencement speakers share lessons gained from their lives with the graduating class before they head out into the world. i would like to honor that tradition today by sharing a few thoughts with you. maybe the best way for me to begin is to tell you a little bit about who i am. the most important thing you need to know about me is that i am a rock chalk jayhawk. i not only received my bachelor's and masters of science degrees in arrest nautical and astronautical engineering from the university of kansas, but i grew up right here in lawrence, kansas. [applause]

>> i followed all the jayhawks sports teams and i went to all the games. i was there when wilt chamberlain played his first varsity basket game. i will never forget that day. the university of kansas was playing northwestern university, just before the game i was sitting at the top of the bleachers by the locker room entrance and wilt walked out, stopped, and looked me straight in the eye. i looked down to make sure he wasn't standing on something. and he wasn't. i said, hi. and wilt said, hi. after that chat wilt went out and scored 52 points, setting a school scoring record in his very first game. i like to think that wilt's wonderful performance that day was because of the pep talk i

gave him. i became a jayhawk fan because of the athletics. but i became a jayhawk student of the -- because of the academics. the university of kansas is a world class university. [applause] when people ask me what they should do to be successful in life, i tell them the first thing to do is get a degree from the university of kansas. my congratulations to all of you. you are minutes away from holding that diploma in your hand. this is truly no ordinary moment. when you leave here today, you will have the advantage of having a great education. the question is, what will you do next? in the next few weeks all across america commencement speakers will be urging graduates like yourselves to follow your passion.

in other words, discover what motivates and excites you in life and pursue it with passion. i am a strong believer in following your passion, but i'm also an engineer and the university of kansas has trained me well. we engineers love continuous improvement. so i'm going to give you my version of this advice. call it follow your passion, 2.0. follow your passion 2.0 is about pursuing the things in life that are meaningful and contributing to something bigger than ourselves. follow your passion 2.0 means working together with others. and follow your passion 2.0 also encourages us to be open to all life's experiences, the setbacks as well as the successes. because of my experience the greatest challenges i faced turned out tonight greatest opportunities. inspiration can and will come from anywhere if we are open. for example, in my junior year

of high school, president kennedy gave his, we are going to the moon speech. president kennedy said by doing so we would learn more about ourselves, each other, and life on earth. quite a compelling vision. and i really wanted to be part of it. i changed from humanities to studying physics, chemistry, and calculus on my senior year on my way to becoming a astronaut. i chose the university of kansas to study engineering and i enlisted in the united states air force. after a year, i started testing for flight school to become a pilot. it was then i learned that i was slightly colorblind, which, at the time, meant that i could not be a astronaut. i was devastated then but i know now that life had just given me a gift. or what i would like to call a gem. a gem is a learning that enables us to re-evaluate what we are doing, a course, unless we do

something with it a. gem is a rough stone. it's up to us to shape and polish it. only then will a gem have real value. we may have to do things differently, or move in an entirely new direction, but for those of us who continue to follow our passion a. setback can become a gem and truly a gift that life gives us. in my case, i decided to continue to be involved in aerospace industry. my professor and thesis advisor was doing research work for the boeing company. he asked me to help him with his work and he introduced me to. so neat people at boeing. when i graduated i got a job at boeing as an airplane design engineer and i loved it. in fact, i did so well that they moved me into management. they gave me one employee to manage, and my first employee promptly quit. life had given me another gem. one of the greatest gems of any

life, remember the key part of follow your passion 2.0 is being open. so i talked to my former employee at length and he shared what he really thought. it was hard to hear, but it was so very important. i had been trying to make my employee do things exactly the way that i did. instead of helping him discover and develop his unique talents to support the business and the needs of the company. over time i learned that the most effective management leaders connect people to the compelling vision of the enterprise in a way that benefits the individual and benefits the organization. i was fortunate to serve boeing for 37 wonderful years and contribute to the design of every boeing airplane, the 707, the 727, the 737, 747, 9757, the 767, the 777, and the new 787 dreamliner.

[applause] by 2006 i was serving as president and c.e.o. of boeing commercial airplanes. we overcame extremely difficult global economic conditions and global competition. we were doing great. life was really good. but that's when i got a call from bill ford, yes, bill ford, of the ford motor company. 107 years of technology and innovation to safe and efficient and affordable transportation. bill asked me to leave boeing, the prosperous successful company i had spent by entire career to join a company that was struggling in an industry that faced incredible difficulties. it was another gem. of course we have to recognize a gem when we see one. we have to be open to life's experiences and expect the unexpected. from my perspective, the call from bill ford came from out of the blue.

it was one of those seemingly random things that happen in life, but because i was opened to possibilities, i decide the the right way to follow my passion was to join bill and the ford team. boy, there were plenty of gems waiting for me at ford. but by working together as one global team, and being open to the possibilities, we have been able to fully leverage our resources around the world. today we have turned things around. we are creating exciting, viable, and growing company for the good of all stakeholders. we are building great products. we are creating a strong business. and we are contributing to a better world. the last part is so important for companies and for individuals. to be truly successful we need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. over the years i have discovered that my definition of follow your passion 2.0 is bringing large numbers of killed and motivated people together to work on something bigger than myself.

to work together for the greater good because to serve is to really live. i have had the honor of working for two great american and global icons. both companies are contributing solutions to the three critical issues of our times. economic development, energy independence and security, and environmental sustainability. boeing and ford have given me the opportunity to serve and bring people together. along the way i have learned that bringing people together to work together for the greater good has another side benefit that i personally find very, very compelling. when we spend time together, we can realize that we have more in common than we are different. and when we realize we are basically the same, we also have the opportunity to realize that we can live and work together in peace. and for me, that is a most compelling vision. now it's time for you to begin your journey, to begin to define

what follow your passion 2.0 means to you. the world you are entering is filled with challenges and opportunities. it's up to you to turn them into gems. pursue the things that matter to you with great passion, be open and be flexible. and willing to learn even if the lesson is a hard one. bring people together and work together for something bigger than yourself. life is unpredictable for the -- but the journey is phenomenal. embrace it and enjoy it. so, my goal today was to make my remarks just as perspective as my pep talk i gave wilt chamberlain all those years ago. if not quite a short. i hope i have succeeded. in any case, i am confident that you are going to be successful in your life not because what i have said today, but because of who you are and the education you have received from the university of kansas. thank you for listening.

enjoy your special day so much and enjoy the journey and each other. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> congressman james clyburn of south carolina, tell us about your experiences speaking at college commencements. >> well, i really enjoyed getting to commencements first of all i figure out how to do a great commencement speech. i did a commencement address a few years ago, and a couple days later i ran into two young ladies who told me they were in attendance. when i asked them what i spoke about, neither one of them could remember but they remembered it being a good speech because it was short. so i try to give 10, 12 minute commencement addresses. and i try to lay out three themes. the first one of course being to

remind young people that the first sign after good education is good manners. so i ask them all to join with me in thanking their parents, guardians, and the faculty, and administration for helping them get to this point. but secondly i try to tell the young people we ought to be very, very careful about the people we interact with and how we interact with them because all of us are but the sum tote a.f.l. our experiences. we can be no more or less than those experiences allow us to be even we should respect the fact that no two people will have the same set of experiences and we should learn to honor those differences. but finally, i try to tell our students to never give up on themselves.

i ran three times before i got elected to office. and at that time i was asked by a friend what was i going to do next because three strikes and you're out. i said to that friend of mine that three strikes and you're out is the baseball rule. and life's about not led by baseball rules and i try to share those kinds of experiences with young people, and i close every commencement address with three words, i may repeat them, but they are three words, never give up. never, never, never give up. and i think it's important for young people to know that -- no matter how many times you fail, the next time just may be the time. >> congressman james clyburn is the assistant democratic leader and in his 10th term representing south carolina. thanks very much for joining us.

>> thanks so much for having me. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [applause] >> it's now my privilege to present dr. lechleiter to give the commencement address. >> good afternoon. president, distinguished faculty, proud graduates, parents, families, and friends i'm deeply honored to receive this degree and have the opportunity to be here with you all this afternoon. let me begin by saying to

president beverly pitts, well-done. since your arrival here seven years ago, in campus has been transformed, the number of new academic programs has skyrocketed, and so has the number of students taking honors and service learning courses, and if this weren't enough, you even hosted the super bowl champions. beverly, this entire community has appreciated your leadership and we at lily the opportunity we have had to work with the university on issues and projects important to our city. we wish you-all the best in your future endeavors. please join with me in thanking and celebrating dr. beverly pitts. [applause] class of 2012, good afternoon.

i see a whole sea of graduates from the point where i stand. this is quite a day, a day to celebrate your success as you commence the next stage of your life. the relative importance of my role really hit home with me when i had trouble remembering who gave my college commencement address. ok, i admit, it was way back there in 1975, somewhere between madmen and "star wars" and i mean the originals. someone once told me, good to know, that when you give a speech, if you can get your audience to remember one thing, you have done well. and if you can get them to remember two things, you hit it out of the park. so i'm going to try my luck today and share with you two things that i have learned over my life and career, one for the

near term, and one hopefully for the rest of your life. let's start with the near term, last week or the week before, many of you probably had papers, didlines, -- deadlines, maybe just a touch of panic. i want to say congratulations. you made it. but next week it really gets hairy. many of you might well be asking, what now? what's next? how am i ever going to find a job? you're all too familiar with the headlines, a really tough job market. cynicism about our government and institutions in general. skyrocketing gas prices. a war in afghanistan and worrisome talk about the possibility of war with iran. wait a minute, believe it or not

i'm not talking about today, i'm talking about when i was in your shoes preparing to strike out into the world in the late 1970's. we had our own economic recession, including gas rationing, high inflation, and double-digit interest rates to boot. some quick and somewhat painful memories your parents will recall, politically there was a huge amount of disenchantment after watergate. there was lots of cynicism, frankly, about the future. meanwhile at the gas station i remember that for a while cars with license plates ending in odd numbers could only gas up on odd numbered days. and those ending in even number on even numbered days. we didn't have vanity plates then. the soviet union was the country in afghanistan.

and perhaps in the biggest headline, iran took our embassy personnel hostage resulting in a long and frustrating standoff. from a technology perspective we had not quite hit the boon years. desktop computing because just emerging from steve jobs' garage. in fact, i hand typed my chemistry ph.d. thesis and had to use stencils for the chemical structure illustration. cutting and pacing back then really meant cutting and pacing. i said -- pasting to. i said to my life six months of my life down the drain. and just to top it off, we had run away inflation. when we moved to indianapolis in 1979, we felt lucky to be able to buy a starter home in broad ripple with a state subsidized mortgage carrying an interest rate of 13.75%.

can you imagine the unsubsidized rate? now, it wasn't all dreary. we did have disco. fortunately for all of us that craze subsided. look, i'm sharing this ancient history with you not to depress you, but rather to give you a reason for optimism. because when i think back hidden in all this lousy news at the time were seeds of many positive developments that we never could have recognized then. for example, many historians now see afghanistan as a key to the collapse of the old swoon soviet union -- soviet union. ladies and gentlemen, for all the global hot spots we have today, no one would want to go back to the world where a nuclear war between two superpowers seemed a real possibility. most people also did not foresee that we were on the verge at

that time of medical, technological, and consumer product ref lution that is would turbo charge our economy for decades to come. the first apple computer with all of 8k ram, that's not g it's k. it seems quaint today. i think it's a museum piece. it was the first vestige of our modern informational electronics era. similarly the lily i joined is a far from today's company. our biggest product when i entered as a scientist in 1979 was a herbicide for soybeans. but three years after i joined, the scientists produced biosynthetic human insulin, the very first medicine created using the then new d.n.a. technology. and in doing so we ushered in the err why of biotechnology. several years later we launched prozac which helped to revolutionize the treatment of depression and really help

create the modern company. and ultimately the malaise of the 1970's gave way to two decades that followed of almost unprecedented growth. when i think of these two intense eras, and reflect on all that has happened in the more than 30 years in between, i think i can tell you with certainty what your future will look like. it will look like change. that's the one constant you can depend on. and yet with change comes opportunity. whatever field you choose, whether it's health care or education or business or the arts or any other field, keep alert for change. look for the opportunities that change also creates. and take advantage of them. my advice to you is to not only learn to live with change but to lead change and shape it to your own ends. in fact, that to me is at the very core of leadership.

don't let others define success for you or expect them to hand it to you. take control of your own future, go after it, make it happen. and your experience has given you the tools to do just that. as you commence today the rest of your life, you'll carry with you the knowledge, the judgment, and the discipline you have demonstrated by the fact that you are signature here today. you'll also carry something else of equal importance, which is the second thing i want to talk about, and that's the capacity within each of you to take on some of the world's toughest problems and make a difference for others. you, the class of 2012, know what i'm talking about. you have stepped up time and again. just look at the last year alone. a number of business majors here today traveled to ghana and volunteered at the precious kids

academy. after seeing a classroom there of eager learners, forced to share a single book, this group returned to -- collected more than 8,000 books and shipped them to ghana, creating a library in the process. a group of nursing majors here provided needed care to people in ecuador, honduras, and the dominican republic as part of your annual mission trip. members of the music fraternity raised money that funded musical instruments for an orphannage in haiti. a number of you took time out of your winter break to do home repair projects for low-income or elderly residents in appalachia. many of you worked with the hundreds of special olympians who game for the special olympics state youth basketball tournament. seven of you actually planned this year's tournament. and another group mentored i.p.f. students, encouraging them to think about college and working to get them ready.

regardless of the magnitude of the issue or the challenge, you did not hesitate to roll up your sleeves, look for solutions, and make a difference. in fact, over the past academic year, the students collectively contributed 120,000 hours of unpaid service valued at $2.5 million in edare to put a price tag on it. but the true value of your service is beyond calculation. [applause] graduates, there is no lack of urgent needs that require solutions. and not just in the remote corners of the earth. right here in the united states, right here in indianapolis. tackling these problems is not always easy. it takes vision, stamina, and courage. it