Happy Graduation, Grads! Here is a List of Commencement Speakers

Here is a list of commencement speakers who gave commencement addresses at various public and private colleges and universities across the United States over the course of the last three weekends.

After CEOs, both active and former politicians were the most sought after speakers. Most schools went with governors from their own state, but Liberty University, the arch-conservative Christian college founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, once again sought a Republican speaker as Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) arrived in Lynchburg, Va., fairly far from his home base of Baton Rouge, La.

Here are the speakers:

1) Gov. Terry MacAuliffe (D-Va., pictured top). Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, Va.

2) Susan Wojiciccki, CEO of Youtube. Johns Hopkins U. Baltimore, Md.

3) Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos. UVA. Charlottesville, Va.

4) Dr. Atul Dawenda, UNC. Chapel Hill, NC.

5) Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-Md, pict. center). Univ. of Maryland. College Park, Md.

6) Katie Couric. American University. Washington, DC.

7) Vice President Joe Biden. Univ. of South Carolina. Columbia, SC.

8) Gen. Martin Dempsey. Duke University. Durham, NC

9) Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La., pict. bottom). Liberty University. Lynchburg, Va.

10) Gov. Mike Beebe (D-Ark). Univ. of Arkansas. Fayetville, Ark.

11) David Ferriero. Archivist. NC State. Raleigh, NC.

12) Anne Holton. Sen. Tim Kaine's wife. Radford Univeristy. Radford, Va.

13) Jill Abrahamson, former executive editor of "New York Times." Wake Forest. Winston-Salem, NC.

14) Mary Barrra. CEO of General Motors. Univ. of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Mich.

15) Thomas H. Kean, former governor of New Jersey. Rutgers U. (He was a replacement for Condi Rice)

'

Republicans Who Might Run for President in 2016: The Sane Ones Vs. The Tea Partiers

In a very fascinating well-directed documentary film entitled "Mitt," produced by Netflix, about the presidential campaign on Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee states that it was amazing he got a chance that he got to run against President Barack Obama given that the GOP is now more of a Southern Baptist populist party while Romney was a New Englander Mormon wealthy man.

So, conventional wisdom is that the Republicans will go South in 2016, which may cost them in the general election in swing states, such as Wisconsin, New Mexico and Colorado, but hey I'm no Dan Balz ("Washington Post" reporter who is a veteran at covering politics).

Nevertheless, with CPAC2014 happening over the weekend in Washington, DC, last week, here we offer a look at which possible candidates will run: Some will attract the establishment (Jeb Bush) while other will attract the Yosemite Sam/ Tea Party types (Sen. Ted Cruz) who think every six-year-old boy should carry a Glock (one thing I like about blogging as opposed to reporting is being allowed to be subjective, when it's called for).

Here is the list:

1) Jeb Bush (Florida, pictured top)

2) Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky, pictured middle) 

3) Gov. Bobby Jindal (Louisiana, pictured bottom)

4) Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania)

5) Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

6) Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

7) Gov. Nikki Haley (South Carolina)

8) Gov. Chris Christie (New Jersey)

9) Sen. Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire)

10) Cong. Paul Ryan (Wisconsin)

http://www.c-span.org/

http://www.nationalreview.com/

http://www.thenation.com/#

http://thehill.com/

http://www.netflix.com

10 Possible Running Mates for Mitt Romney

For starters, it's an open secret here at "The Daily Vampire" that we are not Republicans ourselves even though our zip code is (I will only say that it's not Provo, Utah), so if we had our way then Mitt Romney would select the Rev. Pat Robertson who said that somehow President Barack Obama's is as corrupt as the Nixon administration was during Watergate. Then again, the people who watch "The 700 Club" are probably the ones who write radical letters-to-the-editor, such as one in "The Roanoke Times" today that said providing security for Michelle Obama when she gave the commencement at Virginia Tech last week was 'a waste of tax-payer money.'

So, here is the order from least offensive to most offensive. From what we've gathered Bill O'Reilly likes Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), David Brooks, the rare rational conservative, likes Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and the GOP's man in the shadows Grover Norquist likes Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-Louisana, pictured at the bottom).

Here we go:

1. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH, pictured top)

2. Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

3. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)

4. Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.)

5. (former) Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.)

6. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.)

7. Gov. Susana Martinez (R-N.Mex.)

8. Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)

9. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

10. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va)

Ironically, we get email updates from both the Virginia Republican Party and the Minutemen Project, who are convinced that Pres. Obama was born in Tanzania or Tajikistan (actually, Zimbabwe is apparently their latest suggest; this is NOT a joke!), so we will provide a link to their web sites as  well as the one for Robertson's own "The 700 Club."

But, 'to balance things out,' we will provide some links to people and groups to the left of us. For starters, there is "The Nation" magazine which in the current issue has an excellent review of a posthumous memoir by singer/poet/activist Gil Scott-Herring, the official web site for filmmaker/activist Michael Moore who speaks with Cornel West tomorrow night at Hunter's College in New York and lastly The Ineternationalist Bookstore in Chapel Hill, NC, which is hosting a t-shirt design contest. Though the Tarheel State is up for grabs, there is virtually no doubt that zip code 27514 (the zip code for Chapel Hill) will go for Pres. Obama, even if he admits that he was born in Dushanbe (the capital of Tajikistan; sister city with Boulder, Colo.).

http://www.rpv.org

http://www.minutemenproject.com

http://www.cbn.com/700club

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.michaelmoore.com

http://www.internationalistbooks.org