This is my first attempt at a diary – so here goes:

I’d like to share a personal story.  Last weekend and this weekend, I was out of town, attending two college graduations.  I have twin boys, one graduated from Radford University, Radford, Va. (western part of state), and the other from George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. (northern Virginia).

The Radford graduation had Gov. Tim Kaine as commencement speaker.  When introduced, he only received polite, but muted applause from the crowd.  Obama’s name was not mentioned at all during the entire ceremony.  Interestingly enough, Gov. Kaine’s address focused on part of the Democrats agenda-expanding the ability to go to college for a larger number of young people.  He said America “lagged behind” in the number of college grads compared to the rest of the world and that “we were falling further behind.”  Translation-free ride and expansion of another entitlement program.

The George Mason graduation had Steve Case (founder of AOL) as speaker. Did you know that they both attended the same high school in Hawaii?  Obama was a freshman and Case was a senior.  Anyway, as soon as he started talking about Obama there was an enthusiastic response from the student body, and polite applause from the guests.  Mr. Case gave an outline of Pres. Obama’s life story.  His point for the students was “like the president, they could achieve anything, possibly by a circuitous path.”  It was interesting that he adroitly glossed over what some of us perceive as “holes” in the president’s story.  But, the main observation I came away with was, when the student speaker at the graduation brought up Obama’s name again and said “this was the most inspiring election we ever had,” the crowd response was definitely tepid, although a specific, smaller group of students remained enthusiastic.

An observation on Notre Dame’s graduation, being held today, can be added here.  This is one of the first, rare times that we have seen protests toward Obama on such public display and the MSM has had to cover some of it.

What I am trying to say in an anecdotal way, is that I sense a change in the wind.  Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope; maybe something is happening here.