Students at Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy had a special guest to help celebrate their graduation Tuesday: President Obama, who told the students their talents would ensure a bright future for the country.
"My expectation is that somebody in this auditorium is going to figure out new sources of energy that help not only make us more energy independent but also deals with the problems like climate change," Obama said. "There is somebody in this room who is going to make sure that we are defeating diseases like Alzheimers or find a cure for cancer."
"There's somebody in this room who is going to revolutionize our agricultural sector or our transportation sector or will invent some entire new industry that we didn't even know about yet," he added. "And the pace of change these days is so rapid. I'm reminded when I talk to Malia and Sasha that when Sasha was born most people weren't on the Internet, and now she knows more about it than I do.
"So, in many ways, your youth and the fact that you've come of age in this new information age gives you an enormous advantage over old fogeys like us."
Obama spoke to 130 graduating seniors from the Science Leadership Academy, a partnership between the Philadelphia School District and the Franklin Institute. The seniors' graduation ceremony took place at the Franklin Institute on Monday night.
Of course, the president invoked the man for whom the building was named.
"There was a pretty good scientist here in Philadelphia named Benjamin Franklin who was able to tool around with kites and keys and all kinds of stuff before he helped write our constitution," Obama said. "So you've got a pretty good legacy here in Philadelphia of innovation."
He also spoke to the diversity of the students.
"As I look around this auditorium we are tapping into the talents of everybody, women as well as men, folks from every ethnic group, every background. That's also this incredible strength for the United States, because innovation, brainpower does not discriminate by gender or race or faith or background. Everybody's got the capacity to create and improve our lives in so many ways.
"This is a great postcard for what America is all about."
While at the Franklin Institute, Obama took in the exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later, he spoke to 25 attendees - who each paid $40,000 for the privilege of a small group - at an event closed to press, and then to a crowd that his campaign numbered at 500 in the marble rotunda of the science museum, under the watchful gaze of a massive statue of Franklin.
"We have to keep moving forward and the very last thing we need go back to the very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place," Obama told the group. "That is all the other side is offering. Gov. Romney is a patriotic American, and he's got a lovely family, and he should be proud of his personal success – but his ideas are just retreads of things that we have tried and that failed."
At the final event of the evening, 75 people were seated at a dozen tables, having paid a minimum of $10,000 for quality time with the leader of the free world.
"As much progress as we've made, we still have a lot of work to do," Obama told the group. He then compared Romney with his 2008 rival, John McCain.
"I said before, back in 2008, I had some strong disagreements with John McCain, but there were certain baselines that we both, we all, we both agree on," Obama said. "Things like immigration reform. We agreed on the existence of climate change. We agreed on the need to control campaign finance spending. This time, there's just a fundamental disagreement on the difference of vision of where we want to go."
"Romney's vision is pretty much in sync with the vision of the House Republican party right now. … that we need to slash taxes even more for the wealthiest and most successful among us, and we need to eliminate any kinds of regulations, whether they're consumer regulations or worker regulations or environmental regulations, that in any way impede the free market from operating however it will."
Obama said he was looking forward to having a debate with Romney. "There is an honest disagreement about how we move this country forward," he said.
There was a personal moment during this big-ticket gathering: David L. Cohen, the executive vice president of Comcast and Ed Rendell's former mayoral chief of staff, spoke to the group, and mentioned that Andrew Wright, a finance staffer for Obama, was just diagnosed with brain cancer and could not make it to the dinner.
The president, sitting on a stool, took Cohen's smart phone from him and typed out a message to Wright as Cohen rattled off the administration's accomplishments.
"It's too easy to be diverted by the 24/7 news cycle on cable and the internet," Cohen said. "It's our job to make sure our friends and colleagues don't get diverted."
