Students, faculty and parents, it is my honor to deliver a commencement speech today. I am about to do something I have never done as president: tell it like it is.

Washington’s self-created “fiscal cliff” crisis has been somewhat resolved, which means we can continue ignoring the real fiscal crises that are dead ahead.

Last December, 1.3 million Americans received SSI disability payments for “mood disorders.” Yes, that’s right, more Americans than the entire population of San Diego received a monthly check from Uncle Sam to compensate for their suffering from such psychic maladies as sleep disturbance, appetite disturbance, decreased energy and feelings of guilt or worthlessness.

Matt Mackowiak

Columnist Linda Turley-Hansen has written a couple of pieces lately, exhorting us to vote in the upcoming presidential election. In one, she ended with this: Our choice was either socialism or freedom (guess who the socialist is?). In her more recent one, she tells us to vote because Obama is killing the coal industry. In other words, a second Obama term is Apocalypse Now.

WASHINGTON — Big Bird is endangered. Jim Lehrer lost control. And Mitt Romney crushed President Barack Obama.