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URBANA Throw a 150th birthday party and you probably want a special guest.

How about a popular former president?

Students at the University of Illinois have launched a campaign to bring Barack Obama to campus as the 2017 commencement speaker in May, complete with a dedicated Facebook page, Twitter account and hashtag, and a full-court social-media press on the former president and his staff.

With the UI's sesquicentennial celebration kicking off this year, it's the perfect time for Obama to return to his home state of Illinois and celebrate with the flagship university, said UI senior Alex Villanueva, one of several student senators coordinating the campaign.

"We figured if Rutgers could do it, why couldn't we do it?" he said, referring to Obama's commencement appearance at the New Jersey university on its 250th birthday last May. "It's a homecoming for him. There's no better time for him to come to Illinois."

A Change.org petition posted Wednesday evening had already collected 1,260 signatures as of mid-afternoon Thursday.

"We already beat Rutgers," Villanueva said. (That petition attracted 1,059 signatures.)

President Robert Jones actually extended a formal invitation to Obama last fall, via attorney Michael Strautmanis, a UI alumnus and vice president of the Obama Foundation in Chicago. He was formerly chief of staff for Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

"When we've asked students who they'd like to have, for the past eight years his name has always been high on that list," said campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler. "We know there's a lot of interest, and for many of them, he's the only president they really remember."

The speaker is chosen from a list put together by a committee that starts working shortly after the previous year's commencement, Kaler said. They take suggestions and extend invitations to potential speakers, and a decision is made closer to graduation day.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at the UI in 1994 when she was first lady. The campus had another speaker lined up just in case she couldn't make it, and Clinton's visit was confirmed just a week or two beforehand. Commencement was split into two ceremonies at that time, so Clinton spoke at one and the other speaker handled the second, Kaler said.

Kaler said the university didn't expect to hear anything back from the Obamas until after he left office this month.

There are already positive signs, with Strautmanis tweeting in reply to former student Trustee Jaylin McClinton's invitation on Twitter: "I'm for it!" and "let's try to make it happen!"

Villanueva said Obama likely gets hundreds of commencement invitations a year but he's hoping Strautmanis' ties to the UI will help, as will other student connections to the White House.

Several recent student government leaders have landed internships there, including McClinton, Matt Hill and Sarah Hochman.

And the UI was one of the most active schools in the White House "It's On Us" campaign against sexual assault on college campuses, which brought former Vice President Joe Biden to the UI in spring 2015.

"If he's going to go to Rutgers and Ohio State (2013), why not come to the orange and blue?" Villanueva said, noting that Obama also spoke at Michigan in 2010.

The goal now is to get students to write letters and tweet to the Obamas and their staffs, Villanueva said. The Twitter account is @ILinvitesObama, and the Facebook event page is "Invite Obama to Illinois 2017 Commencement."

Villanueva, who is also student body vice president, is working on the campaign with fellow UI seniors Mark Schaer and Ron Lewis, the student body president. Lewis and Villanueva posted their own letters to Obama on their Facebook pages.

"If there is anyone in America who embodies what the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stands for, it's Obama. A man who built his own career, fought for all of us and a champion of the great things our generation cares about. He should be the one sharing his story with us, and helping mark the end of our time at Illinois and the beginning of our careers and futures. Help bring Obama back to Illinois," Lewis wrote on his Facebook page.

His letter said that many students in Illinois feel that the education system is "undervalued," given the lack of state support over the past two years. It said the UI has tried to ensure students remain a priority by hiring top-quality faculty and staff and had brought in diverse administrators such as Jones.

"With so much transition going on within our university and our country, we think that you would be the best speaker to talk about your story and how it is important for students to continue to value education," Lewis wrote.

Villanueva is a Republican who didn't vote for Obama, but he said hosting a former president would be "an honor."

"There's only so many presidents," he said. "He's got a great story whether you like him or not. He's got an inspiring story. That's what students need to hear when they're heading out.

"Every student I've spoken to has said, 'Oh my god, that would be so cool.' My job is to represent them," he said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the names of the UI students who were White House interns.

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Obama sought as speaker for UI commencement - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

Two years ago, Barack Obama was a damaged-goods, lame-duck president who had just endured his second consecutive midterm drubbing thanks in large part to Republican efforts to tie Democrats to him and his eponymous health-care law.

Today, Obamais virtually tied for first place in a new poll of the greatest modern president.

TheQuinnipiac University pollindicates 29 percent say Obama is the greatest president since World War II just shy of the 30 percent who cite Ronald Reagan, the long-standing titleholder.

That's a vast improvement for Obama, who back in July 2014 was viewed as the greatest modern president by just 8 percent.

A big reason Obama has surged is that he has now gobbled up a bigger portion of the greatest-Democratic-president pie. The percentage saying the greatest modern president is Bill Clinton has dropped from 18 percent in 2014 to 9 percent. The number citing John F. Kennedy is down from 15 percent to 12 percent. Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson dropped 2 points and 1 point, respectively.

But Obama also seems to have gobbled up some of the GOP's pie. Reagan dropped from 35 percent in 2014 to 30 percent today, and the GOP's share of the overall greatest-modern-president piece has dropped from 46 percent to 38 percent. Democrats, meanwhile, have risen from 50 percent to 56 percent.

Part of it is almost certainly proximity. Obama is just days removed from office, and perhaps that gives him a bump. He's also perhaps helped by the fact that the last Democratic president before him left office 16 years ago, and that president's wife just suffered a pretty bad defeat. The Clinton brand just isn't what it once was.

That proximity also hurts Obama when it comes to the worst modern president, which Quinnipiac also polled. For that honor, Obama (23 percent) is virtually tied with Richard Nixon (24 percent) and George W. Bush (22 percent) at No. 1. But even there he's improved; back in 2014, he was clearly the No. 1 worst modern president, with 33 percent saying so.

In other words, the polarized views of Obama certainly come into play here.

But Obama has also done himself plenty of good in recent months. As Americans were choosing between two candidates they didn't particularly like in the 2016 election, he suddenly saw a marked increase in popularity even as not much was truly accomplished in Washington and he exited with his best approval ratings since his first year in office, according to some polls.

The true measure of a president's legacy, it bears noting, isn't really measured six days after he leaves office, and these numbers are bound to shift around in the years to come.

But the early reviews of Obama's presidency are certainly better than we could have foreseen two years ago.

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Obama draws neck-and-neck with Reagan in poll of greatest modern president - Washington Post

Forbes

Barack Obama Is Likely To Get $20M Advance To Write His Memoir Forbes Regardless your political affiliation, there's an undeniable fascination with former President Barack Obama and per Esther Newberg, co-head of ICM Partners' publishing unit, this is one reason he is likely to get more than any president has with at ... Barack Obama's Memoir Could Fetch $20 Million AdvanceHollywood Reporter all 9 news articles »

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Barack Obama Is Likely To Get $20M Advance To Write His Memoir - Forbes

Days Before a Deadline, Trump Team Cancels Ads for Obama Health Plan New York Times WASHINGTON The Trump administration is pulling back advertisements that encourage people to sign up for health insurance under former President Barack Obama's health care law. The ads were to have run in the next few days of the annual open ... and more »

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Days Before a Deadline, Trump Team Cancels Ads for Obama Health Plan - New York Times

Whoopi Goldberg discusses Donald Trump's first week in office on ABC's 'The View,' on Jan. 25, 2017. (Screenshot from ABC recording)

The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg claimed recently that unlike President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama waited before issuing executive actions.

After a striking comment from co-host Joy Behar, who hypothesized Trump was passing executive actions quickly because he was afraid hed be impeached, another co-host, Jedediah Bila, countered Behars point saying "all presidents do this." Goldberg offered an instant fact-check.

"I think the difference in what you're saying in terms of executive action is at least it took President Obama, at least a couple of months in, and this one (Trump) has came in and he said, We're doing this and this, and this. And I understand that," Goldberg said in a Jan. 25 segment of the View.

Goldberg repeated this idea again in response to Bila, who criticized Obama for taking executive actions at the start of his presidency when he could have passed laws through a Democratic Congress.

"But (Obama) didnt do executive orders in the beginning," Goldberg said.

Executive orders are the most well-known kind of presidential action, and have a long tradition in presidential history back to the days of George Washington. In fact, every president except for William Harrison (who died a month into office) has issued at least one executive order.

This specific presidential action directs the federal government and bureaucracies and carries the power of the law. However, executive orders can be revoked or amended by future presidents.

We wanted to settle the matter: Did Obama, unlike Trump, wait to take executive action? Long story short is that he didnt, and experts said executive actions are common among new presidents.

Obama didnt waste much time before issuing executive orders after his inauguration.

Obama signed his first executive order (13489) about presidential records on Jan. 21, 2009, a day after the inauguration. This executive order required the Archivist of the United States notify both the incumbent president and the former president of any records the archivist feels may trigger executive privilege. (Executive privilege refers to the presidents power to withhold information from the public.)

Over the next 10 days, Obama had signed nine executive orders. By the end of his first month, the number was 16.

Heres how Obama compared to Trump: As of Jan. 26, Trump had signed four executive orders aimed at achieving various campaign promises. By this time, Obama had issued five executive orders.

Obama first aimed to limit access to presidential records, while another ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba within one year.

That action received backlash from Republicans. As did Obamas corresponding order to look for lawful alternatives to the detention of captives in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Month

Executive orders signed by Obama

January 2009 (starting on Jan. 21)

9

February 2009

7

March 2009

2

April 2009

1

Source: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/2009-obama.html

Executive action has a broad definition, but just in terms of one type of executive orders, Goldbergs claim is incorrect.

That said, its hard to say whether Trumps first actions as president are more significant for policy than Obamas.

Executive orders arent the only action presidents can take, making it difficult to compare Obamas use of unilateral actions to Trumps so far.

Through "executive actions," presidents can also pardon criminals, amend the internal structure of the executive branch, issue signing statements, write letters and memoranda, and more.

"The number of orders is often misleading, and the terminology can be confusing both presidents issued important orders that were not Executive Orders with numbers attached," said John T. Woolley, an American politics professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that both Trump and Obama took controversial actions at the start.

"The early Trump executive actions have been on hot button issues, so they aroused a lot of early controversy, but we cant forget how controversial presidential actions of the past have been," he said.

Galston was specifically referring to the U.S. Treasurys decision to bail out the auto industry during Obamas first year. When Obama took office, he created a task force with a mandate to determine the fate of GM and Chrysler.

He added that is not unlikely for presidents to take executive actions at first, especially when theres a change in party, adding that presidents want to reverse actions of the previous administration.

For example, Trump issued a presidential memorandum on Jan. 23 that banned all foreign nongovernmental organizations from receiving U.S. funds from performing or promoting abortion, reversing an Obama action.

The recession gripping the country when Obama took office also spurred the former president to move with more urgent executive action, Galston said.

Our ruling

Goldberg said Obama waited "at least a couple of months" to issue executive actions. Thats not correct; Obama issued an executive order on his first day in office, and 16 with in his first month.

Although its hard to compare one presidents actions to the other, experts said Trump and Obama both issued important orders in the beginning of their presidency, which is common practice.

We rate this statement Pants on Fire.

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Whoopi Goldberg wrongly says Obama waited 'at least a couple of months' to issue executive actions - PolitiFact