About 15,000 showed up to the 176th graduating class at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut today. While most were there to see loved ones matriculate, several thousand sat on a nearby hill to hear the Democratic frontrunner speak. Ted Kennedy’s name was still in the program as the featured commencement speaker, but since the senior Senator from Massachusetts fell ill last week, he needed a “pinch-hitter” as Senator Obama described it today.

An insert in the program noted Obama’s biography and declared this was not a political event. “Campaign related activity, including the display of signs and banners, will not be allowed at commencement,” the paper warned. Obama did not mention Senators Clinton or McCain in his remarks, but Jamaica Kincaid, an author who received an honorary degree threw in her support to Obama when accepting the award and the university’s president talked politics in his remarks.

“In the fall of 2004, your frosh year, we had the sad spectacle of presidential politics promoting a climate of fear in which macho self assertion was framed as an antidote to inflamed insecurities on topics as diverse as terrorism and marriage. That was in 2004. In this spring of 2008, we have heard the word change on countless occasions. But will we see a change? Can we emerge from these dark times?” President Michael Roth said as the fairly Liberal campus applauded.

Donned in a robe and accepting an honorary doctorate of laws, Obama began his own speech. “I’d like to start by passing along a message from Ted: “To all those praying for my return to good health, I offer my heartfelt thanks. And to any who’d rather have a different result, I say, don’t get your hopes up just yet!” So we know that Teddy’s legendary sense of humor is as strong as ever, and I have no doubt that his equally legendary fighting spirit will carry him through this latest challenge. He is our friend, he is our champion, and we hope and pray for his return to good health,” he said.

Obama told the nearly 800 graduates and their families that he peeked at Kennedy’s speech prior to writing his own. “The topic of his speech today was common for a commencement, but one that nobody could discuss with more authority or inspiration than Ted Kennedy. And that is the topic of service to one’s country – a cause that is synonymous with his family’s name and their legacy,” he said.

Obama stuck to Kennedy’s theme, recalling his childhood spent “adrift,” his awakening to “a world beyond myself, and then his days as a community organizer in Chicago. “Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s. But I hope you don’t,” he said, encouraging them to take the path of service.

“Find an organization that’s fighting poverty, or a candidate who promotes policies you believe in, and find a way to help them. We need you. At a time of war, we need you to work for peace. At a time of inequality, we need you to work for opportunity. At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt, we need you to make us believe again. That’s your task class of 2008,” Obama encouraged them as the students cheered.

Read the entire speech as prepared for delivery below the jump.

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