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President Obama Holds News Conference; Praises, Tributes for Steve Jobs; Market Reacts to President Obama's Speech; Jobs' Inspiring Stanford Speech

Aired October 06, 2011 - 12:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(PRESIDENT OBAMA'S PRESS CONFERENCE SENT AS A SEPARATE DOCUMENT)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama wrapping up his press conference. It lasted a little bit more than an hour, taking questions about the economy, with only the exception of one question dealing with Pakistan.

The president clearly putting the onus on Congress to answer to this jobs bill and why Republicans do not support the jobs bill. The president trying to portray himself as someone who has an open door to the White House, one who is negotiating instead of campaigning.

And even offering, Ali, a homework assignment to all of us to take the jobs bill, take a look at it, go to these economists, have them analyze it, and prove him wrong that this is not going to create some 1.9 million jobs for the American people.

What did you hear in the president's case that he made here, first of all? And secondly, was there anything that you heard that would allow the Republicans to jump on board here and to negotiate, to compromise, on his Jobs Act?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Largely, to your second question first, no, not really. In fact, there was nothing particularly surprising.

The one piece of news we were sort of expecting to hear he kind of buried about the 5.6 percent tax on people -- on over $1 million worth of income. I'll tell you -- and I don't mean this in a bad way, Suzanne, but it seemed like a bit of an economics lesson.

He was giving a lot of answers to reporters, explaining supply and demand and basic economics, and using the argument that so many of the things that the Republicans have been demanding, particularly to see in something like a jobs bill, he argued don't create jobs. So he says if you want to reduce regulation on air quality and climate, or you want to reduce regulation on financial institutions, how does that create jobs in the short term? And he was sort of challenging them to do that.

He made that point. He spoke very little about the actual tax increases. And there wasn't a lot of challenge from the reporters, which leads me to believe that people either think that the jobs bill really is dead in the water, or they realize that most Americans, according to our polling, at least, support the idea of a tax on people making more than $1 million.

He also was asked, as you know, a couple of times about the Occupy Wall Street protests, and he made the point that one thing that would help protect consumers against financial institutions and their behavior would be this consumer financial protection board which the Republicans stood in the way of initially the formation of, and then the appointment of Elizabeth Warren to the head of, and now the appointment of a new candidate. So he made the point that there is some avenue whereby consumers can feel more protected from financial institutions, but that the Republicans haven't gotten on board to support that.

So sort of a wide-ranging economics lesson, if you will. But I don't know that he won any Republicans over with it.

MALVEAUX: I'm not even sure he won Democrats over as well.

VELSHI: Right.

MALVEAUX: I want to go back to our Wolf Blitzer out of Washington.

And that was really the key to this speech here, Wolf. He was supposed to be winning over those Senate Democrats who were looking at that millionaire tax as potentially some sort of point that -- jumping point off, that they could sign on to this Jobs Act without making it look somehow that they were tax being the middle class, because that was the main problem they had with the Obama plan initially, those making $200,000, $250,000, and having their taxes go up.

Now he's signing on to something else that taxes those millionaires. Is that actually good enough?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's a good question, and it is unclear what's going to happen. But there's no doubt the president made it clear in this news conference, Suzanne, that he favors, he's willing to go along with this surcharge, this surtax for millionaires, people making more than $1 million. They would pay an additional 5.6 percent on any income over $1 million.

It would take effect not next year, but in 2013. And he says it would cover the nearly $450 billion of the jobs bill.

Candy Crowley and Gloria Borger are here.

Gloria, right now he doesn't have the votes -- certainly doesn't have the votes in the House of Representatives. But there are, as Suzanne points out, a whole bunch of Democrats in the Senate who aren't ready to go along with his legislation as he's put forward.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: They're not ready to go along with his legislation. And there are some centrist Democrats who aren't ready to go along with the Harry Reid/Chuck Schumer idea of this 5.5 percent surtax either.

So, what the president said today was -- he endorsed it, but it wasn't sort of an overwhelming endorsement. He said it was, "Fine by me." So I guess that means whatever it takes to at least get Democrats unified to vote for something is "Fine by me."

He also said the economy is weaker right now than it has been. But at this point, Wolf, just in terms of the jobs bill, I don't see how they get something passed.

It seems to me like they may end up with a much more circumscribed bill again that essentially extends a payroll tax cut and they figure out a way to pay for that. But I don't see either side giving right now on their issues.

BLITZER: You heard the president end the news conference -- and he said it a few times through the news conference, Candy. He's ready to do what Harry Truman did, give them hell over there and fight against the so-called do-nothing Congress. He says, "I'd like nothing better than if they did something, but if they don't I'm going to hammer away." That's a direct quote.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a direct quote, and he's already been hammering away.

The politics of this are probably great for the Democrats. All the polls show that people think millionaires, rich people, ought to pay more in taxes. They are convinced that it's -- the tax system is unfair.

So, politically, the president is saying, hey, this is fine with me, if they want to go ahead and do this millionaire's surtax. I think it's where the Democrats want to have this fight, because policy-wise, nothing has changed by this. Nothing changes.

The Republicans will still vote against this in the House, and they control the House. And by the way, I'm not overly sure he's going to pick up all his Democrats with this. I don't think that's in fact in the cards.

And what we saw -- I mean, the reason they had to move to this approach anyway instead of the president's approach for paying for it is that there were senators like Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, who said, no, no, no, we're not going to just close oil company loopholes. She obviously has a lot of oil companies in Louisiana that move that economy.

So this is an attempt to try to bring the Democrats on board, give the Democrats a rallying cry. Whether or not it brings them on -- it will bring on most of them, clearly. But policy has not changed, and the prospects for this bill have not changed. I think they're pretty close to nil in its totality.

BLITZER: Very quickly.

BORGER: But here's the problem for the president -- six out of 10 people disapprove of the way he's handling the economy. If the economy continues to go in the wrong direction, and Congress looks like it's doing nothing, he will run against the Congress, but people will also blame him. BLITZER: And one of the problems, Suzanne, that the president has is that he said often over the past few years that during a time of economic distress, that's no time to raise taxes. This millionaire's surtax, if you will, wouldn't go into effect until 2013.

He did point out though, he said in his words, there's no doubt that the U.S. economy now is weaker, is a lot weaker than it was at the start of 2011. And a lot of economists are anticipating it's about to get even weaker given the economic distress that's unfolding in Europe.

So there are a lot of problems out there, Suzanne, right now.

MALVEAUX: I thought it was interesting, too, Wolf, the fact that he did not have to mention President Bush's name, but said prior to 2008 is when we had all of those problems regarding the debt. And so, therefore, once again, making the case to the American people what he inherited and saying that he still, at the same time, has some work to do.

Thank you very much, Wolf. Appreciate your time.

Candy, Gloria, as well.

It was a great discussion.

Here what's ahead "On the Rundown."

Steve Jobs delivered a remarkable commencement address at Stanford University. That was back in 2005. We're going to play it for you from start to finish.

And we have the answer to a big political question. Sarah Palin says she's not going to run for president next year.

And then, more tape of Michael Jackson's slurred speech is played at the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.

All that coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Flags are flying at half-staff today at Apple's headquarters.

Sandra Endo joins us live from the Apple campus in Cupertino, California.

Sandra, the memorial I know is growing there. What are people saying about Steve Jobs today?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, here at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, it's pretty much the start of the work day for everyone here. And for the past hour or so, we've seen employees coming to work, and they've been instructed not to talk to the media. However, we did speak to one employee off camera who described the mood obviously as somber, a very sad day for everyone. And as you mentioned, that memorial, people are coming here, fans, Apple consumers, and people in the community, to lay down flowers, cards, candles and apples all in tribute to Steve Jobs.

And one person we spoke to said his legacy will be how his innovations really changed the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just a visionary. A visionary. You know? A once-in-a-lifetime type of human being.

It's incredible that he was -- that we got to experience this living in Cupertino. This in itself is just a very historical experience. And again, I'm just wondering why this place isn't flooded with people.

It's a fascinating occurrence. You know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: Now, we know that Apple is going to be holding an internal private memorial for the co-founder of this company. And they say it's not going to be a sad, somber experience, but more so a celebration of his life -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Sandra, how are they moving forward, the company and employees, moving forward?

ENDO: Well, that's going to be a big question in the out years. When you think about it, Jobs knew this day was coming, and he built a very strong team around him.

He stepped down as CEO in August, gave the reins over to a long-time deputy, Tim Cook. And it's interesting to note, in a memo sent out to employees yesterday, that Tim Cook said that everyone will really be working hard to make sure Steve Jobs' vision is carried through and they will work hard to make that dedication to his vision.

So, clearly, they are hoping to live on in terms of make his spirit live on here in the company. Of course, he was the heart and soul of Apple, but here, a very somber mood, but his spirit and legacy will definitely survive -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you so much, Sandra.

And I want you to listen to this. He said the only way to do great work is to love what you do. That was part of his message, Steve Jobs' message to graduates during a commencement speech at Stanford University.

It was such an inspiring message, we're going to bring that to you, the entire speech, in just a few minutes. Well, President Obama pitches a new tax on those making more than $1 million a year. Find out how the stock market is reacting. We go live to the New York Stock Exchange.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So how's the stock market reacting to the president's news conference?

Our Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, reaction from Wall Street?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know what? I've talked to several traders since President Obama wrapped up his news conference, and you know where the confidence is? The confidence actually is in the part of the package, the infrastructure part of the package.

And you're seeing that in the numbers actually. Shares of Caterpillar, Alcoa, manufacturing and construction stocks, they are up anywhere from three percent to six percent. The thinking is that that would have the best chance of passing, especially if you compare it to the tax measures.

This part of the package, of course, would go to rebuilding roads, bridges, schools and airports. And what Wall Street really likes to hear about this is something like that, the infrastructure part of the package. It immediately creates jobs.

We're also seeing the market higher today. You see the Dow up 100 points because of positive news coming out of Europe.

The European Central Bank -- that's the equivalent of our Federal Reserve -- has announced a bond-buying program, which means that it's going to pour some liquidity into the eurozone. There has been a lot of worry about how banks would fare if Greece would default. So this shows that the European Central Bank has the backs of the banks there.

Once, again the Dow up 107 points.

Suzanne, back to you.

MALVEAUX: All right. Good news. Thank you, Alison.

Well, Sarah Palin says there is no looking back. She's decided to say no to a run for the White House next year. We're going to hear what a prominent Tea Party activist has to say about Palin's decision.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Speculation over Sarah Palin is over. She has decided not to run for the White House next year. Palin says she can be on the right path without being a candidate.

Amy Kremer, she is with us now. She is chairman of the Tea Party Express and one of the founders of the Tea Party movement.

So, first of all, your reaction to Palin's announcement. Are you disappointed? You were...

AMY KREMER, CHAIR, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: I am disappointed and a lot of people are disappointed.

But she made the right decision for her and her family, and we respect that. And I think she's actually going to have more of an impact in this election with the candidates that we do have and then also she will be able to focus on the House and the Senate.

MALVEAUX: Do you think this is it for her? Was this that window of opportunity that she could have decided, hey, I'm going to go for this? Or could we see her run again in perhaps four, eight, 12 years?

KREMER: Oh, no, she's still young. She still has plenty of life left in her and I absolutely think that she could decide in the future she would run.

MALVEAUX: President Obama just held this news conference. I want your reaction to some of what he said.

One of the things that he's pointing out there that he's signed up for is this idea of a millionaire tax, a surtax for those who make a million dollars or more. Do you think that that is a good compromise to go ahead and to pay for his jobs bill that way as opposed to increasing taxes for those who make more than $200,000 or $250,000 a year?

KREMER: Actually, I don't think it is a good idea and I think he's playing class warfare. There are a number of people that have signed these pledges that they're not going to raise taxes. They know that they have no hope of getting it through and it is another thing that they can blame Republicans.

Look, this is not going to create jobs. This is going to pay for jobs for the next 12 to 18 months. And, Suzanne, that's not going to help our economy. What we need is our corporate tax rate cut, where we don't have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and more of a permanent solution so that businesses will hire.

This is not -- it's more stimulus and we have seen it before with the previous stimulus package and it is not going to work.

MALVEAUX: Is there any point of negotiations or compromise with the Republicans here? Because so far what the president is saying is that he's putting the onus on Republicans. He's saying, look, you figure this out, you come up with a better plan if you don't like my plan.

KREMER: Well, what I say to that is I believe today is 890 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a budget. The House has put forth the Paul Ryan plan. They have forth the Cut, Cap and Balance. I mean, we have put -- the Republicans have put plan after plan out there and the Democrats say no. And so we're going to have to come together, but the point is, the American people are tired of this and it is not Washington's responsibility to create jobs. It is the private sector's responsibility to create jobs. That's where the jobs come from and I think we need to cut the corporate tax rate. I think we need to lift some of these burdensome regulations so that businesses can have some confidence in the system and go forward and hire people.

MALVEAUX: Back to the campaign real quick here, because we don't have a lot of time.

KREMER: Yes.

MALVEAUX: But now that you have got Chris Christie who's not in the race, Sarah Palin not in the race, who's the front-runner here? Who are you going to back?

KREMER: I mean, Herman Cain is surprising us all. And we're not -- Tea Party Express is not ready to support anyone right now. And the movement hasn't really coalesced behind anybody. But Herman Cain is -- he is doing a major thing right now. He's got a lot of momentum. A lot of people like him. He's a straight talker. He's a businessman, and that's what people like.

He knows how to run a business, he knows how to create jobs, he knows about profits, that you can't spend your way into prosperity, and he's got some traction right now, so I think he's one to watch.

MALVEAUX: That sounds like an endorsement almost.

KREMER: Well, I mean, no, it's not an endorsement. I think that the field is still very volatile. But we have a lot of work to do, especially if these states keep moving these primaries and caucuses up.

MALVEAUX: All right, Amy Kremer, thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

KREMER: Thanks for having me.

MALVEAUX: Nice to see you.

Well, dramatic and emotional testimony in the Conrad Murray trial. Jurors hear a taped conversation between Dr. Murray and Michael Jackson.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray began its eighth day just a few minutes ago. An investigator from the coroner's office is now on the stand. She's been describing the 19 bottles of medication found in Jackson's bedroom the day he died.

Prosecutors also played the entire recording of Jackson's slurring his words. He talks about building the biggest children's hospital in the world as his legacy.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MICHAEL JACKSON, MUSICIAN: I love them because I didn't have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain. I feel their hurt.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The doctor who did the autopsy on Jackson's body is also expected to testify today.

Well, this week, we have been bringing you investigative reports on modern-day slavery, a CNN exclusive series about factory workers in Southeast Asia who have to pay their employers in order to be free.

Well, due to all the big news of the day, we're not going to be able to bring you part three of the series by CNN's Dan Rivers, but we do promise we are going to bring that to you tomorrow. So, please join us for that as well.

Well, many fans of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, they are remembering him today by sharing quotes from a speech that he gave six years ago to Stanford University graduates. We're going to play the entire commencement address after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Steve Jobs' creativity and innovation touched thousands of millions of lives. In 2005, he touched the graduating class of Stanford University with a heartfelt 15-minute speech.

We were so impressed with this speech, we wanted you to hear it in its entirety. Here's part one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 12, 2005)

STEVE JOBS, CO-FOUNDER, APPLE: I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

JOBS: Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I have ever gotten to a college graduation.

(LAUGHTER)

JOBS: Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So, why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that, when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So, my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?"

They said, "Of course."

My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

This was the start in my life. And 17 years later, I did go to college, but I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford and all of my working class parents savings were being spent on my college tuition.

After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the 5-cent deposits to buy food with. And I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hari (ph) Christian (ph) Temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

Let me give you one example. Reed College, at that time, offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus, every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif type faces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture. And I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all in to the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multi type faces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever -- because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: That's a beautiful speech. Next, Jobs tells Stanford University graduates about life and death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's the rest of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford University.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOBS: My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.

We had just released our finest creation -- the Macintosh, a year earlier -- and I just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.

When we did, our board of directors sided with him and so at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down. That I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.

I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named Next, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought Next and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at Next is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as truth for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better around better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, "if you live each day as if it was your last, some day you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me. And since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your good-byes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening, I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and good a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under the microscope, the doctor started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and thankfully I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept -- no one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one is has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Right now, the new is you. But some day not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drowned out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called "The Whole Earth Catalog," which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand, not far from here in Menlo Park. And he brought it to life with his poetic touch.

This was in the late '60s before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of "The Whole Earth Catalog." And then, when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid 1970s and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issues was a photograph of an early morning country road. The kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words, "stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself.

And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Thank you all very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Steve Jobs. An inspiring message. Thanks again.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye.

Hey, Randi.