Stephen A Smith took a chance by leaving ESPN and going out on his own. He has shown up on MSNBC and is doing podcast and has his own website. The political podcast was good. The haters from espn.com who claimed that Stephen A Smith is racist, biased, etc. would be speechless.
Stephen A called out Barack Obama for not getting the job done. I don't completely agree with that statement because we were on a downhill slide before he took office and I knew it would get worse before it got better. He also touched on the fact that Black people need to stop being a voting block for the Democratic party, which I agree with and is part of the reason I am a registered Independent, which Smith also says he is.
http://stephena.com/?p=219
This got me thinking that we have yet to blog about Barack Obama. What do you all think? Is he doing a good job? Is he taking on too much?
I think he is doing a good job, it's hard to say how much worse the economy would be if he hadn't done anything, but I do beleive the economy would be worse. I don't think the top down (tax cuts for the rich) spending approach works. Government finance is different than personal finance, we do have to take on debt to get the country out of the recession. I didn't expect this recession to end by mid 2009. I think part of the problem is that most people in the country think of Obama as a savior or they hate him. I am for giving his policies a chance to work. Therefore I base my opinion on him doing a good job by what I believe will work and his handling of other smaller issues.
Handling that I agree with:
Sotomayor nomination
Getting tough with Israel
Pushing healthcare
Iraq/Afghanistan
Diplomacy
Not getting involved in the Al Franken Senate race
Handling that I don't agree with:
Don't Ask Don't Tell (I understand; this will cost him political capital, I believe he will change it after healthcare is done)
Withholding Judgement:
Economy
Ignoring calls to legalize pot (I know we talked about this but we are in debt and could use the money)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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i am glad to hear stephen a is back...
ReplyDeleteon barack i think he is doing a good job as well agreeing with you on the various specific issues---don't forget the shifting the war from iraq to afganistan to find some dude and gitmo (i think he shouldn't even entertain the legalization of any drugs)....
with all problems it usually takes ~30% or MORE of the effort that got you into the predicatment to get you out OF THE PREDICTAMENT. for instance ppl become overweight over years of bad eating and lack of exercise; thus it takes a good amount of effort in the opposite direction to lose the weight. or ppl who half ass thru school and all of a sudden want to change and go to and do well in school (it can happen but takes work)....i feel the same way about the economy...it will take a while to right the wrongs of bad home ownership loans, international tariff situation, cheap labor overseas, poor quality products made by americans, the hardships union put on american businesses, buying everything on credit with money you don't have. basically we did not get into this situation overnight and we won't get out of it over night....there are short term things like a wack war and falsely inflated gas prices and those long terms thing aforementioned that have us in this problem...so i think to expect barack to have everything on the up and up in half a year is aggressive and ridiculous. whatever everyone can do better but he has a solid B to me now and it is harder to raise your grade from a B to an A than from an F to a C. we watched a dude take his grade from a C- to dropping a class for 8 years. i am watching o'reilly now and laura ingraham is dogging obama for not being able to pick a church...guess what bill stopped her naming multiple presidents like reagan that did not go to church.
ok next topic, black ppl blocking voting democratically...i think black ppl go where the "have not" policies go. once upon a time we were block republicans....what i mean by have not policies is the policies that benefit the "have nots" being the poor (taxing policies, universal health care, welfare) and minorities (affirmative action, gay marriage and pro-choice). everyone cares about protecting their own interests and usually today's democratic policies are more compassionate while republicans i feel are more "this is mine and if you couldn't get off your ass and get yours while going to church, too bad".... i generally vote idealistically than off my own emotions. i don't like the fact that some of my tax dollars will end up funding various abusers of the system but to help the many righteous poor i don't mind....republicans to me are always wanting to help the "haves" that don't NEED (they just want more) help. obviously there could be some REFORM to the way america does things. if the republicans come back to the middle a little to help ppl that don't HAVE then i think you would see alot of black folks become more torn between the two. honestly i don't know many registered black democrats or republicans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI3QM_p73oI
ReplyDeletei saw this watching bill....last time i checked we still were all americans....i did not vote for bush but being an american i was embarassed by his policies alot of times but i rarely blamed him solely for the plight of america...or republicans...we can all vote right?
not to mention the economy started to suffer when bush got in office (911 happened on his watch, gas prices soared on his watch, katrina victims were ignored on his watch)...clinton left a surplus. whatever i think ads like this will actually work because americans are short sighted
Steven A finally has a platform... interesting.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the economy: I think it's too early to tell… nothing ground breaking there. The economy is just going to take time. The stimulus had to be done. You have to bail out the banks because people need to have confidence that their money is safe in banks… Bank issue credit, businesses/people spend credit… Banks can't issue credit without the Joe the Plummer's of the world putting their money in the banks. Simply had to be done. Indicators are showing that the recession has bottomed out and we are on the uptick, though it is a slow uptick. It's more of an L than a V shaped recovery. That is the best you can hope for after 5 months in office. Also, bailing out the auto industry had to be done, although I don't like the government basically owning the US auto industry now… but again, the auto industry employs way too many people to let it fall. All in all, he's done what he can do… it is just going to take time.
Regarding Iraq/Afghanistan… I'm not a fan of drop dead dates… i.e. we will be out by August 1, 2010. I think that is just political BS… something that the common folks can latch on to. Give me a structured plan, with key milestones to hit… something you can adapt as the environment changes. I'm sure we have something like that, and it doesn't necessarily need to be public information, but give me assurances that a real plan is in place. Clearly this is where Bush dropped the ball (add it to the long list). W didn't have a plan… he played to the country's emotions and didn't think things thru. I would hope that Barrack is playing it smarter than that.
No issue with Sotomayor… it was clear that he's liked her for a while, so no surprises there. Someone is going to have a contrary opinion about anyone, so as long as Barrack didn't drop the ball on doing the right due diligence (like McCain did with your girl Palin), then I'm fine.
Healthcare… I think it's tough to push this agenda giving the state of the economy. Businesses are struggling enough… why further legislate. I'm not saying forget about it, but maybe put these plans on hold or work it in the background until the economy picks up.
All in all, I think Barrack has done the job… it is early, but signs are good. I'm glad I have stopped seeing him on sportscenter and Leno… I think that stage of enjoying the limelight was a mistake. Get to work.
Regarding block voting… I agree with Steven A… I'm independent… I think both parties are BS. You have to judge issues and candidates individually. I hate the fact that Congress for the most party votes by party. I don't believe that everyone can have the same opinion of everything that way. For the most part, I think the Democrats' agenda aligns more with most Black folks agenda, so if folks are going to back one party, then they have made the right choice. Understand that everyone doesn't have the time or the interest to research all the issues and make truly informed decisions everytime, so people will simply just go by party (I know I do this when I vote for all the random city reps, judges, etc that are on the ballot). So do I think we should be the voting block for the Dems… not really, but it is better than the alternative.
My two cents...
great point ace about the more local elections....ppl barely vote for the president so i know no ones researching the views of the school district superintendent...although we should research it would take alot of time to do so....
ReplyDeleterealistically ppl vote like the summer olympics every 4 yrs (and maybe for governor) even though there are tons of elections in between....its difficult to entertain localized elections especially at the rate ppl move nowadays.
I agree with Trey, Ace made a really good point about local elections. As much time I spent researching Barack, Hillary, McCain, Palin, Romney, Huckabee, etc.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know who was running locally. And maybe that is a mistake. It would be interesting to see if a few of us got together and decided to research the local candidates to figure out who we are voting for. And definitely the resolutions, I know we discussed them but some are meant to be confusing.