Oct. 7, 2012

By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Somehow, the body snatchers came last Wednesday and took the fire (as in fired up, ready to go) out of President Obama, leaving a rather listless shell of a man who never truly engaged the audience.  He looked down at his notes, fidgeted, and let his opponent, Mitt Romney, get away with multiple lies.  The body snatchers were busy Wednesday; they also took Mitt Romney, the greedy venture capitalist who likes to fire people, and turned him into a facsimile of a human being.  Of course, with Romney’s disrespect for both President Obama (interrupting him several times) and moderator Jim Lehrer (who he simply ignored), the faux human being turned out to be one that was rude, arrogant, overbearing, and clearly rehearsed.

Romney threw out a line that he had five boys, thus he was used to hearing the same thing said over and over as if it were the truth.  President Obama could not ask Romney who taught the little liars, but that’s what went through my mind.  Before the debate was over, it was clear that Romney behaved in just the way he said his sons did, repeating lies about taxes, Medicare, and employment several times, as if there was any truth to them.  He had another line, where he said President Obama was entitled to his own house and his own plane, but not his own facts, and again, I might have said something snarly to the faux human being along the lines of you’ve got your own billions, your own SuperPACs, but you can’t buy your own facts.  While President Obama does not have to be as sarcastic as I usually am, he surely could have given Romney a better run for his money.

Still, anybody who can do arithmetic knows that Romney has a penchant for mathematical fiction.  How can you cut the taxes on the wealthy (which is done if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire), cut tax rates by 20 percent, and end up with a revenue-neutral solution?  His solution is by cutting spending, in which he cites Public Broadcasting as one of the cuts he would make.  Public Broadcasting represents less than one-thousandth of one percent of the entire federal budget, so cutting it won’t make much difference to the deficits he is quick to rail on.

President Obama was right to push Romney on specifics to some of the plans he said he had.  There were no specifics, just the frequent exhortation that “I have a plan to deal with that.”  What plan?  Voters can’t judge unless we know, but Romney behaves like a student who hasn’t started on a term paper and fumbles about its contents when asked.  Too often Romney ignored the President’s questions about specifics, trading bluster for facts and getting away with it.  Jim Lehrer totally lost control of the debate, failing to push either participant on specifics.   He was not even effective as a timekeeper, letting both debate participants run over time, although he decreed time lines.

President Obama really needs to toot his own horn.  When Romney says, “you have been President for four years”, our President needs to respond with his list of accomplishments, many of which blunted the effects of the Great Recession, which he inherited from George Bush.  The intervention in the auto industry that Romney opposed has made a real difference is states like Ohio and Michigan.  A research paper that was reviewed at the Rainbow/PUSH Automotive Summit found that for every 2,000 jobs created in automobile manufacturing in an urban area, another 5,200 jobs were created.  While there are not enough jobs to go around yet, there are more jobs then there would have been had the economy been allowed to drift.

The question about who won the debates turns out to be a question of policy versus performance.  Too many pundits talked about Mitt Romney’s “performance” indicating that he performed well.  The United States is not a stage looking for a leading actor; it’s a nation, looking for a leader who can make a difference.  We are not looking for a contender who thinks that bluster means leadership.  We are looking for a leader to finish the work he started.  Those who were mesmerized by the body snatchers’ version of Mitt Romney fail to understand that a listless Obama is ten times better than an arrogant and overbearing Romney.

Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author.

Oct. 5, 2012

By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As Wednesday’s presidential debate approached, the political junkies were gearing up for a shoot-out. With history as a guide, much attention was paid to the political horse race. Much debate commentary was about technique: Would President Barack Obama be crisp? Would Mitt Romney use the zingers he has reportedly practiced? Would he get under the president’s skin?

This is all cute but irrelevant. Debates should focus on the future. And it should pay attention to stark realities that have largely gone unmentioned in the campaigns.

The candidates need to be asked what they plan to do to put people back to work and how they plan to create an economy that works for working people. Romney argues that austerity — harsh cuts in spending — is what is needed. But Europe has given us a case study about what happens when austerity is applied to a weak economy: rising misery, spreading poverty and growing despair. Why would we want to repeat that here?

Obama put forth a bold jobs program last fall, but congressional Republicans blocked most of it. Yet at the Democratic Convention, he and former President Bill Clinton seemed to focus on deficit reduction along the lines of the recommendations put forth by the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which argued that spending cuts and tax increases should wait until the recovery takes hold. Do the two candidates agree that the focus should be on jobs and recovery, not on deficit reduction and austerity?

The housing collapse has devastated home­owners across the country. Millions have lost their homes. Millions more are “under water,” carrying mortgages worth more than the value of their property. Romney supported bailing out the banks, not the homeowners and the creditors, not the debtors. Does he still believe that? What steps would he take to help homeowners recover and boost the economy? The Obama administration’s various programs haven’t been at the scale needed. Is the president satisfied with the policies in place? Would either candidate support requiring big banks to allow underwater homeowners to refinance their mortgages?

Gun violence continues to terrorize America. The ban on the sale of assault weapons — which have no other purpose than the slaughter of humans — expired under George W. Bush. Neither candidate has said much of anything about reviving the ban or about gun control in general. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has argued that thinking current laws are adequate is “just preposterous.” Do the two candidates agree? Do they support a revival of the assault weapons ban? Would they support any changes to our gun-control laws?

Poverty is spreading. Since the recession, the richest 1 percent has captured a staggering 93 percent of the rewards of economic growth. We’ve heard a lot about the middle class but very little about the poor. Romney’s and Obama’s budget plans call for cutting domestic spending, a category that includes support for infant nutrition, food stamps, poor schools, Medicaid, housing support, home heating for the elderly and more. What is their plan to counter crippling poverty from Appalachia to our cities?

Coverage of presidential debates often highlights who had the best one-liner or delivered the best shot. That’s presumably why Romney was practicing zingers. But can’t we have one debate where the focus is on who has the best plan; not the best pun? Wit is great, but it is vision that the country needs!

Oct. 7, 2012

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The post presidential debate analysis has Governor Romney clearly defeating President Obama and generating much needed momentum going into this last month of the campaign. Many characterized this first debate as Romney’s last gasp, his last-ditch effort to restart his campaign.  Romney came out swinging.  He was assertive, aggressive, and clearly understood that he had to sell himself to the viewers, even if he had to lie to do so.  Unfortunately, President Obama allowed him to do just that.

Energized by his showing in the debate, Romney has hit the road with a new found confidence. According to the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel,  “Energized by a strong debate performance…Mitt Romney took aim Thursday at President Barack Obama's record in office and vowed to spur a strong recovery for the American economy. ‘The American people don't want higher taxes, they want less spending and more growth,’ Romney told thousands of supporters during a nighttime rally in the heart of Virginia, a presidential battleground state.”

Early poll results show a positive swing for Romney.  According to the Huffington Post, “Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney gained ground on Democratic President Barack Obama after a strong performance in their first debate… according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken after their prime-time face-off. Romney is now viewed positively by 51 percent of voters, the first time he has enjoyed a net positive in the U.S. presidential race…Obama's favorability rating remained unchanged at 56 percent, according to the poll.”

Could Romney’s performance swing the election?  Could his performance be the re-start or re-launch that his campaign needed? Before Republicans get too giddy or euphoric behind Romney’s performance (or the President’s lack thereof) and start calling this Romney’s “October Surprise”, there are two things to remember. First, there are two more debates and the President’s strategy for the last two will not be the same as the first.  Second, the President has his own surprise that should resonate across the country; it’s called the most recent job numbers.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for the month of September fell below 8.0 percent to 7.8 percent. This is the lowest rate of unemployment in this country since President Obama took office in 2009.  114,000 jobs were added in September on top of a revised 142,000 for the month of August.  Hourly earnings also went up higher than anticipated.

Last year the pundits and analysts were asking if President Obama could be reelected with the unemployment rate above 8 percent.  As recently as this past August the AP ran a story where they stated, “No U.S. president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment over 8 percent.”

In 2011 the budget and economic forecast from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that unemployment would remain high for the foreseeable future (and it has).  The CBO projected that the unemployment rate would gradually fall in the near term, to 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, and 7.4 percent at the end of 2013.

Well, the September results indicate that the administration is ahead of the forecasts.  We are now in 4Q 2012 and 7.8 percent is lower than 8.2 percent.  Yes Mr. Romney, the country is better off today than it was when President Obama took office. As former President Clinton said, it is simple arithmetic.

In January of 2011, I wrote an Op-Ed entitled, “Can Obama Win in 2012 if Unemployment Stays as is above 8 percent?”  In it, I concluded, “Predicting the political future requires more than tea leaves, a crystal ball, and good polling data.  Other factors such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, immigration, health care, and political opponents will play an important role in the 2012 outcome… As it stands right now, in spite of the current unemployment rate of 9.4 percent and projections of high unemployment rates through 2012, President Obama can win a re-election. Continued economic growth, slow as it may be, should push President Obama’s approval numbers over 50 percent. Other factors being equal, if he’s able to keep his approval rate above 50 percent, history is on his side.”

I’ve been saying for the past eighteen months that it’s not as much the unemployment number as it is the trend.  So long as the administration can demonstrate that things are trending in the right direction the actual number is not as important.  Also, in spite of Romney’s numerous restarts he’s still behind in the national polls 46 percent to 49 percent and in Michigan 42 percent to 52 percent, Pennsylvania 42 percent to 50 percent, and Ohio 46 percent to 49 percent.

I don’t have tea leaves or a crystal ball.  On October 4, 2012 and one month before the election the President has an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, an opponent who has put no substantive policy initiatives on the table, and continually lies to the American people.  What an October surprise.

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "Inside the Issues with  WilmerLeon," and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C.  Go to  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,  www.wilmerleon.com , email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. orwww.twitter.com/drwleon

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Oct. 7, 2012

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Mitt Romney sounded good in debate one, offering a few zingers as his team promised. He promised to do some good things. The problem is President Barack Obama has already done the good things Romney promised!

He often used the phrase “the President and I”—as he’s been doing on several key issues lately. After 90 minutes of trying to re-define himself as the moderate --something he claimed to be when running for governor of Massachusetts, but denied he was while trying to attract the right during his primary--I was not impressed.

He’s running away from all that he told us he was a few months back, and running toward what he told us he was not. How can we trust someone who once proudly claimed credit for Romneycare--the health care plan developed on his watch? During his primary he gave President Obama’s Affordable Care Act no credit, threatening to obliterate it on day one of his administration. In the debate, he suddenly loves many of the key parts of Obamacare—such as keeping young people on their parents’ health plan until they’re 26, keeping pre-existing conditions—and by November 6th, I suspect he’ll be for the whole plan!

Who is the real Romney? He shifts his position on issues so often that it is difficult to know. He campaigned supporting a 5 trillion dollar tax cut, but now, he denies it. In fact, he said, “Let me repeat what I said, I'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. That's not my plan. My plan is not to put in place any tax cut that will add to the deficit”. He talked about closing loopholes in the tax code and getting rid of some tax deductions and credits. We don’t know what his plan is and he didn’t bother to tell us. I can see why many are confused about who the real Romney is.

Having been a speech teacher, I enjoy a spirited debate, but I do like one where speakers do not make up facts as they go along or change them when it’s convenient.

Some may be disappointed with the first debate, but it is understandable when you come to a debate knowing the opponent’s positions on issues, only to have him switch to yours. It doesn’t make sense to argue with someone who claims his positions are the same as yours.

Romney suddenly became interested in helping the Middle Class, but recently he said, “My job is not to worry about those people”. Do you remember his secret 47% speech to his wealthy friends? Many of us are in that 47 percent, so which Mitt are we to believe—the one who wants to help us or the one who will not worry about us?

Now he supports regulations, after wanting to get rid of them so “free people can pretty much do what they want to do”. He supports America, but takes his money overseas. He hates China, but has invested in China.

He began his campaign promising to change Medicare, then decided not to for those over 55. He leaves in place a gruesome policy for anyone who is younger.

After being shown that Obamacare doesn’t take $716 billion out of Medicare, he keeps saying it because truth doesn’t matter to him since he’s “had so much experience with his boys and that position”! Medicare's chief actuary says President Obama's health reform substantially improves the program's finances.

Mitt sounded good in the debate, but how can you believe he would ever do good and for whom he would do the good? Doesn’t he just “make you want to holler and throw up your hands”?

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is Chair of the National Congress of Black Women and Chair of the Board of the Black Leadership Forum.)