Month: July 2009

Last night,  Barack Obama hit another "homerun"  at Major League Baseball’s 80th All Star Game in St. Louis!

Not  only did he deliver a great statement before the game, along with the other four living Presidents, but he also threw out the first ball after getting it handed to him by Baseball Hall of Famer Stan "The Man" Musial, my personal favorite player when I was a young man.  Musial is now 88 years old, one of the all time greats of the game, and it was great to relive my boyhood seeing him in his home city of his major league career!

Obama delivered a great home plate pitch to St. Louis Cardinal slugger Albert Pujois, probably the best modern St. Louis player since Stan Musial.  Then he proceeded to participate in the television booth with the two play by play announcers seamlessly.  Somehow, our President is not only a great speaker, but also comes across as an outstanding athlete and even as a sports announcer.  He is so easy going and natural, no matter what role he plays.

So for a baseball fan like I am,  it was a good evening, reminding me of my childhood, although the National League losing again was the one dim aspect of the evening.  Oh well! 🙁

The possibility now exists that Alabama, the home of the late Governor George Wallace, who exploited the race issue in the 1960s, and the state with the worst race record in the era of civil rights next to Mississippi, may be on the verge of electing the first African American governor in its history, Congressman Artur Davis of Birmingham.

Artur Davis has been a member of the House for seven years, and has made quite an impression as being a man of intellectual brilliance and careful thought, who has done a great job representing his district.  He is a Democrat in a state now very red or Republican, so the idea that he can be elected in 2010 to be the state’s governor seems a daunting task.

He will need to win 38 percent of the white vote, which may be a tall order, but many in Alabama and nationally think he can do it, even though Barack Obama won a miniscule percentage of the white vote in that state, which was won easily by John McCain in 2008.

In any case, even the idea of the possibility of Davis winning, and even his willingness to give up his House seat to seek the governorship, will make Alabama the center of electoral attention in 2010.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been putting on a excellent performance at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on her nomination.

She is demonstrating her intellectual brilliance,  her vast legal knowledge, and also how to handle a group of "conservative white men"  who have problems dealing with the changing demography of America, and who grew up in an environment where a Puerto Rican woman born in the South Bronx was seen as more likely to be a maid than a legal scholar.

IF the Republicans overwhelmingly reject Sonia Sotomayor, who has more experience than any Court nominee of the past century, it will only contribute to the continued decline of the GOP, as they are looking at a country in which Hispanics and Latinos are becoming more and more a part of the political and social and economic future of America. 

The American Southwest (meaning particularly Arizona,  New Mexico,  Nevada, and Colorado)  along with Texas  (which is becoming more influenced by Hispanics as well) could become permanent Democratic strongholds if the Republican Party fails to come to grips with reality and does not stop its image of being totally anti minority.  White Anglos will be a minority of the country in the next thirty years, and politics therefore will change whether the Republicans like it or not.

Finally,  it seems as if Republicans see Sarah Palin as someone they may like looking at, but not someone they would vote for, as a recent CBS poll indicates.

Only 33 percent believe that Sarah is qualified to take on the responsibilities of being President,  as compared to 71 percent  of GOPers who stated she was qualified, during the political campaign of 2008.

This is bad news for Sarah Palin, but good news for the nation at large and for the GOP, as were they to nominate her, a supremely ill qualified candidate to deal with the many domestic and foreign policy issues this country faces, they would surely lose the next election big time, and would be in worse shape than they are right now. 

What Sarah Palin needs to do after she resigns on July 26 is take care of her family, including her special needs son,  and take some time,  if she wishes any future in politics at all below the Presidential level, to learn about what is going on in this world–that is, build up her knowledge base which is woefully inadequate, and also learn the English language (uneconomical is not a word LOL)  and the agencies of government  (there is no Department of Law–rather the Department of Justice LOL).

In other words, we do not want  in high office a person who sounds like the average American who is ill informed and poorly spoken.  We need someone to be a model for us, along the lines of …hmmmm….. Barack Obama! 🙂

As the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Sonia Sotomayor begin next week, a poll shows amazing levels of ignorance about our judicial branch among the American people.

A majority did not know that there were nine justices on the Supreme Court, and very few people in the poll could name even one Supreme Court Justice now sitting on the bench.

Considering how much the Supreme Court affects all Americans’ lives on a regular basis, it is shocking that there is so little knowledge of our judicial system, how it works, and who sits in judgment on constitutional cases.

Despite the fact that more Americans graduate high school and attend college than ever before,  it is clear that the educational curriculum continues to lack in so many areas, of which knowledge of our government is just one of the glaring weaknesses.

A new report indicates that the Obama Administration is considering extending bailout aid to large numbers of small businesses, taking the money from the $700 billion TARP program that was originally designed only for the banking system.

This is a welcome change, and will certainly add to the image that Obama is not just out to help the elite of the banking system, but the main backbone of the everyday economy–small businesses.

It is a politically smart move, hard for Republicans to criticize, and it will help to restore and revive the American economy in its greatest time of need since the Great Depression.

Hooray for Barack Obama!  🙂

President Obama has arrived in Ghana, his first stop in Sub Saharan Africa during his Presidency.

Many observers would have thought he would have chosen Kenya, the homeland of his father, to be the first African country he would visit.  But he decided he wanted to emphasize the flourishing democracy that is succeeding in Ghana, which was also the first African nation to become independent in the post World War II years.

There is a lot that crosses one’s mind when one realizes that here we have an African American president visiting a country from which the ancestors of his wife Michelle were transported against their will in the vicious slave trade that went on for centuries from West Africa, including Ghana, to the United States.

It makes one realize how far we have come, and yet, with all of the remaining racism still part of America, how far we have yet to travel!

Six months into the Obama Administration, his plans to upgrade US involvement in the Afghan War against the Taliban is unfortunately leading to growing casualties for the United States and its NATO partners.

Twenty seven Americans were killed in the month of June, the most ever since the war began in October 2001,  and more than half were due to roadside bombs or IED’s, Improvised Explosive Devices. 

It is clear that the cost to the American people will grow as time goes by, and I still wonder whether the plan to escalate will have any long lasting effect, or whether this war will become Barack Obama’s Vietnam!

President Obama’s administration has taken first steps toward promoting food safety by calling for tougher standards for production of poultry, beef, leafy greens, melons and tomatoes, an important move to insure that Americans have confidence in their food supply, which in the recent past has suffered from several health scares due to lack of regulation,  which started to be cut back during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Also, Obama has introduced the idea of providing assistance for the growing number of elderly in this country who are or will be forced to live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in their twilight years, or be required to have skilled nursing care at home.  With the growing number of baby boomers reaching the elderly stage of life over the next twenty years, this is indeed an important initiative to deal with what is a growing need.

Of course, these proposals will cost the government and the taxpayers over the long haul, but both are essential parts of improving life in America!

Almost six months in office,  Barack Obama is starting to come under growing criticism by many different groups.

The issue of gays in the military, and Obama’s lack of action regarding "don’t ask, don’t tell",  is one issue.  The fact that Obama seems unwilling to be as transparent as he claimed he would be–specifically refusal to allow records of the Secret Service log, that would show all visitors at the White House,  to be made public–angers many of his supporters. 

His inability to get the G-8 summit and emerging nations to agree to substantial global warming limits similar to what just barely passed recently in the House of Representatives is also seen as a goal that he has failed in, at least at this point.

Of course, there is great dissatisfaction that unemployment continues to rise, and that the economic stimulus plan has had only a minimal effect five months after the proposal passed both houses of Congress.  Obama is being called to account by House Republican leader John Boehner and others,  and can only offer in retort that the plan is starting to work, with most of the effects to take place in 2010.  But with the unemployment rate at 9.5 percent and certain to rise above 10 percent soon, this issue could have a deadening effect on the Democratic majority in Congress in 2010, particularly in the House of Representatives.

So Obama is discovering that disillusionment and anger is starting to grow among different constituencies, and it could have a long range effect on the image and the reality of his Presidency.